Yu Suzuki has published an update to the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign today that attempts to shed some light on how pledged funds will be spent, noting that no crowdsourced funds will go to development partners Sony and Shibuya Entertainment but remaining vague on exactly how those partners will be involved with the project.
This is notable in light of the fact that Suzuki appeared during Sony’s E3 press conference last week to announce a Kickstarter campaign to help fund Ys Net’s development of Shenmue 3, leading many to wonder exactly what business arrangement led to him making his pitch on Sony’s stage.
“I can say that with their assistance on the production and marketing end, and in Sony’s case with some publishing support as well, Ys Net is able to use more of the money we collect through Kickstarter purely for Shenmue 3’s development,” Suzuki wrote to campaign backers. “Your funds are going strictly to Ys Net for development of Shenmue 3 — Sony and Shibuya Productions are not seeing a cent of your Kickstarter dollars.”
The campaign exceeded its $2 million funding goal in just over nine hours, setting a new record for a video game Kickstarter in the process. As part of his update, Suzuki also promises backers that if the campaign hits $10 million Shenmue 3 will be developed with “a much larger, completely open world.”