Shenmue 3 Stretch Goals to $11 Million Revealed
With three weeks left in the crowdsourcing effort, Shenmue III has more than $3.6 million to show for it, and still plenty of time to reach a now expanded list of stretch goals–all the way up to $11 million.
To this point, only the goals up to $5 million had been revealed. Now, we know what else could be achieved with fan support: Starting with the $5.1 million Portuguese subtitle option, moving up to expanded battle system details from $6-7.5 million, to the expansion of the Choubu area, up to the Bailu Village expansion at $10 million and beyond. At $11 million is the intriguing “Magic Maze.”
An update on Kickstarter explains the structure:
When it was decided Shenmue 3 would be a go on Kickstarter, Yu-san methodically structured how the game would fit together, knowing that it would change depending on how much could be raised here. The different elements of the game would form a scaffold, building up from each new system and mechanic that would enhance the game as a whole.
If the $11 million stretch goal were reached, the game would become the third top funded project in Kickstarter’s history, beating the original Pebble Watch. Even half that would put it in the top 10. The website KickTraq right now projects the effort to yield between $4.2-5 million.
In the update, organizers also note Shenmue mastermind Yu Suzuki will be live on Twitch Friday night, at 10PM ET / 7PM PT. He is expected to further detail the stretch goals and ideal vision for Shenmue III, as well as answer some backer questions. We will update here with a link when it’s available, and a summary when the session concludes.
Well, it sure is convenient that TMG closes at 10pm EST on Friday then. Nice timing, Suzuki-san.
$11 million? And there are still hidden stretch goals after that? Gonna have to play my Black Card™ here and say, “Y’all n****s is crazy.” How much is Sony even putting in?
It’s not known exactly but it isn’t counting towards these goals, I suppose they and other investors could be intrigued by these goals and fund their development down the road.
I honestly have no idea what he’s thinking here something huge would have to happen for cash to start pouring in again, unless that happens he’s just using Kickstarter to publicly voice his dreams for the project.
Worth it.
It has already been clarified that whatever money Sony gives them is NOT the budget for the game development itself (Rather – think distribution, publishing, advertisement and such).
Whoa, the budget keeps getting bigger. I never expected a game to be plausible on 2 million alone unless it was given to some poor one man army indie developer. I hope fans get what they dream of.
It’s being funded from other sources as well — this is a high dollar game well beyond what we’re donating.
The game would flat out be impossible to produce solely on crowd funding even if they reached that 11 million goal, it would only be possible if the game ended up being a chunk of what the previous game offered. The game seeming to take place in villages seems like a concession to this, having another city with the scope of the original games but with the level of detail expected of modern games would be very expensive.
The acting in that video is horrendous.
See David Cage? This is how you make a cinematic video game.