Despite many people considering the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter as being mishandled, it didn’t stop the game from reaching another legendary status milestone. It is now the most funded Kickstarter game of all time (at least until Hideo Kojima’s obvious turn to Kickstarter happens). The game has gathered over $5.5 million dollars in funding. At the moment of writing it has $5,733,751 pledged and over 63,477 backers.
That means that Shenmue 3 has beat the previous record held by Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night which got $5,545,991 in funding. As of this moment it is the third most-funded game on Kickstarter, being beaten by the top cat, Exploding Kittens card game that got $8,782,571 in funding. Sadly it doesn’t seem like Shenmue 3 will be getting anywhere near close to 8 million dollars since (as of writing) its still over 2 million shy of beating it with only 9 hours left.
So now the question is, do you thinking that whatever gets funded by the Kickstarter will be enough? While it gathered a bit more funding than Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, that game is a 2D Metroidvania style game, do you think that Shenmue 3 needed way more to complete its true vision? Let us know in the comment section.
Ad:Related posts:
New Shenmue III trailer, less than 72 hours left in the campaign!
Shenmue 3 retail release not guaranteed, only backers guaranteed physical copy
Yu Suzuki reflects on one year since the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter was funded
Shenmue 3 appears at Sony’s E3 2015 press conference, launches Kickstarter
Swingin’ Report Show #79: Shenmue 3 E3 Reveal & Kickstarter
Let’s hope that it’s enough. Since 5.5 comes with thanks from ‘The bottom of The Suzuki’s heart’, I’m betting that this is a passion project for him and his team, and that they won’t be taking home Sega sized salaries to realize it.
That, and a large chunk of the 80 million needed to develop the original was probably used for research and testing not needed now, as well as for marketing (which will this time be provided by Sony).
I’d be curious to know what it cost to produce Shenmue 2, a game created using an engine, game design and graphics that were already developed. That might give us a more realistic idea of whether or not 5.5 will do for S3 production.
Proves how sega was wrong in the past. They should have to make a port of Shenmue 1 & 2 + Jet Set Radio Future HD to sell well.
SEGA don´t listen and others got their gold first.
Learn it and Do It!
We don’t know how wrong they are tho, hard to compare a Kickstarter to a retail item. For example: Sure the game has been funded for 6 million at the moment, but that is only 66,264 backers. SEGA can’t charge people in the store 10,000 dollars for a dinner with a developer. So SEGA will count that as 66k sold. That isn’t great.
The only way we can know if the game is successful is when it comes out. This is all development money.
Counting backers as sales is silly. First, most backers will get the game already as a reward and therefore not buy it again. Second, you can look at past kickstarter campaigns, then at actual game sales (e.g. via SteamSpy for games on Steam), and derive conclusions from that. Usually, there’ll be a lot more sales than backers. A company like Sega will know that fact.
Yeah I agree with you, that was my point. This is just funding. What really will make it a success is actually coming out. Sales + reception.
I hope some day shenmue 3 will make it to the dreamcast,
If made correctly, Shenmue III will be far too much for the Dreamcast to ever be able to handle.
Uh… How is it the most funded game in kickstarter history when it’s also the third most?
Read the whole article.
I did, guess I’m just missing something. Sorry. Didn’t mean to sound rude.