Sony has just confirmed that now that the Kickstarter goal has been reached they are in fact helping with funding and development of Shenmue 3

[Zanten]

Puppyroach said:

Fusioncode said:

Since you conveniently ignored my post (I wonder why?), allow me to repost it for you.

I don't think you understand how often this sort of thing happens on Kickstarter. Bloodstained, Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2 have all secured outside funding in addition to the kickstarter funds. It's a very common practice for developers to use kickstarter primarily as a tool to convince investors that there's interest in the project. This isn't a Sony project. This is a Yu Suzuki project that Sony is co-funding in addition to the raised Kickstarter funds, likely in exchange for console exclusivity. They're clearly not funding the whole thing or else there wouldn't be a PC version at all. 

So no, Kickstarter isn't going to remove anything.

Suzuki used Kickstarter to convince Sony (and possibly other investors) that there is market for this game and it's worth investing in. This is a very common practice that happens with a lot of crowdfunded video games. Most of them require far more than the funds they got from Kickstarter. Simply put, you're searching for a controversy that isn't there.  

I simply missed your post, calm down.

That this practice is common already only goes to show that it already is a problem, so that doesn´t real help the argument that it is ok for Sony. Sony just took it to another level where they announced the actual game at E3, and therefore obvisously always was going to fund it.

How could Suzuki use Kickstarter to convince Sony if the Kickstarter started AFTER it was announced at Sony´s stage? It goes back to my question: did Sony then basically say "Well if the Kickstarter fails, we´ll just tell the fans that the game won´t happen"? You don´t think Sony was already funding the game and simply used Kickstarter as free marketing?

You've seen the announcement in question, right? The tagline for the kickstarter was literally Save Shenmue. Not 'Shenmue Is Saved.'

So to answer your question, if the kickstarter failed- and, to be specific, didn't display a great deal of interest from the consumer base in terms of hype and 'Ooo, I Wants' to suggest people would still actually get on board for this property- then yeah, it WOULD have likely been Sony saying 'Well, worth a try man, but we're not going to be putting any more money or time into this. Clearly there isn't much demand for it. Sorry!' And then, if Yu couldn't find other investors who were interested, bottom line is Shenmue 3 very well might NOT happen. Why would Sony want anything to do with a title that isn't going to give them either a lot of money, or a fair bit of console-selling leverage against their direct competitor? Especially if they're going to be chipping in millions or even tens of millions of dollars.

And since (before the Kickstarter was funded) they didn't announce their intention to provide funding as well, they would have been able to drop supporting Shemue III's development without kicking up fanbase rage, because (before funding was complete) they never said they WOULD be contributing directly. They were only tied to the game insofar as giving them some time on the E3 stage, and so rather than the headlines reading 'Sony Cancels Shenmue III Development,' the headlines would have been 'Shenmue III Fails To Achieve Funding' or something to that effect, and it would have been completely accurate to boot.