The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter has concluded, and has now set the record of most funded video game on Kickstarter on a whopping $6,333,295 million, contributed by almost 70,000 backers. This means the total funding amount is more than triple the original $2 million goal of the Kickstarter. It’s a remarkably achievement, especially if you consider that this is the sequel to a game that was released more than ten years ago. On top of that, in North America Shenmue 2 wasn’t even released on the Dreamcast, and fans had to import the EU version or wait for the Xbox port of the game to continue the story.
Shenmue 3 is scheduled for a release in December 2017, no less than 16 years after the release of Shenmue 2 in Japan. In the meanwhile, perhaps this might convince Sega to release HD versions of the original games. That would seem like a win-win situation for Sega and Ys Net, given that Sega now knows there’s (renewed) interest in the HD versions of the original games, and for Ys Net it would be a good way of building up anticipation for the third game.
Worth noting: after the conclusion of the Kickstarter, Yu Suzuki has announced that funding for the game will continue through PayPal. This should get them closer to the $10 million goal, which Yu Suzuki said would allow them to create a true open world experience.