Come chat with us in IRC!

Come in and shoot the shit at #ReviveDC on irc.freenode.net!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Why You Shouldn't Back Shenmue III's Kickstarter

Cross posted from my other blog.

Put the pitchforks and torches down, you unruly assholes.

love Shenmue. I've played the first one several times. I think it's one of the finest games ever made. It's elegant in its simplicity and beautiful in the way it gives you an illusion of a living world. I didn't enjoy Shenmue II to the same extent, but I still want to know where things go from here.

Why? Why would I say "don't back Shenmue III" then?

Well, why should you? Sony apparently wants this game on their platform. They know that Shenmue fans are ravenous. They know that people will want to get in on this game just from all of the hype and desire over the years. They know people want it so much that they put aside time for it in their press conference and brought Yu Suzuki on stage.

There's a big fucking problem here. Sony stands to make money off of Shenmue III's existence, especially if it's only on PS4 and PC. They'll get a cut of every copy sold on the PSN store, and they know that a lot of people who were undecided will likely be swayed to a PS4. Sony will probably make more than $2 million in this exchange of money. So... why couldn't they just toss Yu Suzuki $2 million?

Well, why would they?

This is an experiment, and it's a dirty one. It's also already working, Shenmue III is almost at 1 million dollars as of 8:30 PM PST. Sony just pimped a game that it won't have any financial investment in on their grandest stage and they're going to get money off of it. Of course there were other games that they didn't have any financial involvement in... but every game there had some kind of funding for it. This? This is just free money and good PR for Sony.

Since you're blinded by the hype, let's look at some business basics. In the business world when you invest in something, you expect a return on investment. So if I give someone $1 million to sell a new product, I'd like to get money back on that. That's why I'm investing. I'm not just giving $1 million away for fun. As a Kickstarter backer, you get nothing back other than whatever tier you went into.

Sony just created a tidal wave of hype. Shenmue III will be forever associated with PS4, and they did it with nothing other than 2 minutes of time. Watching that dollar amount tick up on Kickstarter is proof that game companies can continue to do whatever they please.

Their deadliest weapon is hype and their easiest target is you, eager eyed gamer. Your wallets couldn't come out fast enough. No thought was put into the implications of this Kickstarter. Gamers have no impulse control, we're conditioned on the instant gratification that so many games provide us.

"I can 'donate' some money here and get Shenmue III? COUNT ME IN!"

Don't fund Shenmue III. Hold on to some bit of dignity and self respect as a gamer. Sony has clearly been in the loop on Shenmue III, but apparently $2 million was too much. This is a transparent ploy to see if Kickstarter can generate enough funds to build a large and impressive game. This is a test to see if Sony can successfully associate a game with the PS4 as an exclusive and not pay a dime. Instead, you pay for it.

Don't let this future exist.

13 comments:

  1. I don't give a flying fuck, i'm a PC gamer and Sony can go eat a dick for all i care. It's on PC. That's all that matters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are completely wrong. Sony is helping to fund the game.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. (Prior post deleted because you can't edit comments)

      Yes, we know that now.

      http://kotaku.com/sony-is-helping-make-shenmue-iii-1711819045

      When they brought it on stage, they said it was independent. Regardless of whether I'm right or wrong, this is some unethical shit. This post was written before the game was fully funded.

      Delete
  3. Hi,

    I couldn't find a way to email you. The link on Iso Zone for the translated Fire Pro is dead. I think they had a server outage this year that killed a lot of their files. Is there an alternate way to download this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. don't know whether or not I already commented this but I have the iso and if they gave me permission I could probably upload it

      Delete
  4. 2 mil is barely enough to get through with the development of the tutorial section of a game these days

    ReplyDelete
  5. Interesting, at $6.3 million now, but I agree that prefinancing/preordering like this can be a bit dodgy.

    Personally I have yet to play I and II (which I have on DC) so I'll finish those first, and then if III is released through regular channels maybe give that a go.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A bit late to the party here, but would like to weigh in. Sony probably did it to see if Shenmue 3 was viable. Results indicate that it is. Also, $2 million isn't nearly enough to build a game like Shenmue, which has a ludicrous amount of systems and assets thrown in to make the game world feel alive.
    That said, I held off on funding it because Xbox wasn't confirmed from the get go. Apparently, they went to Microsoft first and got turned down, which sounds weird since the Xbox was in dire need of exclusives at the time and Shenmue would've been huge on the platforms. They aren't ruling out a Xbox port ATM, but it isn't confirmed either, and I play mainly on Xbox so anyway I won't fund a game for a platform I don't even own.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How Mr Benjamin Lee service  grant me a loan!!!

    Hello everyone, I'm Lea Paige Matteo from Zurich Switzerland and want to use this medium to express gratitude to Mr Benjamin service for fulfilling his promise by granting me a loan, I was stuck in a financial situation and needed to refinance and pay my bills as well as start up a Business. I tried seeking for loans from various loan firms both private and corporate organisations but never succeeded and most banks declined my credit request. But as God would have it, I was introduced by a friend named Lisa Rice to this funding service and undergone the due process of obtaining a loan from the company, to my greatest surprise within 5 working days just like my friend Lisa, I was also granted a loan of $216,000.00 So my advise to everyone who desires a loan, "if you must contact any firm with reference to securing a loan online with low interest rate of 1.9% rate and better repayment plans/schedule, please contact this funding service. Besides, he doesn't know that am doing this but due to the joy in me, I'm so happy and wish to let people know more about this great company whom truly give out loans, it is my prayer that GOD should bless them more as they put smiles on peoples faces. You can contact them via email on { lfdsloans@outlook.com} or Text through Whatsapp +1-989 394 3740.

    ReplyDelete