@Byshop: The question then becomes what about the first game could've been done cheaper, but I still think it ends in needing some tangible assurance from the players.

To that, I would just say that Gio Corsi is good at his job. He saw Yu Suzuki's GDC talk last year, saw an opportunity to land a marquee third-party exclusive, pulled Suzuki aside at the conference and made it happen.

I've always been of the belief that part of the process of making Shenmue III a reality would have to involve crowdfunding of some sort (even before we had Kickstarter to do it with, I'm sure there are some posts of mine in the archives about this) just to assure Sega or any other producer(s) that there would be a return and it wouldn't be the first two games all over again.

Only, my approach in more recent years has been a bit more calculating, suggesting they use the Yakuza series to poll for interest in the genre as a whole before reviving Shenmue would even be a starting point, so I'd say the fanbase got off easy.

After how the first two games went down, I think it's only fair that the fans should have to put their money where their mouths are.

They also should have gotten the opportunity ages ago, but that's beside the point.

Oh shit I didn't think about that. If they screw with the battle system, I'm out. The entire reason I support this remake is so that I have the chance to throw my money behind a traditional JRPG that makes the most of today's hardware. If this doesn't represent such an opportunity, they've lost me.

Square Enix owed us a Chrono game after invoking Chrono Trigger in their E3 hype video.

Was hoping for more information on SaGa 2015 and a North American release of Imperial SaGa from them, too.

I am unwilling to shell out even remotely as much for digital titles as I am for physical, simply because I always focus on the long-term.

I delete a game from a console's hard drive, I only have the lifespan of that console's online support to redownload it. If I buy the same game in a store, nobody controls that timetable but me.

I already got what I wanted, so I'd still be content even if nothing happened at E3.

Realistically, though, I'm really hoping that Yosuke Matsuda's "heavy JRPG" future of Square Enix starts to take shape, looking well past Final Fantasy XV. We've seen the beginnings of it overall, but not much in the way of North American announcements.

I'm also curious about GungHo's plans for GameArts' IPs beyond the impending Steam release of Grandia II. Hopefully they have a full brand revitalization in the works.

On a non-JRPG note, I really want some pure arcade racers, in contrast with the douchey "action racers" (ie: Need For Speed, The Crew, etc) junk we've been getting of late.

Go for it. :) I work a full-time job in addition to my media/podcasting stuff and still find the time to work on a project here and there.

I think voting with your wallet is great! It's a good practice in and of itself, and something we all participate in on some level whether we realize it or not. What I can't get behind is this notion that the game industry somehow owes society anything more than the unaltered creative output of its developers. If anything, it's society that owes the game industry for constantly providing it with an endless stream of worlds that are fundamentally superior to the one we live in.

Game development is no longer the immense time and money investment it once was. In fact, it can now be done on the side without actually making it one's career, if one is actually interested in being part of the solution to any perceived problems with gaming as it is (and I would say that yes, it can be taken up in approximately the amount of time some spend complaining about aspects of gaming). In other words, the barrier of entry for game development has lowered considerably and can't even be remotely compared to the barrier of entry for automotive R&D/manufacturing. It may have been similar in the past. Certainly not now.

Hell, I'm even making games now, what does that say about how easy it's gotten? LOL

All this time and they haven't added a like button on the forums...