Mkay.  That's valid.

Handled quite well, even though they should've mentioned the timed exclusivity from the start. People get full refunds, which is a good deal for the 3 people who actually care.

I regularly buy music CDs despite not having a single CD player (the PS4 can't read them and my laptop doesn't have an optical drive) to support artists and add them to my phisical library despite only listening to music in streaming.

The disc doesn't need to be useful or even contain the game, it's just there for collecting sakes.

Considering that the Epic deal is relatively young and the time it takes to develop all these things, I'm pretty sure that that's more the playstation money they got on top the Kickstarter, unless the deal was made a couple months before it became public. Besides, they're just minigames, nothing that should be too substantial to the game.

And seriously, they took money from Sony, Epic and over Kickstarter. By all the money they raked in through the deals and with Kickstarter, they almost could give the game away for free now.

A whole lot of Nope and No in your comment. Epic has been with them from the very start, it says so on YsNet statement. Also no, they're more than just "minigames"

Non-Stretch Goal Elements

• Story Improvements – Shenmue III begins the day after Shenmue II leaves off. The story now includes more cinematic scenes and nostalgic flashbacks to naturally draw new players in (and fans back in) to the world of Shenmue.
• Scaled-Up Free Roaming Environment – Initially, the Guilin area was to be organized into three areas: Bailu, Choubu (Niaowu), and Baisha, but to accommodate major additions and changes to game elements, Baisha became Fortified Castle area, and focus shifted to expanding Choubu (Niaowu). We have in effect been able to achieve a scale greater than that of Shenmue II and bring the fun of an “open world” to life. To better experience quests and events, NPCs and things to interact with in the cities have been multiplied beyond what was originally envisioned making for a more complete Shenmue experience.
• Powered Up Battle System – With the inclusion of the Skill Book System and the Dojo System, you can train or have matches any time you want for deeper, more immersive play. Battle difficulty can be changed in-game to be enjoyable for beginners all the way to experts.
• Game Cycle Improvements – Story progression, skill acquisition, training, mini-games, jobs and other elements that were independent from each other in previous games have been worked to flow into a singular game cycle.

Please read Ys Net statement regarding this none issue. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/2553891

People are like oh it's just a launcher get over it... Well what if you hate the company but love the series. You expect these people to suck it up and support a company they hate. I don't fucking think so. Fuck epic and their Chinese controlled overlords.