The long-awaited third installment in the Shenmue series

Jun 16, 2015 03:59 GMT  ·  By

Since Shenmue City closed down more than three years ago, fans of the series have lost hope that a third game would be launched anytime soon.

Well, as the saying goes, it's better late than never. Shenmue fans will be pleased to know that the third installment in the series is happening and will be everything that they have been expecting and then some.

Shenmue III is now on Kickstarter, where it seeks $2 million in order to be released on PC and PlayStation 4. Why is it on Kickstarter, you might wonder.

Here is what Director & Producer Yu Suzuki has to say about the reasons behind this Kicksarter campaign that has already draw more than $1 million in funding in less than 2 hours.

“Since the release of Shenmue 2, now 14 years ago, I have been greeted by the passionate outpouring of dedicated fans and Shenmue community members wherever I go. They all want to know one thing: ‘When will Shenmue 3 be coming out?’”

“With the advent of games using Kickstarter during these past few years, the new and now frequent demand from the fans has been, ‘Do a Kickstarter for Shenmue 3!’”

“If Shenmue 3 was going to get made, I wanted to make it with the fans. Through Kickstarter, I knew that could happen. Together, with Shenmue fans everywhere, I knew we could build the game that the series deserves,” explains Suzuki.

Built in Unreal 4, Shenmue III will be on PC and PlayStation 4

Shenmue III will contain all the elements that hardcore players and fans alike know too well from the previous games, but developers will introduce new fight mechanics “to achieve a new level of interactive storytelling.”

Story-wise, the game will start where the previous game left off, as Ryo Hazuki has made his way to China in search of his father's killer.

According to Suzuki, if the project does not reach its funding goal, Shenmue III will not happen, but seeing how much money fans have donated in the first couple of hours, the stretch goals revealed by devs will probably be funded very soon.

If you want to pledge to Shenmue III, you can do that now on Kickstarter. The expected release date for the game is December 2017.

Update: The project has been fully funded about 9 hours after it started. This means Shenmue 3 is really happening.

Shenmue III screenshots + artwork (3 Images)

Ryo Hazuki
Shenmue III work in progress imageShenmue III work in progress image
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