Project Rap Rabbit by the authors of PaRappa the Rapper and Gitaroo Man had an ambitious goal, but unfortunately, it has fallen short.
Kickstarter was going to change the gaming landscape forever with it's new funding model. But some truly great looking games were never funded on it.
The magical world of crowdfunding brings promises of retro revivals, fan projects, and dreams come true. However, many people that use the platform overpromise and underdeliver, taking upwards of millions in the process. These five video game crowdfunding campaigns might look promising at first glance, but the writing’s on the wall – they’re shaping up to be scams.
Not gonna lie, Shenmue III has me concerned. I'm not ready to call it an outright scam, but it definitely doesn't look like a game with anywhere near 6.5 million in funding behind it at this point. Here's hoping Ys Net uses the next year of development wisely and the end result is something Yu Suzuki and series fans will be proud of.
If you are going to call something a scam, at least research the meaning of the word and get your facts right about the games you are talking about.
Accusing Shenmue of having little information and poor trailers. First off, there is plenty of information, if you paid attention and did some research, you would find it. Secondly, the trailer was a TEASER, it's a work in progress. The character models have already been confirmed to not be the end product. Again, if you did your research, you would have known this. Thirdly, the world itself looks really nice, the backgrounds look great for a budget game. And finally, nothing you said makes it a scam, you obviously don't know what a scam is. All they promised was an attempt at making Shenmue 3 a reality and that is exactly what they are doing.
I am simply dumbfounded why ANYONE is giving money to Chris Roberts. At this point he has embezzled so much $ that it does not matter. Meaning he has the legal air cover to do whatever the F he wants. Sad that people still think there is going to be a great outcome for this. 159 MILLION and people are STILL giving him money!?
Although what were presented in this article seem true, I doubt it. Author really needs to dig deeper before calling them scams. These games don't take 2 years to make. Also, when you make a game, you don't show everything. You show a demo/trailer and that's it. Some games take 5+ years to make now depending on how sophisticated the game is. Didn't the dev for Bloodstain said the game will release in 2019/2020???
For Shenmue, 6 million is just enough to make the game. To hit the 2-3yr release, they probably need an est. 25 million. These are small teams, not large ones like EA, Activision, Ubsoft etc.
Shenmue III certainly isn't a scam. 6.5m isn't a huge budget, as hiring people is expensive. People should manage their expectations. Yakuza 0 doesn't exactly look great graphically, but many people like the game alot. Think gameplay over graphics with these sort of titles. I have faith in the Shenmue team. Give them time.
Kickstarter backers can be a negative bunch, but it seems they reserve most of their piss and vinegar for Japanese developers. Why is that?
I don't root for anybody's failure, but I think it's important that the crowdfunding trend be reserved for people who really need it. Not that I'm saying this team didn't, but they have the pedigree to seek funding through traditional channels, and by going to Kickstarter, it just tells me that they don't have to worry about failure if they get that money, and I'm not okay with that.
If some college kid has a really cool indie game he's been pouring his soul into and he wants some money so he can dedicate all his time to completing it, sure. If a crew of seasoned professionals wants money to make a game without any guarantee of returning on the investment, no thanks.
This is what happens when you get insanely greedy with crowdfunding. Sure, they "fixed" the goals, but the damage had been done. When you alienate Xbox and Switch gamers with ridiculous stretch goals, it turns them off from funding your project. Don't bite the hand that feeds.
Sony might get them who knows?
wasn't too fond of the rhyming they showed in it or the voice acting even though it probably wasn't set in stone yet, just felt like it lacked any effort or anything clever. I was thinking of funding still as i love parappa the rapper style game play but i needed to see more on the project.
You gotta believe!