Comments on Kickstarter Update #93: Final Campaign Tallies

Comments on Kickstarter Update #93: Final Campaign Tallies

With less than 10 months to go until the Shenmue III release on 27th August 2019, a new Kickstarter update for Shenmue III was released today. It has been a while since the last one - around two months - which is not surprising as the development team is hard at work, with Yu Suzuki even sleeping over at the office, as he revealed during September's Tokyo Game Show.

The final totals for backer funding across the Kickstarter and Slacker Backer campaigns has now been confirmed:

Backers: 81,087
Funding Total: $7,179,510

The team expresses their thanks to all backers, saying: "Seeing the final numbers, all of us here can't help but feel all over again the immensity of the support everyone has given to make this project come true! Thank you!"

Also shared were photographs of some of the rewards being prepared. Here is our quick breakdown of the images presented.

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The "AI Battling" Stretch Goal | Shenmue III

Phantom River Stone gives a brief recap of what we know about the "AI Battling" stretch goal and clarifies some information given in the English version of the recent Kickstarter Update, based on the Japanese text.

Pledges for Shenmue III, combining the Kickstarter and the Slacker Backer campaign pledges, have grown to an impressive total of $6,901,625 as of the last official update on June 22, 2018 (source: Shenmue.link).

Total amount pledged to Shenmue 3 as of June 22, 2018 (Kickstarter & Slacker Backer pledges combined)

Significantly, a further $100,000 of pledges would take this total to the next stretch goal from the Kickstarter campaign: "Battle System Expanded: AI Battling" at $7 million.

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Shenmue III Backer Survey Information: Distilled

There was a lot of information packed into the recent update about Shenmue III Backer Surveys, so we have put together a "distilled" summary of the key information.

Introduction

YS Net has posted a new Kickstarter update and refreshed their official Shenmue 3 site with the news that surveys have now started for all Shenmue III backers, for people who pledged through both Kickstarter and the Slacker Backer page.

The purpose of these surveys is to collect the necessary information from backers to prepare and send their rewards, for example a shipping address, choice of platform for receiving the game software and so on.

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"Soft Launch" of Backer Survey Emails | Kickstarter Update #83

A brief Kickstarter update has been posted regarding Shenmue 3 survey emails, stating that these are almost ready to be sent out.

They will cover both physical & in-game content rewards and will be sent by email to all backers to their registered email address on Kickstarter or Slacker Backer.

The update notes that a few randomly-selected backers will receive their survey email in advance as a "soft launch" to help verify the process.

Edit: Some key information from fan feedback on the Shenmue Dojo forums:

• You will be asked to provide information applicable to your rewards (e.g. shipping address, T-shirt size, 140-character message for the Choubu Inn guestbook, photograph of yourself for the Harbor Lounge waiting area etc). You can alter your answers later.
•  Add-ons are available: you can choose to upgrade your existing pledge/tier to one that is higher
• Preliminary minimum specs for the PC version are given: 4 GB RAM, 100 GB drive space, quad-core i5 (3.4 GHz) processor

Read the full update on Kickstarter.

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Shenmue III Reward Upgrades Coming in Summer

A member of the Shenmue500K Facebook group has shared news regarding a planned opportunity for backers to "upgrade" their contribution to a higher reward tier for the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter project.

In an email reply from the team, they confirm that we can look forward to support for reward upgrades in the summer of this year, to be put in place with the reward surveys.

Email received from the Shenmue III team

(Kickstarter surveys are a feature managed online that allow project creators to collect any information they need from backers in order to deliver their rewards, such as shipping address and reward-specific preferences. When a survey is issued, backers will be notified by email.)

This means that backers will have the opportunity to increase their contribution to a higher corresponding reward tier if they wish.

Thanks to Shenmue500K member Neil for sharing this with the community.

If you have been wanting for the chance to move up to a higher reward tier, leave a comment below!

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Thoughts on Kickstarter Update #63 [Campaign and Progress Update]

Kickstarter Update #63 has been released, and includes some astonishing new images. Here are my thoughts on this latest update.

Game Development Status

A direct comment from Yu Suzuki reveals that he living and breathing Shenmue, and has been staying overnight at the offices more and more. His dedication to the project is evident.

New Work-In-Progress Images

Three new images are presented in the update, with the first showing an intricate temple gate illuminated by the glow of red hanging lanterns. Further in, a set of stairs leads up towards the dark interior of the temple and above, the moon casts a silvery light over the rocky mountains from a star-studded night sky.

Of the three this first image, entitled "Rising moon over the temple gate", is the one that captivated me most with its evocative atmosphere and lighting. It feels reassuringly "Shenmue" to me.

What intrigue lurks beyond the temple gate... [Click to enlarge]

The distinctive silhouette on the mountain peak is a clear tease to the return of a certain creepy villain!

If you feel as if you've seen this outline somewhere before...

... then you would be right: in the concept art for Chai.

Image detail: a wooden bench sits under the temple gate.

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Two Fan-made Shenmue Videos Not to Miss

Two remarkable high-quality fan-made Shenmue videos have been released recently: "Shenmue: The Movie Remastered" and "Shenmue 3: A New Journey".

Shenmue: The Movie Remastered

The first is an HD-quality remaster of "Shenmue: The Movie", released to YouTube by Mr .357 earlier this year. It has already garnered an impressive 21,000 views and counting.

The original "Shenmue: The Movie" was an official 90-minute film consisting of a compilation of the main cut-scenes from Shenmue. The intention was to bring purchasers of Shenmue II up to speed on the events of Shenmue. It was released as an actual movie in theaters in Japan in early 2001 and on DVD, being bundled with Shenmue II on the Xbox, a console on which the original Dreamcast-exclusive Shenmue had not been released.

Japanese DVD cover for the official Shenmue: The Movie

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Slacker Backer: update on the PC version reward

While we have not yet seen the appearance of the PC version as a reward option in the Slacker Backer campaign for Shenmue III (official site) since it was launched in September of last year, the FAQ page has always indicated that it is in the works.

This has been confirmed again today by Cedric Biscay.

Cedric is always happy to respond to questions from fans -
a great spokesperson for Shenmue III.

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