Shenmue 3 update and The Bachelorette Season 11 wrap-up

Just one Shenmue update of note and then I will have some thoughts on the recently concluded season of the Bachelorette. Why? Well, because I can.

It's now more or less certain that there will be Paypal fund for donations to continue to the Shenmue 3 Project. While I'm of course in favor of Yu Suzuki having the money to make his vision a reality, I do carry a wariness over this kind of thing. It's certainly a less open process than Kickstarter or other public funding sites and it's not incumbent on the team to reveal how much they are making.

I certainly think it would be naive to just blindly trust them, especially considering they will never disclose what other sources of funding they are receiving and how they are being applied. I already wrote a post regarding these frustrations of mine about a month ago so there is no need to rehash it right now. With that said, when the fund is officially set up, I will post the link here and wish them luck.

Bachelorette musings after the jump.

Shenmue 3: News and notes a week on

Just a short post more to force myself to keep abreast of Shenmue-verse news than anything else. First to note something a few people mentioned to me about how the exclusive original watch and jacket offered as rewards on the Kickstarter had actually been reserved but the buyer backed out at the last minute most probably because he had no intention of buying it in the first place. I just assume it was a guy, sorry for being sexist. Anyway I'm not too bothered by it because now if they so need, the team can auction them off and likely get more than what they were being offered for since it seems like there are a lot of wealthy lunatics hardcore, loyal fans.

The Kickstarter ended with a statement from Yu Suzuki thanking the fans for their support. According to him he "will listen to all of you to make Shenmue III even better" which I hope to God is false because 95% of the time fan ideas invariably makes everything worse because fans glorify stuff that doesn't have any place forming a core basis of a consumer product. How I Met Your Mother became an abysmal show when Barney became the focus of every episode. I like Mayumi but I bet following her around as she studies languages probably wouldn't make a great game. Ok, actually, I bet it would.

More notes after the jump.

Shenmue 3: Kickstarter ends with a flourish

So I don't think congratulations are in order to Yu Suzuki and Ysnet since the goal was already hit a month ago but what the hell, I'll offer them anyway. Picking up a good head of steam in the last week, the Kickstarter campaign ended up making $6.3m, more than half of what Suzuki allegedly needs to truly make the game he wants and enough to ensure there will be legendas em Portugues. This apparently broke the record for a campaign in the video games category although as much as Shenmue is a niche title, it's not exactly some small indie passion project either. No need to rehash all of that though as we will never get answers about any of it.

At some point it seems as though at some point during the celebration last night, Paypal as an option to continue funding the game was confirmed. A little murky about how it will work but if people want to contribute, I hope it's worth your while. I personally feel I put enough down in my pledge. There have to be other backers. There have to be. My hope is for Shenmue 3 to exceed expectations and for Ysnet not to have to return to that well for Shenmue 4. I know there are a lot of obsessives out there but I think it would lead to diminishing returns in good will.

I see from comments the perpetual victims are out in force accusing Kotaku and others of running hate crusades against Shenmue which is as ridiculous as it gets. I wonder about the mentality of people who get so invested in something they lose their minds to the extent they are seeing conpiracies and inventing stories where Nintendo paid off a journalist on a business website because they were afraid of a niche fifteen year-old game. One of the things I worry about with Shenmue 3 is, 'where will I find the time to play it?' I don't think these MENSAs have the same issues. The ironic thing about me whining about these people is I'm about to do a lot of bitching in this column coming up that I'm about to spend an hour writing. I must just be in a mood.

After the jump, I break down the rewards.

Which do I value more, Shenmue or Shenmue II?

Spoiler: I value Shenmue more than Shenmue II and will follow with a brief explanation as to why, but I am also interested in what y'all have to say about, especially if you dissent.WHen I've gone and looked about in discussion threads on Shenmue 500k and so on, nearly all of the talk regarding past games tend to center around Shenmue II and I wonder if that is recency bias (so to speak) or if there is something else at play.

Also, thanks to Alimn who for some unknown reason mentioned the Hazuki Dojo when he was receiving some award for Shenmue excellence or something like that and thus got me thinking I had better work on some actual Shenmue content here despite all of the other nonsense going on.

With the aid of some uh, interesting to say the least rewards being added, the Kickstarter has sputtered back to life with almost $1m being tacked on to total collected in the last week. With just over a week left to run, $5m looks like it should now be achievable. Over the life of the project, $10m is a realistic target with subscriptions and other forms of donations though considering the nature of some of those rewards I can't help but feel he may as well as just gone and got the money from a private developer. I think I will hold off to see if there are any more developments before diving in on the rewards, so look for that in a couple of weeks.

Shenmue 3: Some quick thoughts on the updated stretch goals

I think it's obvious at this point that the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign will struggle to reach $5m let alone $10m, so it's baffling to me that the stretch goals have been updated again with a new $11m target and a mysterious $???m goal with a perplexing ??? reward that is sure to have the lunatics frothing at the mouth.

Shenmue 3: It's not unreasonable to have questions

The disclaimer before I get started here is that I really am looking forward to this game being released. I always try to find the proper perspective. I am prone to thin slicing and throwing out hot takes from time to time. I know what I am doing and I pick my targets carefully. Yesterday, I had a piece all typed up and ready to go regarding David Thier's Forbes.com article about the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter and the unhinged 'fan' reaction to it. However, I am always more interested in getting it right than being right. In the past week since the announcement I had been very busy and hadn't had time to sift through all things Shenmue so I owed it to myself and any passers-by to do my due diligence.

After reading and watching everything of note and double checking to ensure I had not missed any relevant quotes, I came to essentially the same conclusion I had already formed; there are far more questions than answers when it comes to Shenmue 3, particularly in regard to how the project is being funded.

Shenmue 3: Why being stuck in a cave is a lot like being shivved by ten of your so-called brothers

After Shenmue 3 was officially announced on Monday night, I wanted to take a little while to compose my thoughts regarding the subject I haven't really had time for that however so what the hell, I'm just going to dive right in and ramble on as I was formerly accustomed.

I was told a few weeks back to expect something at E3, but brushed it off with my tried and tested line, "I'll believe it when I see it" as I had the previous ten plus years. That possibly contributed to me not utterly losing my shit the way everyone else has seemed to over the past few days but I appreciate their enthusiasm, it is not misplaced. My reaction was far more simple. It was I thought, to quote Colin Cowherd's handy new catchphrase, 'BOUT TIME! #BoutTime
 

Shenmue III *Not* announced at GDC

Well, when I first noticed the quote on Kotaku, I got all excited but then I actually though about it. Said Yu Suzuki of Shenmue III, "Probably Sega will let me make it. I think. It's simply a problem of budget." That's the thing. It's always a problem of budget. I'm not sure how well Sega is doing financially these days but the economy is tough and it will have to be proven to be a viable proposition first. It starts with the forthcoming Smartphone game and I would expect that the original two games would have to be released over either PSN or XBOX Live to gauge interest and well, remind people that it exists, it has been eight years since Shenmue II's release for XBOX. It would likely only be single platform because it won't be profitable enough for both the PS3 and 360.

In conclusion, I'm downplaying this because I think he was just trying to throw a bone for all us loyal fans. Of course he wants to make it - it's his dream, his grand vision. Market realities tell a different story. Also, I don't want to get my hopes up, especially after the failure of Shenmue Online. Let's see if the Gaiden game even makes it to the west first. I think we who have been riding this horse all along are jaded enough by now to view this for what it probably is; a mirage.

Gamasutra article on Yu Suzuki's comments at GDC 2011.