Shenmue III is actually happening thanks to Kickstarter
Fans have been waiting for this day for more than a decade, but it is now officially confirmed that the final act of Shenmue will be released in the form of Shenmue III. During the Sony media briefing last night, series creator Yu Suzuki revealed that he was attempting to fund the game through Kickstarter. With a modest total of $2 million, the campaign has already blasted through that total with less than 24 hours gone.
News about Shenmue has been building up over the past few weeks. Rumors of a possible sequel first surfaced in May, with a supposed leak revealing that a new game in the franchise was in the works. A few days later news emerged that the soundtrack from the games was due to be released on vinyl as part of a new record label that aims to put as many game soundtracks onto the medium as possible.
Even if the leak was not true, Shenmue III is definitely happening. The Kickstarter pages lists experienced developers who have previously worked on the series such as, Cedric Biscay, Takesi Hirai, Masahiro Yoshimoto, Kenji Miyawaki, and composer Ryuji Iuchi. There are a number of stretch goals, that include extra content and localizations, as well as information revealing the game tentative release date of December 2017 and the fact that it is currently being developed for PC and PlayStation 4. However, the FAQ does reveal that the developers have not ruled out other platforms either.
https://youtu.be/orAXfiwB4-c
Shenmue came to life in 1999 when it released as the must-have title for the Sega Dreamcast. A sequel followed several years later, but slow sales of the console led to the game underperforming somewhat despite having created a hardcore set of fans and receiving widespread critical acclaim. Once Sega pulled out of the console business it became clear that the publisher had no interest in releasing further games in the series as they would cost too much to be viable.