Ys Net wants more money for Shenmue 3, even though they have already been given over $6 million

It seems like Yu Suzuki and Ys Net are in trouble, because even though Ys Net collected over $6 million in total for Shenmue 3 on Kickstarter. They still want more money. So people have started to talk about "Kickstarter scams" and Shenmue 3 being the "Daikatana" of our generation.

So this is our (The Gaming Ground) take on this matter.

[Majin-vegeta]

Lol no they aren't asking for money.I got the email and it clearly states this is for the people who could not give money during the initial funding period so they are opening it up for them.

"Hello Everyone,
Thanks to your support, Shenmue III became the most funded video game on Kickstarter with 69,320 people helping to bring back the Shenmue series back to life. However, there are so many people told us they could not pledge on Kickstarter, or could not make the deadline, and have asked for a PayPal page for another opportunity to contribute to Shenmue III. So here we go!
The Slacker Backer period will continue through December 31st. While the full game will be completed as promised with the use of the funding collected on Kickstarter, any additional funding collected here will go towards reaching the Stretch Goals to make the game even bigger and deeper.The three month window was set to allow a long enough time to for everyone who wants to support Shenmue III to do so, but short enough to keep the release date on track.
The PayPal page will feature a selection of rewards from the Kickstarter campaign including the Trial Version and the Collector’s Edition. If you missed out on the Kickstarter, you still have a chance to be part of the Shenmue legacy!
Surveys, add-ons and upgrades
Surveys are not quite ready yet, but they will be going out during this Slacker Backer campaign. Once the survey system is up and running, add-ons and upgrades will be available for existing Kickstarter backers. We will of course keep you posted here on the Updates page with all the developments."

[Abash]

They also said that they would need 10 million to create the Shenmue III they truly wanted to make

[teknx]

10 million seems too small for a modern Shenmue game. Unless it's broken up to episodes and this is only for part 1.

[freshslicepizza]

the original cost over 40 million to make many years ago, what kind of game can he make for 6 million today? the people who made trine 3 said they ran out of money and that going from 2d to 3d is what made the game so much more expensive than previous trine games.

what is the average cost now for a game, 20 million? this is one of the risks for kickstarter games, you really have no idea what the final product will be.

[DanielGearSolid]

@moldybread

The original included mocking up the entire story. Building the game engine. Transition from virtua fighter to original ip, and transition from Saturn to dreamcast.

[Mr Pumblechook]

Such a hate filled article!

Nobody is being forced to back Shenmue 3. If you want to back, do it. If you disagree with it then don't!

[bouzebbal]

6 million is nothing for a project of this size. Sony being involved with the project development is a great thing.

[DigitalRaptor]

Yes.

$2 million is a story-centric Shenmue III.

$5 million is a fleshed feature-rich out Shenmue III.

$10 million is the game that Suzuki dreams of it being.
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@ moldybread

You were here at E3 when it was announced and the same questions were being asked. The same ignorance was addressed clearly. You know the straightforward and logical answers to that question because you were there.

But i'll reiterate. Shenmue I & II were originally developed for the Sega Saturn. It had a 4 year development cycle that involved bespoke development and heavy research and development. Building an engine. Building brand new and ambitious features never before seen in games. Writing the story. Fleshing out the backstory of scores of characters. Introducing deep mechanics. Those 4 years and whatever money was spent on was scrapped to make a game that Suzuki (and Sega) believed Shenmue deserved to be on brand new hardware, which meant plans had to be escalated or even rethought for new hardware. More research and development, and ANOTHER brand new engine for Dreamcast hardware.

The first two games on Saturn and Dreamcast cost $45 million. That number also included marketing, promotion, etc. Divide that by 2 and it's $22 million per game. Suzuki and his team now have inexpensive and mature middleware to help make his games. Tools have become so much better and they are infinitely more accessible for developers. Look at where the story is going in Shenmue III. The story has been written for 14 years. Suzuki has been to China for research trips numerous times over the span of 14 years. he still visits out of his own pocket. The experience of Shenmue III is not going to be a grand scale sprawling city like in Shenmue II. It's a quite introverted city in China consisting of 3 villages. The scenarios are not going to be nearly as demanding or expensive.

So even if Shenmue III would cost $22 million by 2002 Sega's standards, it needs nowhere near close to that amount. Suzuki has been planning out the realities of his life's work for 14 years, and I think it's pretty obvious he knows what he's doing when he says $10 million is enough for the Shenmue III of his dreams.

The reactionary negativity surrounding Sony's Kickstarter announcement of Shenmue III at E3 still makes me facepalm. Use your brains people, or do your research.

[freshslicepizza]

@DigitalRaptor

you still neglect to mention the average cost of making games now is still over 6 million dollars which is why this game will fall under the indie category. the listed price isn't going to be $60 either. that's why i said people need to keep their expectations in check. this is not a aaa game being made here and back when shenmue was made it was indeed a large aaa game meant to help sell hardware.

[TGG_overlord]

I was not given such a email...If this is the case, then I don´t understand why people are so angry?

[Loktai]

This has already been posted before for one secondly they didn't hit all their original stretch goals they are just making the same ones available to hit, even without that email look at games like star citizen holy shit your articlea title you chose to link sounds like they are debiting your bank account without asking or something.

Nowhere has anyone said anywhere that they are not going to make the game if not for extra funding and I have to say if you claim you didn't get the email why didnt you try looking on the official page? They say right there they reopened funding for popular demand etc the same as the email. But no let's just spread click bait articles. .. did you not see this get posted multiple times in the last day?

[DanielGearSolid]

What was the purpose of the original article?

Are you trying to convince ppl not to donate?

Are you trying to paint YSnet as some greedy swindlers?

FYI the website also explains the purpose of the paypal option, so not getting an email, is a poor excuse. You either didnt do research or ignored the evidence in order to make a clickbait, "controversial" article.

Not only that the paypal option was confirmed months ago. so to act like it some sort of surprise and do this article now, is very suspicious.

I'm not a mind reader, but I cant think of any other motives here, besides clickbait for the money, or a genuine effort to sling mud at the Shenmue 3 project.

[TGG_overlord]

I updated the post and credited you. It appears as if the mail ended up in my spam filter (for some-odd reason). So now people can make up their own minds about this matter.

[Spenok]

Seriously. I don't get why people have these double standards everywhere I look in the gaming community. The most crowdfunded game (Star Citizen) has been collecting additional funds since their kickstarter ended, and just about every project does the same thing. Yet you don't see people moaning and complaining.

It's ridiculous people pick and choose what is okay to bitch about, and what others get free rides. Why not try being consistent with what you believe? No? Make too much sense? Okay, I'll just show myself out and try to forget this little thing known as common sense.

[Sonyslave3]

Man these guy gonna need at least 20 or 30mil 2 make the game .

[TGG_overlord]

Well, the previous Shenmue games cost a whole lot to make. So that´s not far off imo. Thus all the trust issues.

[mafiahajeri]

I'm no devolper, but shenmue was ahead of its time. I'm sure costs to make the game they want have gone down.

[trywizardo]

well , for an open world game with graphics that its this gen , they need a lot more money ...

[SegaGamer]

I'm getting a bit tired of these clickbait articles that are trying to sabotage Shenmue 3 now.

WE asked for this option. I didn't get the chance to donate through Kickstarter, i wanted to donate through Paypal, now i can do that.

They announced this Paypal option at the end of the Kickstarter campaign, we have known about it for 2 months now. You gaming "journalists" are supposed to be helping gaming, not harming it.

[ritchi45]

It's salty xbots creating negativity because Shenmue 3 won't appear on their console of choice. If it was multiplat then there wouldn't be any of these such articles

[SegaGamer]

If that is true, then it would just prove how out of control this fanboy stuff is. Seriously, does it really matter what console Shenmue 3 is released on ? The fact that that is happening when 99% of gamers thought it was dead is a great thing for all gamers.

[Enigma_2099]

... then ask SONY for it.

[gangsta_red]

Yea, Sony brought the guy on stage, Sony saw the supposed reaction as they praised the game...why are they not backing this supposed legendary game?

The game was made I believe for 50+ million and up back on Dreamcast...what made these guys think 6 mill was going to cut it?

[Spotie]

We KNOW why they're not backing it. Stop asking stupid questions we already know the answers to. Stop TRYING to alter reality as it pertains to this game.

On that note, you're not stupid, gangsta. You know what that money went to, and it wasn't just one game, or even development for one console.

You and moldy KEEP on making comments like this, then "innocently" questioning why people get upset at the misinformation you and others spread.

Don't you guys get tired of that? Tired of lying?

[maniacmayhem]

@Spotie,

Actually Spotie I don't know why Sony's not back this game. I mean they're supposedly handling some marketing or something.

How about instead of always trying to bash someone who doesn't bow down to Sony, how about you explain to us why Sony isn't backing this game. Since you KNOW the reasons.

You know like how you want everyone to explain to you why they don't like The Order, why they consider some games niche, you know the things you require others to explain to you.

How about you shed some truth so these liars won't spread all this misinformation, or are you just full of BS and you yourself have no idea why Sony won't pitch in to a game that everybody has been waiting for and Sony supposedly knows this.

Don't you get tired of never having answers?

[dimasok]

Are we conveniently forgetting that Sony is backing Shenmue 3 for an undisclosed amount (possibly more than what the original games cost to make)?

Why do they need MORE money in addition to that AND the kickstarter? Also, it no longer seems to be connected with reward tiers as the original campaign so FUCK that.

[Nyxus]

From the site:

Q: Will the funds from Paypal count to the Stretch Goals from Kickstarter campaign?
A: Absolutely yes! The funds collected through this Paypal site will also count towards the Stretch Goals.

[dimasok]

Well that's good. I sure hope that it doesn't become another over-bloated Star Citizen though.

[Ragthorn]

@dimasok
What's wrong with Star Citizen's though? They are making a hugely ambitious game that has not been done ever before. You are forgetting how huge of a game it will become, that is also why these things take time. The game started development in late 2012 and its only 2015. Games of this size (a la "MMO" size be it) take A LONG time to make. The game has an economy-system in it lol. They need the money to create such an ambitious project, and I trust Chris Roberts and his teams with my money (only spent $45).

[DanielGearSolid]

Or are you conveniently making up facts????

Q: How are Sony and Shibuya Productions involved?

A: Sony and Shibuya Productions have been wonderful partners because they believe in Shenmue and want to see the best for the fans and the game. Their investment in (and support of) Shenmue have helped to realize a sequel that will stand proud with its predecessors. While it is not business practice to discuss the specific details of such arrangements, their assistance on the production and marketing end, and in Sony’s case with some publishing support, Ys Net is able to use more of the money collected through Kickstarter purely for Shenmue 3’s development. It is also important to note that your funds are going strictly to Ys Net for development of Shenmue 3 – Sony and Shibuya Productions are not seeing a cent of your Kickstarter dollars.

[dimasok]

What exactly were you trying to convey with that passage? Sure, the funds are going to the development, but where did I say they weren't?

All I am saying is that Ys Net ALREADY has a a shitload of money from Sony that they conveniently don't want to disclose and yet ask for more money in addition to Kickstarter.

Don't give them a cent more until they disclose exactly how much they received from Sony. People deserve to know.

[DanielGearSolid]

"What exactly were you trying to convey with that passage? Sure, the funds are going to the development, but where did I say they weren't?"

Pretty straightforward, Sony's money isnt going towards development... So how much they funded is irrelevant to a development fundraiser

"All I am saying is that Ys Net ALREADY has a a shitload of money from Sony that they conveniently don't want to disclose and yet ask for more money in addition to Kickstarter. "

Yea because this is the first company to ever keep the terms of business agreement confidential. And again, sony's funding is irrelevant to a fundraiser for development

"Don't give them a cent more until they disclose exactly how much they received from Sony. People deserve to know."

Why, just so they know? The only right ppl have is to know where their money is going... And it's going to development

[dimasok]

So where did Sony's money go? They featured S3 as a prominent announcement at E3 and yet you are saying that they don't finance the actual development? What the hell is the point of announcing it at their booth then? Besides, they said that Sony is helping them big time and the implication was that they are funding a lot of the game since making a game with Shenmues` breadth on a $6M budget is not possible so people naturally assumed that the rest was coming from Sony.

Now, they want more money in addition to Kickstarter just like Star Citizen (although Star Citizen did not have a backing of anyone so it was different) and yes, people deserve to know how much Sony funded to have an idea of whether they should continue funding a game above the $6M mark.

Sony should already know that the interest is there from the KS campaign and now they should tell people the approximate budget they allocated to the game so that a sense of perspective would emerge as to where the game is going.

As of right now, if Sony is investing shit as you say, then the game could be with the scale of Telltale games for all we know since there is not much budget for anything else and unless the extra donations bring it up to at least $40M, the chances of getting anything approaching the older games in terms of scale is really miniscule.

[DigitalRaptor]

This is in response to your later comments.

Go and learn what the $40 million figure comprises of. It's for 2 games with years-long stretches of development over the span of 2 console generations (4 years' work on Sega Saturn development alone). Core development was rebooted for the project and shifted to new hardware, where new challenges arose. The budget included expensive marketing, promotions and merchandising. It included research and development into brand new technology and features never before seen in gaming, and building a bespoke engine which is pushing graphics and detailed realism hard for its time. Sega also had to budget to pay scores if not hundreds of people involved in the project from all angles. YS Net is very much an indie studio with the talent and passion to bring about a focused sequel. They only have to pay their small workforce and their Kickstarter backers who purchased rewards. Where are you pulling a required $40 million from?

Suzuki has been planning Shenmue III for years. His team are using inexpensive and deeply flexible middleware and the R&D has already been done for years due to Suzuki's experience in what kind of game he wants to make and his numerous trips to China and the locations of Shenmue III, as well as the writing of the story, characters and scenarios. That is finished and all that needs to be done on that part is tweaking.
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"the chances of getting anything approaching the older games in terms of scale is really miniscule."

The original Shenmue is ONE chapter and its scale is more introverted compared to Shenmue II's bombastic and more open scenarios. Shenmue III's plot was always going to lead it to Guilin in China - a quite introverted city with 3 villages to explore. When you look back. Shenmue Yokosuka chapter was TINY compared to Shenmue II. The final chapter of Shenmue II is testament to these facts. The budget has nothing to do with the scale of where the story was heading for however many chapters Shenmue III comprises of.

You're making up false concerns because you simply don't know any better. It's okay to be ignorant as long as you learn from it. I hope you do, and stop making stuff up because there simply HAS to be something shady surround it.

[SaladSnake]

Just hurry up and release this game. And make it good! Let me get lost in its world again.

[ocelot07]

Only issue I have is. Still allowing people to buy the exclusive retail version. I thought this was just for kickstarter?

[SegaGamer]

Why do you have an issue with that ? I couldn't donate through Kickstarter, i shouldn't have to miss out on it's awards.

[ocelot07]

Because it was suppose to be exclusive to kickstarter? If I had known it going to be available anyhow later on down the line. Then I probably would of bought it later on.

[Hozi]

http://kotaku.com/how-much-...

[fishy1]

Wow, you people really going to defend this as ok? Wasnt Sony putting up some of the funding? The kickstarter is not the entire funding for this game. And what company out there refuses to make a complete game unless it is FULLY funded by the gamers? You all dont seam to understand what is going on...... Sony and everyone else behind this project has no faith that it will make a profit. So they are forcing you to prove them wrong. And now they are scared that everyone that cares about the game has already bought it through kickstarter, and if they invest there own money, they fear they will lose it. Sony announced this at there conference, and they obviously want it on there system. But dont want to lose any money over it. So they will just do advertising, and collect royalties off the sells. So its a win win for them. And a lose lose for the gaming industry as it shifts to making us fund future games before they are even made.......

[ocelot07]

The way I see it. I pre-ordered a nice exclusive edition and for cheaper than it will be at launch. Also you seem to like pointing your finger at Sony. The game is also coming to PC as well. Are you saying Sony is also funding this game for PC?

Yer I really don't think so. From my understanding Sony will just be publishing the PS4 version.

[fsdgf]

Almost every Kickstarter I've been involved with has done this exact thing. It's incredibly stupid to point the finger at Suzuki for doing what's essentially the standard for Kickstarter games. If you do want to point fingers, complain about what Star Citizen is doing.

The Shenmue 3 kickstarter was already damaged by this crap, there's no reason to keep it going.

[MasterofMagnetism]

Why so much hate? If you don't care about this project then just ignore it. The people who funded the Kickstarter, myself included, were happy to help and those that missed their chance for whatever reason now have another opportunity.