The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter page received a new update today, announcing a new PS4 physical copy reward. Those who pledge $60 or more will have the option to choose between a digital or physical copy of the game for either the PC or PS4. Before, only the PC version had an option for a physical copy. This has been one of the top requests from fans, so it’s good to see the option is finally there. Other new rewards have been added as well, though the high cost will probably put them out of reach for the majority of people.
In the same update Awesome Japan, the company managing the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter, has also posted an apology for the recent Twitch stream with Yu Suzuki. The Twitch stream in question suffered from bad audio and video quality, and the presentation itself left a lot to be desired. The company had this to say:
We offer our sincerest apologies for last week’s Twitch broadcast and any trouble it may have caused. This apology comes late, and we accept full responsibility. We promise we will do everything we can to help bring Shenmue back. We ask for your forgiveness and the opportunity to make amends. – from all of us at Awesome Japan
Pledges for the Shenmue Kickstarter had been going relatively slow over the past week, but the new rewards have given it a considerable boost, pushing the total pledge amount over $4,000,000. It’s also probably not a coincidence that this update went live just when the Shenmue fans had organized their recent Tweetathon on the 3rd of the month. In fact, Awesome Japan had called on its backers to join the Tweetathon. Additionally, the fans had also launched a new initiative to boost pledges by asking people to add $30 more to their initial pledge today.
Earlier on, Yu Suzuki had also tweeted a new image showing changes made to the 3D model for Shenhua. The new version on the right more closely resembles the way Shenhua looked in Shenmue 2:
With the renewed interest in the Kickstarter, it seems Shenmue 3 is now back on track on challenging the record of the Kickstarter for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for being the most successful video game Kickstarter ever ($5,545,991). Yu Suzuki stated he’d like to reach $10 million in order to create a true open world Shenmue 3. Realistically this seems out of reach for this Kickstarter, but if funding continues through PayPal after the Kickstarter ends, it might not be impossible to reach that goal.