posted by Lowerlevels on Mar 3, 2013:
I have been waiting for this. This is Suzuki's chance to make a Shenmue 3 which could behave as an abridged epoch, condensing the story which originally was to stretch to ten episodes. What Suzuki had planned for the Shenmue series, based on what I remember, was to follow Ryo through maturation, ascending to a climax, allowing us to experience a full evolution of the character, intimately. We have only gotten infant Ryo so far.
My money is in Suzuki's pockets.
Edit: Regarding this source, Suzuki was asked before if he would make Shenmue on his own (perhaps my dream world collided with reality with this sentence as the issue is far more vague than I remember) and he smiled and stated that Sega would give him the rights if he wanted to do such a thing. If it's not now, I am certain it will be at some point, as Suzuki himself has flirted with the idea when asked in several interviews. My opinion is that Suzuki wants Shenmue to be finished.
Could be wrong.
Team Yu from their facebook page:
Now, we don't want to get anyone's hopes up. As exciting as this sounds, the news is still rather vague and ambiguous, at least until we're able to gather more details. But we promised to pass along whatever came out of the Monaco Anime Game Show this weekend, so please take this with a grain of salt for the time being:
As you may recall from an earlier post, Sebastien-Abdelhamid had asked fans on Twitter to suggest questions that he would ask Yu Suzuki at the MAGS convention. Well, here's a new tweet from the interviewer following that session:
"Yu Suzuki déclare penser au Crownfunding type Kickstarter pour financer Shenmue 3 ! #MAGS"
https://twitter.com/SAbdelhamid/stat...59625822728192
This roughly translates to:
"Yu Suzuki declares he is thinking about crowdfunding such as Kickstarter to finance Shenmue 3! #MAGS"
A thrilling prospect for sure, but before we get carried away let's acknowledge a few things. First of all, while it still inspires hope, it says he's only thinking about it. But most importantly, we don't yet know the context of these comments. We don't even have a direct quote. Did Yu volunteer this statement, or was he coaxed into politely going along with an idea presented to him on the spot? We simply don't know at this stage, so we hope to see a video or at least a full transcription of the interview before deciding how seriously to take this tweet.
We have said before that we believe Yu would be more open to the Kickstarter concept than the corporate suits at Sega. You can read our previous comments here:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=375636402448405
On this latest development, we'll keep you posted.
Team Yu (Shenmue Fan Group) on the likelihood of a SEGA endorsed kick starter:
The recent talk about Kickstarter has been interesting, with Psychonauts developer Double Fine Productions managing to raise over $1,000,000 in under 24 hours to make a new adventure game. Naturally this has a lot of Shenmue fans very excited at the prospect of Sega using a similar approach to overcome their financial wariness toward making Shenmue III.
However, Sega and Double Fine are in very different positions. Chances are, most gamers were unfamiliar with the name Double Fine before their fundraising story went viral. Asking fans to pledge money for a game the company otherwise couldn't afford to make is how this underdog developer has made its name. Sega, on the other hand, has a reputation as one of the most established and prolific brands in the industry. Resorting to Kickstarter is likely to seem beneath them, even if it's what the consumer wants. Their corporate ego won't allow it.
Team Yu maintains that the only way we'll ever see Shenmue III become a reality is if Yu Suzuki can obtain the license from Sega. He may then see the benefit in crowdsourcing the capital required to make the game, and we can all put our money where our collective mouth is. But until he has the rights to Shenmue, there'll be no project to fund.
The obstacle between fans and the game remains Sega's stubborn burial of the Shenmue license, instead of giving it to the one man who can put it to good use. Suzuki wants to make the game. We want him to make the game, and would invest our money to help him do so. But before that can happen, Sega must first do the right thing and let Yu take control of Shenmue's destiny.
Please join Team Yu in lifting the plight of our most wanted sequel over this hurdle. Then we'll be on the right track for the kickstart to begin.
