Actually after thinking a bit, it makes sense. It's easy to forget the lead people we see aren't money man. Shu accepts and rejects pitches, but he still has to pitch too; he's not the top of the pyramid. In this case, Gio is the relevant guy. Most definitely not a money guy at all. He'd have to pitch this to the wallet string pullers. Those suits are likely people who don't even know what Shenmue is and they look at how long ago 2 was released and how much it flopped that no amount of "but the Internet wants it" is enough to thoroughly convice them. Internet says a lot of things, doing is another.

In the end, I have no personal problem with holding a kickstarter; it just seems strange to do so when Sony is funding it. I have nothing new to add really haha so I'll stop asking questions. Thanks for trying to clear it up guys.

Makes sense. That is why they werent offering a PS4 physical version. Sony will be selling those.

Well, no shit. Did anybody think that Shenmue 3 would be possible with just $2million? The Kickstarter was just an easy way to see if there's indeed enough interest in Shenmue 3, and while they are at it they can even save some money on the project via crowdfunding it partially.

Cerny's team no doubt.

Adam talks about it in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRGlVDi3FHQ&feature=youtu.be&t=1m40s

Guts this was obvious. The second game cost 70 million to make.

It is a publicity stunt to generate hype.  It worked.

The title broke records for first kickstarter to reach a million.

After E3 the kickstarter will be going.

Every Shenmue milestone will considerred news on gaming sites, keeping the game in the publics eye.

It's not rocket science.

This was always obvious. There was no way Shenmue 3 was being made for $2 million, when the previous game cost over $70 million. There is also the lack of a physical PS4 release option in the tier lists, which Sony will obviously publish.

As for why the Kickstarter exists: it probably was to gauge interest and it's free marketing. Also, the money earned from Kickstarter will probably help a lot with the PC version of the game since most of the rewards are all PC focused.

Come on, it's not like they were asking us to fund the next Uncharted or Halo. Shenmue is a series know for the financial risks Sega took back then and hasn't seen a release in like fourteen years. Some might say they could have done a survey to gauge interest instead, but money talks louder than words, not to mention Yu Suzuki might get the means to give fans a few goodies huge publishers might not have allowed them to...