Towards the end of last year Shenmue 3 developer Ys Net created a poll asking Kickstarter Backers whether they were in favour of PayPal backers receiving the same exclusive rewards as those who backed the original Kickstarter campaign. A majority of users voted in favour of these latecomers receiving the same offers, but the developer still chose to rescind its offer to make these exclusive rewards available once again.

Could this rift in the community cause Ys Net to not keep those they love?

Of the 68,533 Kickstarter backers 15,110 responded to the poll. The breakdown came to 30.9 per cent in favour of making the Kickstarter-exclusive rewards available to PayPal Slacker Backers. 26.5 per cent said these exclusive rewards should stay exclusive. And 42.6 per cent said they were fine either way.

It's a strange poll as the final option is inconclusive. If you look at just "Yes, please make the Kickstarter exclusive rewards available on Paypal" or "No, Kickstarter exclusive rewards are for Kickstarter only", then more were in favour of the rewards becoming available again. But when you factor in the "Either is fine with me" option, it arguably gives the developer the deciding call, which it took to deny PayPal backers.

"Considering the strong response from those of you who felt that the Exclusive Rewards should remain exclusive for the Kickstarter, those Exclusive Rewards will not be made available on the PayPal page as originally promised," the developer stated in a Kickstarter update.

It's worth noting that those who pledged on PayPal are still getting the rewards for whatever tier they paid for. It's merely the Kickstarter-exclusive rewards like getting your face put in the game, or receiving a voice message from Ryo voice-actor Corey Marshall staying in character, that aren't going to be offered to Slacker Backers.

The Slacker Backer PayPal campaign has raised $201,742 thus far, bringing the game's crowdfunded total from $6,333,295 on Kickstarter to $6,535,037 overall.

Shenmue 3 is the highest grossing video game in Kickstarter history, though director Yu Suzuki could do with a bit more money to realise his dream game.