Shenmue 3 is now the most funded project in Kickstarter history, ending its campaign with $6.3 million raised.
The kickstarter campaign for Shenmue 3 has finally closed its doors, raising a total of $6.3 million since fundraising began during E3 2015.
Shenmue 3 is now the most funded videogame project in Kickstarter history, an honour that previous belonged to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night which managed to raise $5,545,991 back in May.
Series creator Yu Suzuki revealed the long awaited project during Sony’s E3 press conference, where he asked fans for a minimum of $2 million in funding to make the dream project possible.
The project had no trouble soaring past its initial funding goal, unfortunately this may not be enough to create the Shenmue 3 many are expecting.Yu Suzuki previously said that he would need at least $10 million in funding to create a “true open world” game.
Kickstarter won’t be the only source of development funds for Shenmue 3, Sony has said that they will be heavily supporting the project. The company will assist with marketing, production and publishing the game for both PS4 and PC.
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It is unknown how much Sony is contributing to the project, or whether this implies some sort of platform exclusivity for the title. Sony is unable to completely fund the project, but seem to be doing all it can to make it a reality.
At the time of its release, the original Shenmue was the most expensive videogame ever produced with an estimated budget of $70 million in 2001.
Sega cancelled plans for a third game after previous titles failed to recoup hefty production costs. Dreamcast engineer Hideki Sato defended the cost of the original Shenmue by claiming that the “development advances learnt can be applied to other games.”
Many fans seem hungry for the release of HD remastered iterations of Shenmue 1 and 2, which would certainly bring the franchise to an entirely new generation of gamers.
Shenmue 3 is in development for PS4 and PC, and set for a December 2017 release.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
