Jul 20, 2015  Shenmue III’s smashingly successful Kickstarter campaign has clicked to a close, ending with a grand total of $6,333,296 USD in the kitty. The sum was raised from 69,320 backers. Shenmue 3's Kickstarter Is Over, But Its Dev Will Still Take Your Money You can still help to expand the scope of the upcoming PS4 and PC game.

Update: Sources have told PC Gamer that 'the developer is 'looking into it' The publication was also told that while Deep Silver is publishing Shenmue 3, it 'joined the project long after the KickStarter was set up and therefore isn't in a position to comment on the actions as we are not involved in that side of the project.'

Currently, Shenmue 3 will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store for one year.

Original story: Since its launch last year, the Epic Games Store has steadily gobbled up timed exclusives, including Metro Exodus, The Outer Wilds, and The Division 2. Now it's time to add Shenmue 3 to the list.

Following the PC Gaming Show at E3 2019, where new Shenmue 3 gameplay was revealed, Ys Net, the game's developer, confirmed that the JRPG would be exclusive to the EGS. Both physical and digital PC copies of the game will now come with an Epic Games key instead of a Steam key.

Some watching the show, including myself and a colleague, noticed the absence of the Steam logo from the end of the trailer above, leading us to speculate that the game might be yet another timed exclusive on PC.

As short-lived as that speculation was, so too was the understanding of those who had backed the project on Kickstarter. The comments on both the official exclusivity announcement and Twitter have been less than amicable.

To rub salt into the wound, it appears that the 'Shenmue III Team' is refusing to provide disgruntled backers refunds. Some of those unhappy with the move to the EGS have shared screenshots of their correspondence with the game's support team regarding refunds, confirming that refunds are not being issued at this time.

As pointed out on Twitter by Segalization, it seems the shift from Steam to the Epic Games Store was done relatively recently. Comparing the most recent update blog on the game's Kickstarter page (date June 10) to the update blog before it (dated June 4), changes can be clearly seen.

In the Additional Info section of the June 4 blog, it says that Shenmue 3 'requires Steam Client to activate.' However, the same section in the June 10 blog post says that the game 'requires Epic Games Store Client to activate.'

While at this point it's impossible to know when negotiations between Deep Silver, the game's publisher, and Epic Games began or what ultimately drove the change outside of the official statement, we do know that it appears the final decision to move storefronts was made sometime over the last six days.

However, as with many other EGS exclusives, it appears that Shenmue 3 won't stay that way forever. Taking a look at the game's official FAQ, the developers say it will release on Steam 'in the future.' However, no specific date is provided.

Shenmue 3 was originally slated for release in August on PS4 and PC. However, it was recently delayed to provide what the developers said are 'refinement.' The game is not set to release on November 19. The standard version will cost $49.99, while the Deluxe version will cost $64.98.

Edit: Due to the volume and nature of the comments, I’ve decided to address some of the issues raised by angry readers alleging bad faith.The very first item on the FAQ states: “No, we cannot make an open world game for $2 million. Shenmue will be produced using both the funds raised from the Kickstarter and through other funding sources already secured by Ys Net Inc. We are very sorry, but due to contractual obligations, details of outside investments will not be disclosed.”That item didn’t initially exist at all — it was added days after the project launched, after the game had already blown through the $2 million mark. I believe gamers had a right to know this information, up front.

For those of you who doubt this, the “Can you make an open world game for just $2 million?” question but is absent. Other statements provided to Kotaku UK directly by Sony itself have confirmed that the KS campaign is, essentially, a marketing test — a way to assess interest in the project.“We said ‘the only way this is gonna happen is if the fans speak up,’” said Corsi. “We thought Kickstarter was the perfect place to do this. We set a goal of two million dollars, and if the fans come in and back it, then absolutely we’re going to make it this a reality.”I am not arguing against Sony making Shenmue 3 — but I feel, strongly, that gamers should have been told upfront that they were contributing to an “interest” campaign to demonstrate to Sony that there was enough interest to bankroll the rest of the title. The fault, in this case, is not with players for wanting Shenmue to exist, but with Sony itself, for not being honest and upfront about the nature of the campaign or the way in which crowdfunding was being used. Original Story:At E3 this week there were few announcements larger than Sony’s press conference.

One of the key underpinnings was the announcement of a crowdsourced campaign to fund the creation of Shenmue 3, the lost conclusion to a planned trilogy of titles that debuted on the Dreamcast. Now, it’s been confirmed that Sony is actually bankrolling the project, and the entire affair is likely to leave an extremely sour taste in backers’ mouths.Let’s start with the obvious. The original Shenmue was widely reported to have cost $70 million, though the game’s creator, Yu Suzuki, has claimed that the figure was inflated and that the real cost was $47 million. Either way, that’s far more than the $4 million stretch goal that the Kickstarter set (currently at $3.3 million as of this writing). Developing open-world, expansive gameplay has only gotten more expensive in the 16 years since Shenmue debuted, not less, and stretches credulity to think that a team of developers could deliver a sprawling adventure across multiple locations (or an incredibly detailed portrayal of a single location) in less than a tenth the original game’s budget.

It’s now clear that t, a way to raise money and demonstrate public interest in a game. And that’s a real problem. Whether or not the campaign is legal or technically fulfills Kickstarter rules, it’s another example of how “crowdfunding” doesn’t actually buy you anything at all. Not a stake in the title. Not a say in whether or not the company sells itself to an enormously profitable social media company. And now, it doesn’t even buy you an assurance that someone else isn’t bankrolling the project.I understand Sony’s reasoning, of course — the company didn’t want to commit itself to a game with the legacy of Shenmue and a history of some fairly large development costs without knowing it might make a decent return on its investment.

The problem with what’s happened here is that people didn’t pledge funds to “demonstrate interest,” and they didn’t give money knowing that the project was actually completely underwritten by a multinational conglomerate with billions of dollars in annual revenue. Shenmue’s Kickstarter page discloses none of the relevant information and does not inform gamers that they are participating in a marketing experience to gauge interest in the title. Right now, three people have pledged $10,000 or more to this project. 19 have pledged $1,000. And while it’s absolutely true that pledging a campaign on Kickstarter doesn’t guarantee you anything, including an acceptable final product, hiding Sony’s critical involvement and funding goes beyond caveat emptor.

It’s one thing to pledge funds in the belief that it’s the only way to see a long-desired project come to fruition and another to pledge them to a company that’s planning to take your money, pocket it, and claim the entire campaign was an attempt to assess interest. Kickstarter should kill the project cold — but if they don’t, Sony should cancel it of their own volition, thank people for demonstrating support for the franchise, and go make the damned game.