I am not playing the HD Collection until its competent, but I did buy a PS4 copy. We have been waiting too long for this to play it in its current state. Shame on Sega and d3t for allowing this and I can only hope they have the integrity to address this directly, apologize, do something to make up for it etc. I cant say this whole thing hasnt upset me and made me shake my head for multiple reasons but I just want these to be as good as they possibly can be.
Here are some things that have been confusing me:
They announced this in Mid April totally out of the blue and we began singing the praises, then a couple months later they drop a release date that is in mid August and every one is shocked at how soon its going to be coming out, mean while pre-orders run wild all over the world and hype starts to build and it felt good. Looking back on it I feel like from the unveiling to the announcement of the release date to the release was very very fast and happened quickly and this is whats leading into some of the things I am confused about. It was said earlier that they had been planning to do these re-releases since before Shenmue 3 was even announced which would be 2015, but then here recently it was said that these re-releases hadnt been worked on for very long. Logic would deduce the initial planning began in 2015 or before and sometime between then and now the work began, but we are talking about 3 years, maybe the licensing stuff took a bit to resolve? Still seems hard to imagine 3 years time though, but do we really know how long ports typically take for games from the same generation?
Next is the fact that if Sega had internally been planning these re-releases around 2015, then why did they give the rights to Yu Suzuki to make Shenmue 3 if they were going to revive the series themselves? Did these actions coincide or determine one another? At what point did Sega allow Yu to use the rights for Shenmue 3? Before or after they had already decided to re-release Shenmue I and II? Questions we will likely never get answers to, but I feel like this information could help determine what lead up to releasing these games in their current unacceptable state. Perhaps Sega and YSNet were in communication about organizing release dates for both releases, Deep Silver is in cahoots with them both so it would seem they would be aware of what the others plans would be.
I just wish we knew the game plan for what releasing everything was, I understand wanting to get this out before the holiday big guns which starts early this year I get that, but doesnt quality assurance take precedence? Apparently not. I also see how the date of August 21 was an absolutely perfect time for release because of the aforementioned things, but not when its this incomplete and untested. All that being said, could this not have waited until early 2019, Jan/Feb so it could be flawless? This whole notion of the new gaming industry standard of release now and fix later is really blowing that out of proportion with the issues this thing launched with no? So why? WHY? Financial reasons at Sega? The corporate implications? Doubt we will hear an answer if thats the real reason. Sega pulling a Sega? Their reputation definitely precedes them, but they had been doing so well with things the past year or so and I just cant help but think why with Shenmue do they have to fall back into their old ways.
I would just be highly enlightened if some official announcement was made addressing many of the things ultimately leading up to why this happened, and at this point a time table for patches and what they plan to do to right this ship because as of now it feels like we are pretty much in the dark and I really hope something to reassure us is done soon. I think we as the fans and community deserve and should demand some kind of explanation, this community has put in so much work for Shenmue over the years, none of this Shenmue 3 the HD Collections would have been possible with out the fan perseverance during the dark years. Sega, you had 1 job... 1 job! This community set all this up and gave it to you in a hand basket, we petitioned, tweeted, rallied, generated hype relentlessly every 3rd of the month for how long now? I am just saying we deserved better than this, the new fans playing these for the first time deserved better than this, and I hope they understand these issues are not representative of the original releases.
Had to get that off my chest, thats the majority of whats been on my mind in the past week or so. This community should be extremely proud and its unfortunate this was not recognized and rewarded in a better way than what we have received. But we have been a resilient community before and I have no doubt we will continue to be that way, and I hope this community can finally catch a break and decompress after all these years, I think thats what we deserve. Sorry for the long ass post.