Seems like this Autumn and even into February of next year are really stacked with AAA titles. A delay was probably the right choice (though almost certainly a coincidence).
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Shenmue Community |OT| The day the snow turned to rain
- Thread starter Erevador
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They did say at the THQ Nordic financials meeting that the delay was "for polish, and to release the game in the best possible time frame", so actually it sounds like one of the considerations made.
It was exactly 10 years ago today when the late Rodger Swan uploaded his Real Life Shenmue episode on Youtube. His video inspired many Shenmue fans to visit real locations like Yokosuka.
Rodger's video: https://youtu.be/xfmDm_MKGv0
Rodger Swan Memorial Fund for Japanese Studies: https://bit.ly/2JmknXE
Winter Sunset by Ryuichi Iuchi - Dedicate to Rodger Swan: https://youtu.be/NdrtdbvEV2A
Sweet. Nice to know Shenmue gets a least a snippet of representation at E3 this year.
I was actually thinking about him the other week. Poor guy. Nobody should die that young.
It was exactly 10 years ago today when the late Rodger Swan uploaded his Real Life Shenmue episode on Youtube. His video inspired many Shenmue fans to visit real locations like Yokosuka.
Rodger's video: https://youtu.be/xfmDm_MKGv0
Rodger Swan Memorial Fund for Japanese Studies: https://bit.ly/2JmknXE
Winter Sunset by Ryuichi Iuchi - Dedicate to Rodger Swan: https://youtu.be/NdrtdbvEV2A
Yeah thinking it being there was not something to pin hopes on. I had it at a 20% chance of showing up, tops. Even then it would've probably been a quick teaser.
Seems pretty likely they plan to be at Gamescom again. Hope they pencil in PSX too for North American fans.
It was pretty clear that we'd have to wait until GamesCom. Shenmue 1 + 2 on PC was a nice surprise and I can't wait to buy my copies there as well.
Mm. I feel a lot of the people upset were the ones who... don't really even catch up on the Kickstarter updates tbh. At least most of us could have easily seen which way the wind is blowing, given Ys Net are still quite heavily working towards getting the game presentable. I use that word very specifically and separately from playable, because we know it's been playable in some form for a while now.
Shenmue is ultimately a story-based game though, and you need those component parts like VO and corresponding animation in a passable state before you showcase it for real (Gamescom '17 doesn't count, obviously). No guarantees they'll be at that stage for Gamescom '18, or that they'll resist the pressure to show something they're not 100% about again, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed in either case.
I kept this to myself when the last KS update dropped, and I don't think anybody else discovered it - but the camera metadata on the source photographs read 10th/27th of April. Now the camera metadata can be inaccurate, but if you fuck around with the URLs on the shenmue.link site to find the source images, you'll also find the date they were uploaded. The first of the studio photos went up on the 26th of April, so about a month before the update itself came out.
I'm hoping that between April and August Ys Net will have been able to take some of the audio recorded so far and work it into a presentable part of the game to show, but I'll understand if they opt for something more restrained or even no-show Gamescom too. We've all seen the size of the scripts people like Masaya Matsukaze are working from each session, so I wouldn't be surprised if Ys Net's focus is just getting all that implemented and animated instead of focusing on promotion.
My only real concern with missing E3 is that I hope they have enough financial runway to release after (maybe right after) E3 2019. The franchise needs a PR blowout if we want 4 too, and it's hard to do that without an E3 push of any sort.
Financial runway ceased to be an immediate problem as soon as the Deep Silver deal was signed last year. Obviously the money tap can't stay on forever but the publisher won't cut their nose off to spite their face. If that was the case they could have insisted Ys Net ship in 2018 as originally planned.
I will say (again) that E3 isn't everything. We all saw Sony going a very specific way with their E3 press conference again this year, and I struggle to see how Shenmue III could fit in with that kind of show in the future. Also if every game's success, big or small, hinged on releasing after an E3 blow-out; we'd almost exclusively see releases only in June, July, and maybe August. There's more than one way to promote a game, and honestly? It feels a bit like E3's relevance is slipping.
I wouldn't say E3's relevance is slipping. It's just that now there are other ways and opportunities to promote your games than before. At the end of the day E3 helped Shenmue III get funds in a big way.
Getting an E3 blowout for Shenmue III would be fantastic, but probably expensive unless PlayStation has further stakes in some way with that game. Also showing your game off at E3 doesn't mean to release your game around the same time.
I dunno, maybe it's just me. Even in recent years there's been an undeniable gear switch though, for Sony especially. These conferences aren't the broad view of a platform's software like they used to be.
In theory Sony are still marketing partners on Shenmue III, so promotion is part of their remit to provide support for the game... but none of us can look at their last few E3s and genuinely say Shenmue III would fit in with a show increasingly made of wall-to-wall AAA games, and new reveals. Maybe Sony will change things up at E3 2019 with a more even spread of titles, but we'll not get an E3 blowout if the game can't make it into the conference.
It's better for Shenmue III to get a place of prominence in a "lesser" trade show, than to get washed away almost entirely at E3, IMO. But again, maybe Sony will look at reactions to this year's E3 and changes things up next year - that could give Shenmue III a way in.
And yes, I know showing off at E3 doesn't mean you have to release around the same time. I'm just reiterating that E3 isn't the be-all end-all to a game's marketing plan, otherwise every AAA publisher would be tripping over themselves trying to release in the immediate months after.
If they gotta crop to ship with 16:9 cutscenes in the original Shenmue to avoid instances of animations stopping at the former 4:3 border, so be it. There's stuff you can get away with in a fan widescreen hack, that you can't in a retail product.
The framing doesn't suffer as much as I thought it originally might.
The framing doesn't suffer as much as I thought it originally might.
If you observe carefully at the comparison I made you'll see Nozomi blinks once in the original game. You don't see her blink in the new E3 promo. In the Shenmue I & II announcement trailer I noticed Shenhua didn't blink in the prologue scene. She is suppose to blink once as the camera zooms closer to her face.
Perhaps the cutscene animations and character movement logic are not hard-coded together? Tons of games around 2000 would load these separately but I have no idea if Shenmue is that way.
Possibly. Either way, porting the game from source could throw up all kinds of weirdness like this.
But ultimately, it's still just pre-release footage and D3T deserve the benefit of the doubt that they notice this stuff too. Like the SEGA Fes footage not having Shenhua looking directly into the camera, and D3T's Allan basically saying "yeah that's fixed now" on his brief stay on the Dojo.
As of right now it's a no. It's also extremely unlikely that it'll happen.
Although unconfirmed right now, it was reasonable enough to expect the save transfer gimmick to have died with the Dreamcast.
There might be room to hold out hope Shenmue III scans your harddrive for a I & II save to get a bonus item or move, but mechanical changes, IP licencing speed bumps, and III being developed for 2+ years as a "clean slate" for the player are going to impede anything more than that.
Kickstarter update: survey info #0, soft open announcement.
Hello Backers!
We know the backer surveys have been a long time in coming and apologize for the wait. The backer surveys are almost ready and will be going out to everyone soon.
The surveys will begin with a soft open for a few randomly selected backers. Those of you selected will receive an email from Fangamer with a link to your survey. The survey will be sent to the email address you have registered with Kickstarter for Kickstarter backers, or either your PayPal or Shenmue.link registered email for Slacker Backers. Please answer the questions and hit that continue button!
The official survey start and end dates will be announced after backer feedback, system tweaks and a thorough FAQ has been compiled. The survey questions address both physical rewards and in-game content rewards.
The dev team will be eagerly awaiting your responses and would like to thank you in advance for your cooperation!
Really hope this means Shenmue III will drop first half of 2019. I think a summer release would be a good time to release it.
Really hope this means Shenmue III will drop first half of 2019. I think a summer release would be a good time to release it.
Rin Survey Info
Surveys for both Kickstarter and Slack Backers will be rolling out through August 13th. The Surveys will close by September 30th. Surveys need to be submitted by the Sept 30th date to meet the manufacturing deadline for rewards and game production.
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Things are really moving lately. First the surveys and now PC system requirements. I predict we'll get the demo around Gamescom. That survey video with the unique dialogue gives me hope it will be more in the style of "What's Shenmue?" rather than a straight up slice of the story.
That's my pie-in-the-sky hopes for Gamescom. I don't want to really commit to it just in case they decide to do something more restrained, but you never know. I wasn't expecting the video we got today, nor that they'd ever go through the trouble of making something like that to announce the surveys.
I'd be crazy if we could play a slice of Shenmue III in a matter of months.
Anyway, FYI everybody:
I'd be crazy if we could play a slice of Shenmue III in a matter of months.
Anyway, FYI everybody:
Just want to say that the fact that they allow you to add on or upgrade your kickstarter is amazing. When it first came on i was stuck a bit for cash so could only go the $100 tier. Now i have upgraded to the one i originally wanted which was the $250 kickstarter collectors edition! Feel sooooo good knowing i now have what i always wanted with the bonus that it helps try and get another stretch goal!
