A new Shenmue 3 Kickstarter update includes a couple of updates from the Shenmue 3 team. First off all, they announced a redo for the Rewards Poll. Instead of using Twitter, they’ll now be sending a link to Kickstarter backers where they can answer the poll’s question. In particular, Kickstarter backers are asked whether or not the on-going Slacker Backer Paypal campaign should give also people access to the currently Kickstarter-exclusive rewards.
One example of such a reward is the $80 Kickstarter reward which includes “an international phone card (in-game item) to call Nozomi, Guizhang Chen, Ine-san, Joy, Fuku-san, or other characters from Shenmue 1 & 2”. Back when the Kickstarter was launched, I was disappointed to see that this reward in particular was locked behind a pay-wall. Even if it’s not essential for the story, I feel that this kind of throwback to the original games is something that should be available for everyone. While making the rewards available for slacker backers doesn’t really make that happen, at least more people will be able to get access to these and other rewards. Also worth noting is that the Paypal campaign still doesn’t offer a PC version of the game, so hopefully it will still be included for the Slacker Backer campaign as well.
The update also mentions that the Slacker Backer campaign, which would have ended in less than ten days from now, will be extended. At the moment, the new end date hasn’t been announced yet. In the comments of the Kickstarter update, some fans are asking Ys Net to keep accepting pledges until the game has been released, rather than ending it beforehand.
The third part of the update shows Yu Suzuki holding the Guinness World Records certificates for “The most money pledged for a Kickstarter video game” at $6,333,296, and for “The fastest $1 million pledged for a crowdfunded video game” at 1 hour 44 minutes. An impressive feat indeed, and as the Kickstarter update mentions, it’s all thanks to the fans who backed the game!
Lastly, I was going to mention that the official Shenmue 3 Youtube channel has just posted another video, showing the inside of a Bailu Village Hut. However, for some reason it seems the video was deleted while I was posting this update, so hopefully they will upload it again soon.