Understanding Sony's Role in Shenmue 3

[Hairless Mammoth]

Sure, Sony loved to have Shenmue 3 announced on their stage. Another long awaited game being announced at their conference gave them more hype points, and they can hype up the PS4 version while downplaying the PC version, like MS did with the 360 and PC versions of Titanfall.

Are Sony feeling some pent-up guilt over being partly responsible for the Dreamcast's demise and sending Sega out of the hardware game?

No competitor should feel guilty about Sega dropping out. The spent most of the 90s making poor decisions and mishandling communication between the Japanese and US branches (and within each of those). Because of that, they had to release the Dreamcast early and see how it fared against upcoming Sony and Nintendo (and Microsoft) consoles.

 

[Scars Unseen]

So when can I expect an HD remake of 1 and 2? Never played them.

That's entirely up to Sega. Yu got permission from them to make Shenmue 3, but that deal doesn't include the first two games. It's possible that Sega is looking towards the performance of this Kickstarter to determine whether they should release the games again or not, but it's also possible that they just don't care.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Are Sony feeling some pent-up guilt over being partly responsible for the Dreamcast's demise and sending Sega out of the hardware game?

Care to specify what you mean? I thought Sega leaving the console business was mostly because of them rushing the Sega Saturn, and releasing the Dreamcast sometime later?

It was mostly due to Sega's catastrophically inept marketing department and the massive gulf of communication between the US and Japanese head offices; but Sony did release a lot of fluff and nonsense about the upcoming PS2 (emotion chip anyone?) at launch to dissuade people (a lot of them included my dim-witted friends) from taking a chance on the more "forward-thinking" console and instead waiting for the PS2. From a competitive standpoint it was brilliant move on Sony's behalf, given they held the lion's share of the market after Sega had successfully blown both feet off with the Saturn. But it seemed like a dick move at the time.

Then again I was a bitter man back then. A bitter, angry man.

 

[Therumancer]

I won't be supporting this, I do not believe that big businesses should be involved in using Kickstarter for additional funding. We keep on this road and eventually we'll wind up with a situation where to make games companies will decide they need a kickstarter commitment in addition to everything else from their end before they will even consider making games, and hey, if things fall apart they can pocket the KS money for their time and trouble and say it was simply a failed project and everyone knew the risks.

If Sony is involved like this, to any extent, I will not support the Kickstarter, the same for any other big company.

I'll also warn everyone, I think your being played. In testing this to prove it's viable they are bringing out a much-beloved IP to get people to invest despite their best interests. People thinking "well, I really oppose this, but I've wanted a new Shenmue for a long time so I'll make an exception" are going to be the problem. Once a KS like this succeeds we'll see it with every IP big business can drum up, and it will become part of the process with nothing much we can do. We've seen things like this creep up on us before, I hope people will wake up in the next 26 days and start pulling their funding out of the project and letting it die. Sad to see Shenmue go that way, but people need to think in the long term and what happened when people started making "exceptions" on a large scale for beloved properties when it came to things like DLC, always online DRM (or DRM in general), and proprietary company launchers just to name a few. Support this and we'll give corporations another hand hold and perhaps even ruin what Kickstarter has been able to do so far.

 

[whatever55]

Does anyone else see the start of a really disturbing trend here?
Publisher: "We'd like to make this new game, really, it's just that we want the fan base to prove to they want it... by being the people to take the responsibility for funding it and risk of failure off our shoulders despite our immense financial power"

sony is in a bad place right now, they don't have the money to spend on projects they don't know ill make it. you need to read the article. it clearly explains sony is behind the marketing and porting, they won't put any dev money into the game.
that's why this article imho is so important, so many people got it all wrong about what is going on.

 

[loa]

Kind of makes me wish bayonetta 2 was kickstarted instead of being strapped onto the WIIU but kickstarting big, well known AAA franchises just leaves a bad taste in my mouth because you know publishers will abuse this.
You know there will be a call of duty kickstarter or a beloved franchise held hostage by a kickstarter campaign like a dungeon keeper kickstarter by EA.

I look at kickstarter like a glorified donation campaign and big, multi million dollar companies have no business asking for donations because they can't handle their budgets.

 

[Mario_Sonic_Megaman]

This is really confusing, man. I can't tell whether Sony is adding in millions of dollars more of their own, or if the money made on Kickstarter is what the majority of the game's funds will be.

Just to be safe, I will still suggest to anyone who wants this game to put forth at least the minimum amount towards its creation.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Having played the game a little while ago after not playing it for a very long time, I have to say that it actually holds up pretty well. Let's face it, the appeal of the game was never really in the QTEs or even the free battle stuff. The graphics still hold up surprisingly well, character models were always well designed and felt natural. And since no one has tried to make a real game like it since, the game still feels fresh and unique. Not without the problems it always had, of course, but it hasn't aged like milk either.

That is a little relief to hear. I sent my befuddled dreamcast away to make a life o its' own, a long time ago. All that remains are dreamy memories of wonderful stories and QTE crate stacking. Ryu has 90s all over him though; Leather jacket, sports bike, overdramatic "Nooooooooooooooo..." With fists toward the sky when his dad dies at the beginning (not spoiler). I hope it will still be a fresh experience. Also if they could just explain the ending of Shenmue 2, I think a lot of people would be quite grateful.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Having played the game a little while ago after not playing it for a very long time, I have to say that it actually holds up pretty well. Let's face it, the appeal of the game was never really in the QTEs or even the free battle stuff. The graphics still hold up surprisingly well, character models were always well designed and felt natural. And since no one has tried to make a real game like it since, the game still feels fresh and unique. Not without the problems it always had, of course, but it hasn't aged like milk either.

That is a little relief to hear. I sent my befuddled dreamcast away to make a life o its' own, a long time ago. All that remains are dreamy memories of wonderful stories and QTE crate stacking. Ryu has 90s all over him though; Leather jacket, sports bike, overdramatic "Nooooooooooooooo..." With fists toward the sky when his dad dies at the beginning (not spoiler). I hope it will still be a fresh experience. Also if they could just explain the ending of Shenmue 2, I think a lot of people would be quite grateful.

Shenmue takes place in 1986-1987. Nothing 90s about Ryo.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Shenmue takes place in 1986-1987. Nothing 90s about Ryo.

Oh you're right, I completely forgot it had a specific period setting. Still, it's almost 90s, surely? Plus i'm not ruling out the possibility that the design stages may have been influenced by 90s media. Though the fists to the sky scene is definately more 80s. Oh well.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Does anyone else see the start of a really disturbing trend here?
Publisher: "We'd like to make this new game, really, it's just that we want the fan base to prove to they want it... by being the people to take the responsibility for funding it and risk of failure off our shoulders despite our immense financial power"

Actually, I have. Back in 2010-2011 when Capcom trolled Mega Man fans.
They announced Mega Man Legends 3, demanded payment for the demo to gauge response, only to then shitcan the project when that failed (and when Inafune quit the company). Obviously, it wasn't through kickstarter, but it was most definitely in line with a big gaming company trying to turn the players into backers so they don't have to.

 

[Quellist]

It's a bit of a mess but y'know this could be the start of publishers daring to allow beloved old IP's to be brought back from the dead with proof that gamers want them.

I think its too early to call on if this is a good thing or not, but i'm willing to get onboard.