The man behind the Shenmue HD fan project, known as Noconkid (or Kid Nocon), has now joined the Shenmue 3 development team. Noconkid is a 3D graphics designer from South Korea, and had been working on a Shenmue HD fan project for several years now. Running on the Unreal Engine 3 and later 4, the quality of his work and attention to detail had impressed many, including Yu Suzuki himself. Interestingly, this is the second time Yu Suzuki has hired a fan to work on Shenmue 3.
While him joining the team can only mean good things for the development of Shenmue 3, it’s unclear what will happen to the Shenmue HD fan project. Realistically, the fan project had little chance of being completed anyway without approval from Sega. Especially if the latter were planning to release their own Shenmue HD remakes/port, which a lot of fans are asking them for. You can view the latest video of the Shenmue HD fan project below. Ys Net is still running a PayPal slacker backer campaign at the moment for Shenmue 3. However, unlike the Kickstarter it doesn’t include the PC version of Shenmue 3 (only a trial version). The reason for the absence of the PC version isn’t clear, as the FAQ only notes that Ys Net is “discussing the PC version with the related parties”, with no confirmation on whether or not it will be added before the slacker backer campaign ends. At the time of writing, there are 89 days left.
