Crowd Funded Shenmue III Revealed at E3

I’m absolutely amazed at how well this years E3 is going, we’ve had the reveal that Xbox One is getting backwards compatibility, Final Fantasy VII is getting a remake and now… Shenmue III is happening!

OK There’s a minor technicality on Shenmue III, but one that will have likely been overcome by the time you read this. The game was revealed by Sony during their press conference, stating that the game would be crowd funded. Why crowd funded? The team behind the game wanted the community to have more control over the development, while the team also wanted more freedom to develop the game, something they likely wouldn’t get is Sony, Microsoft, EA, etc, put the funds up for them.

By the end of the 1 hour presentation, the game had already raised over $500,000 and at time of writing, the game is at $1,688,572 of its $2 million target and it is climbing fast, with 31 days still remaining, it’ll smash that target in a big way!

It’s no secret that the Shenmue series has a loyal fan base. I had the original on the Dreamcast and it was absolutely fantastic, a real benchmark for modern RPG gaming. The second entry in the series was great too, finding a welcome home on the original Xbox, but the series quickly trailed off, leaving many fans heartbroken about the unresolved story and trilogy… until now.

Update: The game has now raised $2,333,192 before the end of day 1!

Check out the official Kickstarter page here.