It's likely that they subtracted the cost of marketing, since, when he clarified the figure, he said something to the effect of "The 80 million figure quoted is inaccurate for the development of the project."
Yu Suzuki: I expect individual backers to provide the majority of funds for Shenmue
- Thread starter ShogunDarius
- Start date
It's likely that they subtracted the cost of marketing, since, when he clarified the figure, he said something to the effect of "The 80 million figure quoted is inaccurate for the development of the project."
I feel for you guys wanting this to be made after so long. A shame idiots like this are spreading misinformation.
https://twitter.com/greg70carroll/status/612012593322942464
Dude is a grown man and still a fanboy. Holy crap lol
El_Cinefilo
Member
I've said it before and I'll likely say it again, where was all this vitriol when the ex-Rare guys only asked for £175k to make Yooka Laylee without mentioning investors or when the Bloodstained kickstarter asked for $500k and said they had other backers but didn't say how much they were putting in?
FranXico
Member
Sadly, I was expecting this kind of nonsense to happen since the moment Yu Suzuki walked onto the Sony stage.
If this had been announced by Spencer instead, no such backlash would happen, I think.
Remachinate
Member
The point of my comment was specifically to draw a distinction between requiring funding and proving interest. One actually requires dollars from fans, the other doesn't.
To be fair, some people did get upset about Yooka-laylee undermining the cost of development.
But that was a different situation.
DidntKnowJack
Member
Ok looking a bit closer at the douche spreading misinformation on Twitter, turns out he's not in game's media he's just a random douche. I just hope the shit he's spewing doesn't reach a ton of people.
AstroNut325
Member
Man the drama is reaching new heights.
This is playing out like Hamlet!
This is playing out like Hamlet!
I guarantee you, had this been announced on the Microsoft Stage, and Shenmue III was Xbox One and PC exclusive, that there would be upset Sony fanboys. Same shit, different day.
FranXico
Member
That would be even more ridiculous, considering Shenmue has no history on the Playstation platform up to now.
Surely many Sony fanboys would remember that before spouting nonsense?
El_Cinefilo
Member
In all honesty I think Microsoft would have gotten it worse still.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Moneyhat would have been a widely used term in that case.
Yoda
Member
You guys really read into these things far too much. Let me assure you the final amount of funding Sony is going to provide hasn't even been decided yet. The additional investors who may or may not back the project also haven't decided yet. No one signs contracts that say "If your Kickstarter gets X we are legally bounding ourselves to give you Y". More importantly NO ONE MAKES INVESTMENT DECISIONS BASED OFF A POLYGON ARTICLE. The Kickstarter did what it needed to and then-some. It showed the passion for Shenmue 3 hasn't died after 14 years of not even a shred of real positive news. Yu is doing what is in Shenmue's best interest; the higher the KS dollar amount is when it ends, the easier it will be when said negotiations BEGIN to court more money.
spouting nonsense is the hallmark of a fanboy.
You better believe it.
Have a dude at 40-45, hey sue me I don't really care about him, at work that has been spouting the gospel of Xbox and how everything else fucking sucks because <insert fantasy reason>. I quickly terminated my interest in him. And that's to bad since I really do feel out of place some times when I talk with the younger ones. Big deal, have friends outside of work that I can talk games with and the cutest littliest nieces and nephew that love what unca brings to the table game wise ^^
Dramatic whatever*(please imagine caps lock):
But Microsoft killed Shenmue! Fuck Peter Moore! He gave away Shenmue to the weakest player and helped kill it! If it was on PS2 it could have lived!!**
Scene.
* I forgot the English word for it.
** We know why it was easier to put it on Xbox instead of PS2, with or without Mr.Moore.
DidntKnowJack
Member
I tell you one thing, it would have been the straw to break my camel's back and I would have gotten an XB1. Shenmue is just one of those properties that transcends everything else. I'm not saying I'm a Sony fanboy, just haven't felt a compelling reason to get an XB1 yet. But that's a different thread altogether.
never knew that thanksbut if you look at games like GTA V and how they cost to make nowadays then Is it possible to make a AAA open world game with a reasonable number of activity and quest with a budget like what Yu Suzuki has? I don't know since I never developed a game but from the budget of AAA games nowadays it doesn't seem possible or is it?
GTAV's budget includes their marketing likely, and more importantly, they basically recreated Los Angeles in it's entirety. Their team was also something like 500 people at one point.
Shenmue III is being made with the core AM2 staff from 14 years ago, and is centered around a few tiny villages in rural china. Watch the Shenmue II post mortem from GDC 2014 and Yu Suzuki explains his procedurally generated plans for Shenmue III and how he could create enormous forests from little bits of code.
To give another example - No Man's Sky is the size of an entire universe, but it isn't several times the cost of GTAV.
For now they're a lot of confused and angry people.
All we can do is to rely information.
That's what I did, I tweeted that guy the link from Sony CEO where he is clarifying things about their part about Shnemue 3.
TheOhrenberger.
Banned
you seem pretty caught up in the console war yourself lol
Er you may want to re-read what I wrote. I straight up tell you I don't know Deep Silver's exact monetary contribution to Mighty No. 9. As for Bloodstained, my source is here (Since we know IGA was asking for a 500k minimum, 90% of the funding works out to about 4.5 million)
The fact that this wasn't clear on the KS page itself is something I criticized the Bloodstained KS about but at least this info was very clear out there within 24 hours of the campaign starting.
Seriously. There is some fucking revisionist history starting to go on in these threads.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Good to hear, finally, that Suzuki broached the subject with SCE, not the other way around. I really need to up my pledge (good thing I just got a new job), and I hope Shibuya can up their game with tiers and publicity both on the KS page and elsewhere.
TheOhrenberger.
Banned
This is a good post. You can undoubtedly make a good shenmue 3 with $10 million. It might not be a technical marvel, but it can be done.
Errr people WERE upset about both those things - you probably just weren't paying attention. However, at least the Bloodstained question was answered within 24houts of the KS campaign starting.
Guess I was mostly wrong about Bloodstained's case. And I look at that extra 4.5 Million as 'extra' money as a back up; if the Kickstarter wasn't a huge success, than that funding would have made up for that lack of support (I think :l). Still, its great seeing smaller publishers like Deep silver seeing potential with Kickstarter. Helps make more games a reality
.
Regarding Shenmue 3, I guess Sony is having a similar role to Mighty No. 9 (helping out with other factors, which would be...around 1 million I assume?).
If the KS failed, there would be no Bloodstained. Deep Silver was only putting in that money if it got funded.
test_account
XP-39C²
I'm pretty sure that he did it because he wanted to. Having it announced at an E3 press conferance is great PR.
I feel for you guys wanting this to be made after so long. A shame idiots like this are spreading misinformation.
https://twitter.com/greg70carroll/status/612012593322942464
Embarrassing in the extreme.
join the jacket tier, that's where all the cool kids are at
FranXico
Member
Yeah, you guys convinced me. I can imagine that kind of meltdown.
Nah, I really don't care tbh(ask me about the companies that own the consoles and I care though). What I perhaps should have added was that he makes up things. I honestly can't remember but it was things like how something Mixtermedia would have said and didn't really seem interested in the games but instead just spouted how the console was better.
Only reason I bought an Xbox for the 3 year old niece is because she loves that kinect Just dance and their old console died. Also her parents are cheap.
Nope, if this was announced by Spencer the exact same shit would have happened. Fanboys are Fanboys, no matter what the system they fanboy
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Not enough capital for that, but definitely the art-book tier, I want me some of dat (hopefully they're getting UDON to make this).
Hawk269
Member
I agree with you to a point. My concern if the information is correct that the ultimate version will happen if they get to 10million. That sounds awefuly low for a game these days unless the game is more of an indie type of thing that is not going to be as ambitious as the previous titles.
I am a big Shenmue fan, I had the Japanese version the day it came out and I don't read or understand Japanese at all and I still loved the game. I just hope/want it to be given the triple a treatment it deserves and 10mil ain't going to do it.
HORRORSHØW
Member
pretty sure that's littlefangI feel for you guys wanting this to be made after so long. A shame idiots like this are spreading misinformation.
https://twitter.com/greg70carroll/status/612012593322942464
XANDER CAGE
Member
Can we stop hunting for twitter witches? Especially ones with sixteen followers. Come on, guys.
Agreed nothing good will ever come of this.
Elfforkusu
Member
Agreed.
That said, I feel like Yu is 100% on the money (ha!) with his expectation on the funding breakdown. No matter how well the kickstarter does, it's really doubtful that anybody's going to act as a multiplier. If it draws $5m from the crowds, maybe he can pick up another 2 or 3 from investors. If it gets $7m, maybe he can pull 4 or 5. If it somehow hits $10m, that probably ends up in line with the budget for the originals ($47m / 3 games, one unreleased ...)
Pseudo judo
Member
It's Kick Starter so clearly the more people you can include the more money you're going to get. Shenmue 2 came out on Xbox, it is clearly a mistake to right off Xbox, start a Kick Starter campaign and then get only minimal financial support from the one console that's getting th game.
Say what you want about fanboys but they have money to spend and love supporting things that support their console. If you want 10 million dollars, writing off fanboys is about the dumbest thing you can do.
Theonik
Member
The old figure was ~60ish million I thought, that always got blown up by adding inflation every time it is quoted. But I think it refers to the overall budget that was given to the Shenmue project, which isn't necessarily how much it cost. It would also include whatever amount was budgeted for the development of the Dreamcast version of Shenmue III. As you said it is also unclear how much of the budget was spent on marketing.
Edit: Forgot to finish a sentence there.
By the time Shenmue was nearing release they had 300+ people on board the project but only 30% of these people were SEGA employees. Yu Suzuki talked about this when he was presenting Shenmue to a awestruck crowd of developers in GDC2000, watching both this and the GDC2014 post mortem on Shenmue give much better perspective about Shenmue's budget and why Shenmue III wouldn't cost as much, it is also important to understand that in 2000, simply managing a project like Shenmue was a massive challenge on its own. What Shenmue was doing in 1999 was simply unheard of in the games industry.
There are also reasons why such a project like Shenmue III wouldn't be the intense money burn that it was in 1999 that people without experience working on larger projects may not understand. They mention they managed the entire project on an excel spreadsheet, that is absolutely insane. I can't imagine how inefficient something like that must have been. Hell, back in 1999, there were no subversion control softwares out there in the world. As you mentioned - a major part of their workforce wasn't in-house. Today, we have stuff like git and SVN that makes multi-studio, enormous projects simply feasible without bleeding money left and right. Yu Suzuki's team simply brute forced their way through that shit.
I cannot imagine how stressful that must have been.
My apologize, I understimated GAF.
It's my fault.
I though that would help people realise that there is a (real) backlash happening on the internet and anyone can be be influenced by it. My intention was not to start a witch hunt at all.
Again, I apolize, that was not the message I wanted to send for fighting the backlash. I will remove my post to avoid futher misturstanding.
Elfforkusu
Member
Jesus christ, I hadn't even thought about that. Imagine running a project the size of Shenmue without proper version control...
ShenmueNextGen
Neo Member
CO-PRODUCER OF SHENMUE 3 SPOKE:
SONY WON'T GET MONEY FROM KS.
STOP THE PRESSES!
https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/612352032851259392
SONY WON'T GET MONEY FROM KS.
STOP THE PRESSES!
https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/612352032851259392
And then imagine you get window seated because the platform the game is released on can't possibly support the volume of copies needed to make the game profitable (then again, I guess not many are). Suzuki was brute forcing his own retirement. Damn you Segagaga.
Yoda
Member
1 dollar from a KS != 1 dollar in Sony "helping with overall development". Sony can provide a lot of logistical support that would otherwise sap a large amount of the game's budget. They can do this relatively speaking inexpensively as they are a gigantic video game publisher already. This would be a great help for YSNet in terms of not having to mange logistical issues themselves, which always add to the total cost of development.
I also don't agree with them refusing to commit substantial funds. Unless the KS ends @ a crazy amount, doubling that amount would be a drop in the bucket compared to what'd they get in return. Once overall demand can be analyzed firmly enough for investors they can start doing more contractual work such as Publishing rights, etc which would entice them to foot more of the bill. Yu hasn't made a game in a long time, I doubt he knows where the exact thresholds are for the scope of the game, I suspect he's trying to entice the community to go as large as it can so he can have the backing to do the same.
ZombiePlatypus
Member
I feel for you guys wanting this to be made after so long. A shame idiots like this are spreading misinformation.
https://twitter.com/greg70carroll/status/612012593322942464
Wow. WTF is this petty ill will bullshit? We had an amazing E3 where 3 incredible fan pipe dreams happened. Instead of fostering them as fans however we can, some people are just being salty middle school mean girls?
I don't expect anything better from Polygon cause they're basically the Ann Coulter of gaming, but it's sad to see others pile onto this.
If nothing else, I hope this will inspire fans to garner even more support. This is a chance for us to show that we can come together as fans and creators to make such projects a feasible reality.
What?!?!??!?! :0CO-PRODUCER OF SHENMUE 3 SPOKE:
SONY WON'T GET MONEY FROM KS.
STOP THE PRESSES!
https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/612352032851259392
Night Hunter
Banned
CO-PRODUCER OF SHENMUE 3 SPOKE:
SONY WON'T GET MONEY FROM KS.
STOP THE PRESSES!
https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/612352032851259392
Sorry to bring that up, but this is a poorly worded statement. Again.
If you watch his 2014 post mortem, it becomes obvious that, from 1992 onward, Yu Suzuki's entire career was building towards Shenmue. All his work with the model boards, and the Virtua Fighter Engine, and his work on the saturn, and then dreamcast - Shenmue was truly his magnum opus. It was a culmination of everything he had been successful at prior.
And circumstance basically destroyed his career.
hah, I was actually looking through his timeline to see if they had said anything ^^
Elfforkusu
Member
Point taken wrt the first paragraph. Sony's biggest contributions are likely to not show up directly on the balance sheet.
I'm not confident about the second. It's not about "drop in the bucket", it's a simple risk reward thing. And if Shenmue 3 was the kind of project a publishers were jumping to throw $15m at, it'd have happened long before now. Certainly a successful kickstarter changes the narrative (a little), but it won't cause investors to lose their well-honed sense of caution.