SEGAbits Shenmue III Hype Train! Update: Funded but lets go further!

[Team Andromeda]

We be lucky to see this game at all, unless a studio comes in with some serious funding. SONY should be ashamed the way they used Yu Suzuki and Shenmue at its E3.

[max_cady]

Second half of 2018, could mean anything between July and December. And I'm fine with that. This isn't a 16-bit RPG, it's a fully fledged 3D adventure game. It's going to take some time. All long as they keep cranking out these reports on how the game development is going along, I'm fine with it.


However, I do concede that this game will in all likelyhood, will not save Kickstarter from being a generally unreliable source of game crowfunding.

[Barry the Nomad]

TA is overreacting. Nothing from the development team says that they are in trouble and that there is no hope for a game. The December 2017 date was too soon and I think they knew that for a while. From the dev videos, we see that they are working hard on a game, and that they are well into modeling characters and locations. If they say second half of 2018, I'll trust them on that until we see otherwise.

[Team Andromeda]

TA is overreacting. Nothing from the development team says that they are in trouble and that there is no hope for a game. The December 2017 date was too soon and I think they knew that for a while. From the dev videos, we see that they are working hard on a game, and that they are well into modeling characters and locations. If they say second half of 2018, I'll trust them on that until we see otherwise.

They hardly going to hold their hands up and say we're in trouble, but they are. The game was meant and funded to be done in 2 years. If you go over that when you're a 1st party/In-House of say SEGA that's ok, but when you're a 3rd party and god forbid a Kickstarter game then issues can kick in, more so when you're trying to make a Shenmue style game

It's a shame because Yu will always be a GOD to me and the best producer ever and he deserves far far better

[Centrale]

They also set an initial goal of $2m and exceeded that threefold. Some have speculated that the Dec. 2017 date was listed so as not to dissuade potential backers with too long of a projected development period. Yu Suzuki noted that he had come up with multiple designs that could scale to the available budget. It may be that the Dec. 2017/$2m design was essentially something simple, like a visual novel - it will be interesting to find out some day. I don't think many people thought of Dec. 2017 as a realistic release date, especially once it was clearly going to have a significantly larger budget than their initial bare-bones ask. I think the project is in good hands and most backers are relieved that they are taking the time they need rather than rushing out a small game to meet the original target date.

Keep in mind the advances in tech since the original Shenmue development period. Suzuki stated that the issue of animating the phone cord, or the chain in the handcuffs, were significant challenges at that time. Today things like that are solved issues. UE4 is a robust, well-supported engine. Envirnomental design tools are in place, lighting and atmosphere have established workflows so the issue now is more focused on pure art direction rather than building something to take on these tasks for the first time. It's almost like the tech has advanced to the point where it can facilitate a game like Shenmue that was so far ahead of its own time. Suzuki stated in the message announcing the delay that the game is turning out to be bigger and more beautiful than he had initially expected.

[pcm92]

TA is overreacting. Nothing from the development team says that they are in trouble and that there is no hope for a game. The December 2017 date was too soon and I think they knew that for a while. From the dev videos, we see that they are working hard on a game, and that they are well into modeling characters and locations. If they say second half of 2018, I'll trust them on that until we see otherwise.

Maybe they meant December of 2018.

[Team Andromeda]

Keep in mind the advances in tech since the original Shenmue development period. Suzuki stated that the issue of animating the phone cord, or the chain in the handcuffs, were significant challenges at that time. Today things like that are solved issues. UE4 is a robust, well-supported engine. Envirnomental design tools are in place, lighting and atmosphere have established workflows so the issue now is more focused on pure art direction rather than building something to take on these tasks for the first time. It's almost like the tech has advanced to the point where it can facilitate a game like Shenmue that was so far ahead of its own time. Suzuki stated in the message announcing the delay that the game is turning out to be bigger and more beautiful than he had initially expected.

I do . Shenmue II was made in 2 years and for all the wonders that are middleware Shenmue III been delayed and its not like games takes years to make even with outside middleware and engines.

Yu is GOD to me, nobody in the industry will ever come close. He was, still is and will always be a hero to me and a person that I worshiped back in my younger mad SEGA days . Don't doubt his talent or that he can't make a great Shenmue III. I just worry about the money and lack of staff myself

[Shun-Di]

I do . Shenmue II was made in 2 years and for all the wonders that are middleware Shenmue III been delayed and its not like games takes years to make even with outside middleware and engines.

Yu is GOD to me, nobody in the industry will ever come close. He was, still is and will always be a hero to me and a person that I worshiped back in my younger mad SEGA days . Don't doubt his talent or that he can't make a great Shenmue III. I just worry about the money and lack of staff myself

Shenmue 1 and 2 were originally the same game in development and it sorta got split like Soul Reaver 1 and 2 were or Sonic 3 and Knuckles. 

[Tad]

https://twitter.com/SEGAbits/status/898086805978755072

Bit concerning that they still can't get the characters to look right. After this long into development the main characters should be spot on. This is just more photoshop nonsense.

[Betwixt Thieves]

The original Shenmue games balooned out of budget and control (obviously creating a masterpiece) so I'm not sure why anyone is surprised by this project starting to derail.

[Centrale]

I think Ryo looks great. Shenhua doesn't look quite right. The backgrounds and environments are looking beautiful as well. Project starting to derail? BS. Let's see what they show at Gamescom next week.

[Moody]

Current opinions:

-we're seeing the first signs of this project going to shit with Deep Silver (project was supposed to be published by Sony and Shibuya Industries, now that seems to have gone out the door)
-Ryo and Shenhua models look alright to me. I didn't expect realistic models and these look okay in my book.

[Centrale]

-we're seeing the first signs of this project going to shit with Deep Silver (project was supposed to be published by Sony and Shibuya Industries, now that seems to have gone out the door)

Sony has never been the publisher. They have stated they are offering support in development and marketing (e.g., an advertisement that also features the Playstation logo). As for Shibuya being replaced as a publisher, Deep Silver is a big step up from Shibuya, who has very little publishing experience and not much pull to get shelf space in retail locations. Deep Silver has been doing a good job publishing Sega titles in Europe.

[Moody]

I thought Sony was publishing the PS4 version as a first-party title?

Either way, I really hope this game doesn't suck. None of the crowdfunded revivals in this vein have been universally good. MN9, Broken Age, Yooka-Laylee all either had divided opinions or just sucked. Bloodstained looks like it's going nowhere fast too. I really want this game to be good.

[Tad]

There has been good games from Kickstarter. Broken Sword was a return back to it's roots, the complaints about Yooka Laylee were just dumb - the main one being it's just like the old N64 platformers...well, yeah. That's exactly what they pitched, so that's a silly complaint to me. Dreamfall Chapters was good, Shovel Night apparently is too. Not Kickstater, but the same idea of raising the funds have also seen hits in Project Cars and from what we've seen so far, Psychonauts 2 is coming along nicely.

I think if there's one thing to take from kickstarter etc is seeing the publishers side. They can pour loads of money into a project only to find the team need more time and more money afterwards. Still, I have faith Shenmue 3 will come out and be fine, but  the media will declare it bad for not blowing them away and being the best game ever etc.

I'm just surprised they still haven't got the models looking right and although this probably wouldn't be popular, I've felt for a very long time (before the kickstarter was announced) that they should stick with the visuals of Shenmue 1 & 2. If any of you have seen the detail in them being rendered in HD, you'll know they look fantastic without pushing the boat to make it look even better.