Shenmue 3 has met its Kickstarter goal, just hours after it was announced. The following words still seem too good to be true (I'm pretty sure this isn't a weird dream brought on by E3 exhaustion) but, after 14 years of waiting, Shenmue 3 is going into development and is coming to PS4 and PC in December, 2017.
Announced at Sony's E3 press conference last night, the planned game is no spin-off; it is a direct follow-up to 2001's Shenmue 2, is being directed by Yu Suzuki himself – creator of OutRun, Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter, to name a few of his groundbreaking titles – and will be the full Shenmue 3 experience, continuing the story of Ryo and Shenhua where it left off in China.
Of course, this being Kickstarter, it doesn't end here. There are stretch goals that can be met, which will add in more content and even areas to the game. And there are all kinds of rewards available for the different tiers if you haven't got involved yet and still want to. The campaign's most extreme tier - which caps out at a whopping $10k - earns you a dinner with Suzuki-san himself, along with an original script of the first two games.
Guess this means I'm going to have to take down my Shenmue 3 review. I can now confirm, of course, it was a cruel April Fool's joke. I am sorry if you've been trying to get hold of it. At least that URL will one day be filled with a real Shenmue 3 review. It's actually coming. Amazing scenes.
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