Shenmue 3 tops $6.3 million, sets new record

The Kickstarter for Shenmue 3 is now over and done with, raising a total of $6,333,296 making it the most funded video game on Kickstarter, beating Bloodstained which raised $5,545,991.

The story of Shenmue 3's Kickstarter quickly went from excitement

To seeing funding almost completely come to a halt as news spread about Sony be involved with financing the game where daily rates dropped to as low as $10 thousand and barely looked like the game would make $4 million, let alone the $10 million Yu Suzuki said he'd need. But despite all of that in its last day, it went on to raise nearly $950,000. So Shenmue 3 will be a reality in some form but it's hard to say what will happen from here. Star Citizen only raised $2.1 million during its Kickstarter back in October 2012 and as of writing has raised $85 million so it'll be interesting if Ys Net plans to open up additional funding in this same way.

Gonna be the sickest virtual fork-lift the world has ever seen.

Well good luck to Shenmue 3

kinda beginning to really hate how many game kickstarters just aren't upfront about what they really need though.

Missing the real sad part of this story where they were just short of unlocking ragdolls.

@mrcraggle: Well that video is embarrassing.

Good for Shenmue and it's fans... except the guy in the video. He's just a twat.

Now if only the Tipping Forties would get back together and play it

10 mill I thought its goal was 2mill? Whatever, would you like to play lucky hit?

@ericsmith: @grixxel: Should I have gone with this instead?

@irvandus: That one actually confuses me. They're using Unreal 4, I'm pretty sure it's like a built in thing, why would it need extra money?

@oursin_360: As with most Kickstarters these days, the $2 million was to see the game made but not feature complete. It would've been a more stripped down version of the game with more emphasis placed on the story or maybe have just been the story, it's difficult to say without knowing the full details. Even now it's over, there's still a lot of questions. For me, Shenmue was leisurely. You could go at your own pace and discover this rich world where you could speak to almost any NPC and pick up items often of no use but were well detailed. It was all just stuff in this world that made it more real (except for the Saturn in Ryo's house). I just wonder if they'd be able to keep that feeling with the new Shenmue or is it going to be something where the world won't be as much a part of it as most people think of Shenmue as QTE's and Forklift driving.

are those people in that gif journalists because either way that is incredibly embarrassing and maybe unprofessional

cool for shenmue, tho. i've never played it before, but i'd be interested in seeing this

it's still just a fraction of what that game would take to make

a paypal is coming so its going to get the 10million it needs you can bet on it.

@tajasaurus: Why is it unprofessional for the game journalists to be happy about certain games being made. People who have played Shenmue 1 or 2 have for a long time wished to see a sequel to the series.The reason why people became game journalists in the first place is because they loved playing games. I dont think that the goal for being a game journalist is to be as emotionally unattached from games as possible.

@mrcraggle said:

@ericsmith: @grixxel: Should I have gone with this instead?

@irvandus: That one actually confuses me. They're using Unreal 4, I'm pretty sure it's like a built in thing, why would it need extra money?

@oursin_360: As with most Kickstarters these days, the $2 million was to see the game made but not feature complete. It would've been a more stripped down version of the game with more emphasis placed on the story or maybe have just been the story, it's difficult to say without knowing the full details. Even now it's over, there's still a lot of questions. For me, Shenmue was leisurely. You could go at your own pace and discover this rich world where you could speak to almost any NPC and pick up items often of no use but were well detailed. It was all just stuff in this world that made it more real (except for the Saturn in Ryo's house). I just wonder if they'd be able to keep that feeling with the new Shenmue or is it going to be something where the world won't be as much a part of it as most people think of Shenmue as QTE's and Forklift driving.

Ok that makes sense. I loved the shenmue games, the only issue i had was the pacing which caused each game to feel incomplete. The combat was basically Virtua Fighter and learning new moves by training with people was well done IMO as it made the whole thing feel more immersive. Going to the arcade to play old games was always a nice touch, and i hope they can keep stuff like that in the game

@nardak: You can act happy without dropping to your knees in tears, dramatics like that are unprofessional no matter how you look at it. Can't remember the podcast(s) off the top of my head but Jeff and the other GB guys have made some very good points about maintaining professionalism in the face of game announcements/news. We all get excited to varying degrees but it boils down to the simple fact that if you want to be considered a professional you have to act like one. When is the last time you saw Jeff hugging Brad and jumping up and down at E3 due to a game announcement?

@jrm: When has Jeff ever been that excited about anything in public? Maybe it would do him some good to get that balls out excited about something for a change. Actually not really, because that's not the type of person that Jeff is, and that's fine, but I think it's fucking absurd that people are trying to shame that dude for getting excited over something he apparently loves, even if it's not a feeling I share for this game, or perhaps any game. Shitting on someone else's joy is so much worse than that could ever be.

Good for Yu Suzuki. Now people will stop bugging him about a new Shenmue and will instead get unreasonably angry when the realities of game development clash with their unrealistic expectations

@arbitrarywater: yeah, this is a lose lose situation.

Still a 40 million~ game to be made with this, and I don't believe Sony will fund much if anything at all, except for marketing, unless they show clearly otherwise.

Showing your feelings is never considered to be professional in any line of work. Dont get me wrong im happy about those guys enjoying the Shenmue announcement but it is what it is.

@jrm: People are all different man. How they react to things are different. Nothing embarrassing about that. Even the best of us have our moments when were caught off guard.

"Showing your feelings is never considered to be professional in any line of work"


Glory to our robotic workforce!

@nardak: there's a difference about being enthused and excited about something and... that

anyway this isn't about them it's about shenmue

Wasn't the original Shenmue one of the most expensive videoames ever made (at the time)? I thought it cost Sega an amount north of $60 million. With that in mind it seems crazy to think that Shenmue 3 would feature a world at least as big and dense aa the first one on a budget of $2 million, even with $10 million Shenmue 3 could never be the game the fans would want.

@atwa: I do have to wonder what the final costs will be. Obviously they're getting more from angel investors or something like that but how much more? In 2011, Suzuki said that Shenmue cost $47 million to make which included marketing costs as well as some of the development costs for Shenmue 2 but due to the DC being a failure, every DC owner would've had to have bought the game twice for it to recoup its development. Shenmue 3 is also being built using a 3rd party engine (Unreal Engine 4 in this case) so I also wonder if that reduces overhead costs as they won't have to build their own engine like that would've had to with Shenmue 1. I also have to wonder, is game development actually more expensive these days compared to the 90s or have marketing budgets just taken over? The Witcher 3 was made with $32 million while its marketing budget was $37 million.

@revan_nl: I believe it was during the awkward Twitch stream that Suzuki said if they had only reached the $2 million, it would've been a much simpler game. It would've focused on the story so that tells me it may not have had the big fights or open world like we were used to with 1 and 2.

I loved it back on the original Xbox but I just don't see Shenmue 3 being what it could be or even understood by the new generation unless they release the first two games on current consoles.

If there was one remaster that truly needed to be remastered it would be those first two games.

Surely Sega will make it happen.

#saveshenmue lol

Well i dont know where you got those numbers from but if W3 was made with $32 then there is no problem with making a worthy successor to Shenmue with a kickstarter and moderate Sony founding. I know the avarage wage in Poland is extreamly low but making a international AAA game you kinda have to give you workers something more than food for the day. Or maybe not who knows...

The numbers came out from a Polish publication after The Witcher 3 sold 4 million copies but it is also the most expensive game made in Poland but you're right about wages which would probably be double if not more were it developed in the U.S.

Interest free finance for Sony. Well played.

I used to follow those guys (don't have enough free time anymore for watching LP's), but currently Kuvo and Topical (along with Kuvo's brother I think) are doing a playthrough of Shenmue 2. Haven't watch it, so I'm not sure if it's any good, but thought you might want to know that if you didn't already.

I kind of thought the kickstarter campaign was kind of shady. Seems like they were trying to get more and more money from their current backers (with more and more really expensive tiers) rather than opening up more moderately priced tiers. I mean, why isn't there a game + digital soundtrack option for like $40-60. Instead there are more and more >$100 and every >$1000 tiers opening up. Something about the way this campaign was run rubs me the wrong way.

Good for them though-hope the game turns out to be what they and the fans want.

It certainly didn't help that the stretch goals read as a little gross - things like $100,000 jumps for each language added, half-million jumps for things like ragdolls when (as people have mentioned) that's something in the game engine already... they read like filled-in ticks on a spreadsheet meant to wring out more money, rather than realistic goals (but then again what the hell do I know?).

I was not going to touch this with a 10-foot pole but finally went in for the physical PS4 version - as I figure it, if nothing else I will have a collector's piece. Hope it all turns out well, but people would be best to temper their expectations somewhat. Who knows how this game will favor in today's world?

@jcgamer: I said the same thing in the Polygon comments. Only way to get the soundtrack is by backing the $160 option. The most popular choice was $30 and yet they kept adding options for thousands of dollars. It was a poorly run KS in my opinion. They may have made $6.3 million but they could've made so much more had it not been shady as fuck. They also didn't do a good job of keeping the KS in the public eye. It started well but then all of the talk around outside funding really killed a lot of the momentum they had going for them. Had they been upfront from the beginning or had better deals in place, it could've been even more successful. I know Ys Net were able to secure the IP from Sega, but they should've made a deal about releasing an HD version. It's a game that was sold on a platform that only sold just over 10 million units so one that very few people played to begin with. Imagine if during this campaign they also announced a $100 tier that also included a downloadable version of the first 2 games? It would've been over all the gaming news sites and would've pushed a lot of backers to up their amount. They should've also had a physical copy confirmed from the get go rather than seeming clueless for 2 weeks before announcing one.

The only thing that is wrong with the kickstarter is Sony's involvement. They're just there to make sure it doesn't get released to other consoles, earning them a free exclusive.

Xone and wiiU versions should be there in the stretch goals.

If so then Microsoft and Nintendo better offer some money to the table.

Another fun thing is that the original Yu/Ryo jacket which was included in one of the top tiers was sold in the first 10min of the kickstarter and i guess whoever sniped that one got cold feet becouse it never got sold. :)

Thing is though, neither Microsoft or Nintendo offered any help to get this game made. Without sony this Kickstarter couldn't have happened, and more than likely was a deal where if the kickstarter issued enough interest and generated the stretch goal they would help publish the game. Otherwise the game couldn't get made at all regardless of the kickstarter. I'm pretty sure most developers have to generate a certain amount for the development costs before they get it to a publisher to pay for the advertisment and distribution, the kickstarter is for the developer.

I guess it could seem a bit shady, but i think it's just business and literally the only way this game will ever get made.

I somehow passed across a group of Shenmue fans exclaiming that they had won the long, hard fought battle against the world and tyranny of evil video game overlords who made it their purpose to crush the mighty Shenmue.

SEGA / Shenmue fans a f-ing crazy man.

I still see this as a Duke Nukem scenario where you'll get something at the end that might not be what you expected... but it's done. Its over.

@rethla:

Can't their fans have the option to bring the same amount of money to the table like most kickstarter. This is what kickstarter has been, fans voting with their own money what to play and where they are going to play it.

@oursin_360

i really haven't read any statement from Yu Suzuki that states that Shenmue 3 couldn't be possible without Sony. Hell, not even Sony had balls enough to tell us about the deal they had with Suzuki.

I've been reading this same reply everytime a company makes a bad exclusivity decision.

I bunged in $29 on the last day even though I've never played Shenmue or think that the footage on Kickstarter looked that good. It just has the feeling of being a one off event and the money seems a win win for me. Either the whole thing goes along fine, the game comes out and I have a game. Or I get a front seat as the Shenmue fans get pissed at Yu Suzuki 'ruining' the game and it turns into a giant shit show.

As much as I hope the game turns out well, this actually sounds pretty great.

@giant_gamer: Looking at the results of this kickstarter its safe to asume the fans didnt care that there was no Xbox/Wii release. Microsoft and Nintendo didnt care either.

Also you aint never gonna get anything out of megacorporations where they officially announce their shady dealings.

I find it interesting that the highest KS so far is $6.3 mill yet 2 years in a row the Valve run Dota tourney of the year has managed to crowd fund over 10 mill, this year being 15 mill, for prize money, and that's just 25% of the money people have put it into it.

@alexw00d: Dota2 is a free game which has an userbase of millions that play it on a weekly or daily basis. Some play nothing else. Spending some money to get cool items and watch awesome matches in a free game is a different thing than pledging to make a game happen. Especially because there's a significant amount of people that just doesn't do kickstarter, or have never played a shenmue game before.

I'd trade all the bitterness in the industry for enthusiastic passion at this level for games every day.

There is no way the game fans wanted could have been made for two million. I'm tired of developers providing unrealistic estimates for the costs of development. You can't make a 3D open-world game that looks anywhere near decent for two million dollars. Double Fine couldn't even make a 2D adventure game for that much and the team on that was relatively small. Even 10 million won't be enough to make a game like Shenmue 1 or 2 with modern graphics and gameplay, unless you develop the whole thing somewhere where you can pay people next to nothing. Presumably this game will be made in either the US or Japan, neither of which is cheap. If you need 20 or 30 million to make the game that backers actually expect, then ask for it. If you can't raise a reasonable estimate of what it costs to make the game, then hey, the publishers were right, people don't care enough about the game to make it viable (or at least not enough to make it worth the risk). If you make other deals with other companies for funding, then be upfront about it. Let people know that the Kickstarter has to raise two million and then some other company will agree to fund the game. If you're going to take people's money for a product that may exist sometime in the future, then at least be upfront with people.

@cameron: Yu Suzuki never promised an open world game for the $2 million dollars. On the Twitch stream they did, it was asked what $2 million would get and Yu said it would be a much more linear that would focus on the story that fans love and want to see finished. People were also made aware that the initial KS money was just that, to get the project kickstarted. KickStarter has changed, it's no longer just the site small indies go to for a few thousand dollars just so they can not starve while they complete their game, it's now being used as a measuring stick for engagement whereby investors want to see X before they'll provide Y. But KS is tricky; You ask for too much and the project fails you get nothing, you ask for too little and things become complicated. If they had asked for $30 million, the project would've likely failed. Despite raising over $85 million, Star Citizen only managed to raise just over $2 million but we all know they really needed much more than that for the actual game but they were clear about that while the Shenmue KS was not.

As you mention with Double Fine, they had $3.3 million but a percentage of this goes towards KS, as well has going towards the rewards so the final budget is probably closer to $2.5 million. Probably more than enough for a point and click adventure game but in the case of Broken Age, it was the extra budget that actually threw them off. With all of the extra money, people wouldn't have accepted their original intention that was very simple in art style with no voice acting and very short.

@mrcraggle: I really just want them to be upfront about everything. Calling a game Shenmue 3 (and not Shenmu Gaiden or something) comes with certain reasonable expectations about what kind of game it's going to be. Two million would have got them maybe a two hour game in a few very limited locations, that's not that Shenmue 3 anyone wants. I guess I'd rather they just be honest about how much they need and succeed or fail based on that. Or, if they think people won't give them 30 million, ask for less, but be upfront right on the Kickstarter page (not on Twitch or in an interview) that the game won't be much like Shenmue 1 or 2. I'd also be fine if they asked for a small amount, but were also super clear about where the rest of the money is coming from. If Sony or someone else is going to be providing most of the money (and therefore having control over the project) then they should tell me the details of that deal when they're asking me for money.

I think a lot of that has to do with how Valve is rewarding the players for putting money in. Unlike kickstarter, where it's essentially a donation and you may not get your reward in the end, you actually get things immediately when you purchase stuff that goes towards the prize pool in Dota 2. You get a chance at a extremely rare immortal item and a bunch of other goodies, so it's less of a donation and more of a purchase.

On the topic of Shenmue 3 - the amount of cynicism in this thread is pretty depressing. Come on guys, lighten the hell up.