[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]
Its called crafting the world. The amount of custom made content for the two games are astounding. Nothing is recycled... everything is built from scratch. All the textures and models are different.

Sega is great at wasting money yes, but they do so for a reason, to make such a complex game in terms of graphical detail and variance that no other game could cost as much or equal the same level of complexity.Black_Knight_00

As I said (and I really can't express how much I loved Shen Mue), there are many amazing games as good as Shen Mue that cost 1/10 of its costs. I may sound like I'm stuck on this money-wasting thing, but thisis what is depriving us of Shen Mue 3. If sega wasn't... well, sega, we'd have had the game in our drives a few years ago.

There are very few games that have the level of detail that Shenmue had. It probably wasn't the best use of budget funds, but Yu Suzuki had an artistic vision that would not be compromised. The two games had unprecedented production values for their time. So, because of that, they can't be compared to other gaming projects.

As for current gen games, I personally don't know what most of them cost. But from what I've heard, they are averaging around $15 mil a game. Obviously bigger games will be more expensive (I can't imagine what FFXIII and MGS4 are costing), and everything about Shenmue would put it in that upper echelon.

[QUOTE="Darth_Tigris"]

If a group of VERY wealthy Shenmue fans worked out some type of agreement with Sega-Sammy to raise $30-50 million to finance a 3rd and final game, then there is a chance.

Other than that, no. It won't happen.

Black_Knight_00

When I read those numbers I can't help but wonder: how can sega spend $30 million (let alone $50 million!) to produce a game like Shen Mue? They own all the rights, the graphics and game engines, they should only add a few polygons to the characters and revamp the textures and there you'd go.

If those costs are exact, I think either sega's developers drink liquid gold in their coffee breaks, or they use grands as toilet paper!

The original 'Project Berkley" cost some $70 million dollars. I think this often confused with the actual GAME costing that much, but this more than likely includes the original project (which was to be a Saturn game; vid here) and both Dreamcast games. Still, that was a TON of money back then as it is even now.

So imagine what the cost would be if they would attempt a 3rd in the series that would compare favorably with the graphic standard set back then (which was BEST GRAPHICS EVER and that's not hyperbole), expand the gameplay so that it is at least as good as the top sandbox games today (Bully in particular would be the closest to what Shenmue could've grown into), AND taking inflation into consideration ....... well, that's how I came up with that price range for a Shenmue III that would be worth it.

So the cost aren't exact, but I don't think they are too off. Thoughts?

If a group of VERY wealthy Shenmue fans worked out some type of agreement with Sega-Sammy to raise $30-50 million to finance a 3rd and final game, then there is a chance.

Other than that, no. It won't happen.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, we know about this game is OOOOOLD. Who knows what to expect with this anymore. I hope its great, but .........

In the US through November we did 3.5b in business, more than the Wii and PS3.. more than the spending on Wii and PS3 combined. We also continue to grow on Xbox Live.MGM! "Xbox Live will provide 2x on-demand content than any cable or sat provider. Our approach to TV isn't just through Xbox -- Media Center continues its success, and is on the vast majority of PCs in the market to date...

Microsoft could end up coming away with the most profits out all of its competitors, without ever having to surpass Nintendo's total hardware sales.

HiResDes

Interesting points. While people fight about who's winning the war, this really brought out a lot of peripheral data that is relevant to MS' overall profitibility in the gaming sector.

As for this keynote, I think we were wrong to expect anything special as far gaming. Sure, there were rumors about some big announcements, but they were just rumors. And rumors are usally wrong. Who knows if what WB announced had correlation to this or not, and we probably WON'T know officially. But, to be honest, this keynote could've basically been exactly what MS had always planned to begin with and people are making a big to do about nothing.

I believe Bioshock looks awsome with the unreal engine.grunt1096

If I'm not mistaken, Bioshock uses Unreal Engine 2.5, not 3.

I agree with the TC's feelings about UE3 ... to a point. Its still a good engine, but its definitely not the end all. So many of the problems with Mass Effect can be seen in GeoW, but amplified because of the ambition of the game.

Some of you said greed, and I definitely agree with that. But I think it's something else:

A.D.D.

Yes, some people get a taste, like it, lose interest and move on. But they are like that with a lot of things in life. They're the same people that buy movies when the first come out on DVD but rarely get around to watching them (or the extras).

Me? I like to finish things before moving on. Some games aren't built like that ( I still have Burnout Revenge, Viva Pinata, Forza 2 and NBA 2K8 that are 'unfinished'), but the ones that are I really stick with and play until I've really gotten a LOT out of it. Thus, as you can imagine, I don't buy multiple games at once. The downside is some games get put on a backburner that they never make it out of (hello KOTOR II, SotC, Oddworld Stranger's Wrath and others ...), but I'd rather do that than pay full price for a buncha games that I never have time to play or finish.

[QUOTE="Darth_Tigris"]

For the people that are impaired when it comes to reading comprehension ...... (ahem)

THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT METAL GEAR SOLID 4 COMING TO THE 360!!!

Re-read the first post and check the link BEFORE posting. Please!!!

rragnaar

Sorry, but that's not how threads on forums work. A subject is presented and that subject is discussed. If a different subject wants to be discussed (otherwise known as derailing), then another thread should be started on that subject.

And the yelling wasn't intended as much chastisement as it was a call to attention. I'm not that kind of poster.

And, for the record, I really thought the potential of such a project IS worthy of discussion and there were some in here that actually tried to do that. But they were drowned out by a retread of a discussion that has been done to DEATH. Sure, the TC could've picked a better topic title, but who knows if it honestly would've made a difference ...