Apparently, a record-breaking $6.3 million just wasn't enough.
It's strange to think that just under six months ago, fans had no idea that Shenmue 3 was even in the works. Then, at E3 2015, Sony surprised everyone with the news that the game was in development — and then surprised everyone yet again when it revealed that the game would be crowdfunded. At first, there was nothing but enthusiasm – the reveal broke Kickstarter's website – but, sadly, it wouldn't last.
As time went on, the Kickstarter campaign started feeling less and less sincere. Despite the fact that the $2 million goal was shattered in mere hours, YS Net asked for more: $10 million, to be specific, and that was only after the team revealed that it had had already secured outside funding via Sony. Basically, it started to seem like YS Net never really needed the Kickstarter in the first place. Eventually, the campaign ended and YS Net walked away with roughly $6 million in funding.
Surprisingly, YS Net is asking for more: the "Slacker Backer" program is a secondary crowdfunding campaign designed specifically for PayPal users. Supposedly, it's a chance for those who missed out on the original Kickstarter campaign to contribute — but why does YS Net suddenly need more money?
To be fair, game development is one of the most tumultuous industries out there, with seemingly endless different ways for things to go wrong. It's expensive, it's time-consuming and problems during production can appear at random. It's far from a proven science, and at the end of the day, there's a seemingly infinite number of reasons why YS Net could need more money.
The problem is that Shenmue 3's crowdfunding practices already came under fire once. When it was revealed the YS Net had already secured outside funding, many questioned why the developers needed a Kickstarter campaign at all. Unfortunately, those questions were only answered with more questions, such as "If you needed $10 million to develop the game, why didn't you ask for $10 million?"
By the end of the Kickstarter campaign, the loyalty of a lot of fans had been shaken: while YS Net never lied to fans, it was clear that it wasn't telling them the whole story, either. Now, with the addition of yet another funding push, it's clear that a lot about Shenmue 3's Kickstarter wasn't what it claimed to be.
At the very least, it seems as if there will be some tangible rewards for fans' continued backing: YS Net has given high-level backers a few new physical rewards, and the Kickstarter stretch goals have transferred over to the new PayPal backing system. For fans who weren't able to contribute before, it's a nice second chance to do so, but for anyone who already contributed to the Shenmue 3's Kickstarter, there's not much here that you haven't seen already.
So, does all this weirdness mean that Shenmue 3 isn't worth funding? No, far from it — but the team over at YS Net and Sony would do well to open up about what exactly they want/need from fans.
Shenmue 3 is due out sometime next year; you can help fund the game over at the official website.
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