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Shenmue I was the most expensive game ever created at the time, costing around $70 million, on Dreamcast hardware. It took five years to develop. Realistically

Shenmue I was the most expensive game ever created at the time, costing around $70 million, on Dreamcast hardware. It took five years to develop. Realistically, how is $2 million going to be enough to fund a PS4-era sequel, presumably with completely new technology (based on the trailer)?

dagw 11y ago
From a simple technology point of view, game development for PC and PS4 using 2015 tools like the Unreal engine is a hell of a lot cheaper and easier than developing for the Dreamcast using 1999 era tools.
- maccard 11y ago
  Team sizes have increased, development cycles have increased, the size and amount of content expected in games has increased. Just because you now have better tools, doesn't mean it's guaranteed to get any cheaper.
PostOnce 11y ago
Nobody said kickstarter is the only funding. Sony is paying something for the exclusivity, I imagine. They might also be matching 2:1 or something. Who knows? The kickstarter is only a day old, this amount of press will grow that $2M. Plus they're using UE4, saving a lot vs the custom engine of Shenmue I. We only have one piece of the financial puzzle, here.
- rodeoclown 11y ago
  This is from their kickstarter page: "The real challenge now is to deliver a sequel that we will all be satisfied with after 14 years of waiting. After much research and planning, we set the funding goal at this level believing it will make possible a fulfilling Shenmue experience."
tw04 11y ago
The kickstarter may very well be Sony's attempt at gauging interest in the game before outright funding it. It's easy for someone to answer a poll asking if they'd like a game. It's an entirely different story to put up your own hard-earned dollars to fund it's development.
minimaxir 11y ago
Bloodstained, a Castlevania-ish remake, notes that the Kickstarter money is to finish the funding while the remaining 90% came from external investors. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual...
- Narishma 11y ago
  It's a new game, not a remake.
agumonkey 11y ago
Things have changed drastically since then. Shenmue was the first virtual world of this size, nowadays you can leverage engines capable of that out of the box.

dagw 11y ago

From a simple technology point of view, game development for PC and PS4 using 2015 tools like the Unreal engine is a hell of a lot cheaper and easier than developing for the Dreamcast using 1999 era tools.

maccard 11y ago
Team sizes have increased, development cycles have increased, the size and amount of content expected in games has increased. Just because you now have better tools, doesn't mean it's guaranteed to get any cheaper.

PostOnce 11y ago

Nobody said kickstarter is the only funding. Sony is paying something for the exclusivity, I imagine. They might also be matching 2:1 or something. Who knows? The kickstarter is only a day old, this amount of press will grow that $2M. Plus they're using UE4, saving a lot vs the custom engine of Shenmue I. We only have one piece of the financial puzzle, here.

rodeoclown 11y ago
This is from their kickstarter page: "The real challenge now is to deliver a sequel that we will all be satisfied with after 14 years of waiting. After much research and planning, we set the funding goal at this level believing it will make possible a fulfilling Shenmue experience."

tw04 11y ago

The kickstarter may very well be Sony's attempt at gauging interest in the game before outright funding it. It's easy for someone to answer a poll asking if they'd like a game. It's an entirely different story to put up your own hard-earned dollars to fund it's development.

minimaxir 11y ago

Bloodstained, a Castlevania-ish remake, notes that the Kickstarter money is to finish the funding while the remaining 90% came from external investors. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual...

Narishma 11y ago
It's a new game, not a remake.

agumonkey 11y ago

Things have changed drastically since then. Shenmue was the first virtual world of this size, nowadays you can leverage engines capable of that out of the box.