Last night’s announcement of Shenmue III during Sony’s E3 Press Conference came with a caveat… the game had to reach a funding goal of $2 million on Kickstarter. However, fans of the franchise have been primed for this moment after more than a decade of waiting and they pounced on the “Back This Project” button with their wallets wide open. Less than seven hours after being available, the Shenmue III Kickstarter campaign is now fully funded.
As of this writing, the campaign is currently approaching $2.5 million and the first stretch goal, “Shenmue 1 & 2 Cinema Shorts.” The developers promised that more information about the stretch goals (which include subtitles in a variety of languages, a Skill Tree System, and the expansion of Baisha Village) would be revealed once the campaign reached its goal. With the $2 million mark well in the rearview mirror, a campaign update should appear sometime today.
If all goes according to plan, Director Yu Suzuki would like to release Shenmue III for the PC and PS4. After so many years, the fans have shown they may not be able to wait a minute longer.
