If you were watching the E3 Playstation event last night, or you read our summary already, then you’d be aware that Sony did a big favor for Yu Suzuki by promoting his Kickstarter campaign.
Yu Suzuki is the creator of popular console game Shenmue, and its sequel. Fans have been asking for a third installment, and Mr. Suzuki wants to deliver that on that request, but is asking for help creating it. Sony said fans have been asking for it so much that the company felt the news had to be shared in the conference.
The revelation of Shenmue III being made into a reality made many people very excited. I’ve personally never played the series, but many of AYBOnline’s staff were losing it last night. Other’s weren’t so impressed, and criticized Sony for not giving the money to the team themselves (as if Sony has spare cash these days.)
Personally I have mixed feelings about the idea of announcing a Kickstarter campaign at an internationally broadcasted event that has thousands of members of press in attendance. Talk about stacking the deck, but in that regard the idea was brilliant.
Shenmue III’s Kickstarter page is asking for $2 Million in funding, with stretch goals leading up to double that amount. This number is considerable for a Kickstarter campaign, most of which ask for less than a quarter of that amount. I wonder if the number they asked for was decided before they knew it would be shown on stage at E3.
The publicity ended up paying off in a big way. It’s safe to say that many people are excited for the game, Kickstarter even tweeted out the news.
The campaign started moments after the announcement in the early stages of the PlayStation show, and by the time the show was over, the goal was already half ful filled. The Kickstarter site was getting hammered so much the page crashed for one of our staff. The numbers on the counter were jumping back and forth, I suspect a fraud protection mechanism might have been working overtime. Traffic to the page was so high that there were loading issues for a little while.
It took less than nine hours for the whole $2 million dollars to be funded, and as I’ve been writing this story, the counter has gone up another $100+ thousand. Currently sitting at $2.35 Million with just shy of 30 thousand backers. The first stretch goal kicks in at $2.5 Million. I suspect that will be long surpassed by the time this is published.
If you’d like to contribute to the campaign, this is the Shenmue III Kickstarter page.
Kevin Carbotte is a Contributing Editor for aybonline.com. He knows a little about a lot, and a lot about a little. The opinions in his columns are his and his alone, but you are free to have them.
