UPDATE (10:09 P.M. 06/15/2015): I have made a small error regarding the stretch goals: it turns out that this Kickstarter has the following stretch goals in addition to the required $2 million:

$2.5 million for the ability to see recaps of Shenmue and Shenmue II in Shenmue III
$2.6 million for French subtitles
$2.7 million for French subtitles
$2.8 million for Spanish subtitles
$2.9 million for Italian subtitles
$3.2 million for the "Rapport" System--possibly an AI partner system used for the fighting system
$3.5 million for the "Skill Tree" System
$4 million for the completion and expansion of the "Baisha Village" area

There are also unknown figures for the expansion of two other areas: Bailu Village and another area.


According to the Sony E3 Conference, former SEGA programmer Yu Suzuki is finally attempting to bring Shenmue III to reality in the form of Kickstarter. He is currently raising $2,000,000 in order to begin developing the long-awaited finale to the Shenmue trilogy that started on the SEGA Dreamcast and ended, as of now, on the Microsoft Xbox. Strangely enough, the game will not be available on the Xbox One, which would coincide with Shenmue II's release on the original Xbox, but it will be available on the PC and Sony PlayStation 4 once it is released.

You can support the development of Shenmue III by going to this link below:
http://bit.ly/saveshenmue

The Shenmue series was a developed as a swan song to the SEGA Dreamcast and SEGA's home console business in general, and it pushed the limits of what the SEGA Dreamcast was capable of way back in 1998 for Japanese audiences and 1999 for international audiences. However, the games did not sell enough copies for SEGA to continue supporting the series, as it has the most mixed reception by players out of any video game franchise in history--some praised it for its strides toward realism and believability while offering an epic tale of discovery and revenge, while others bashed it for most of the same reasons! In either case, it is time to wonder whether Shenmue can be saved by fans alone.

Shenmue III currently has 31 days as of June 15, 2015 to raise $2,000,000, with no specific stretch goals as of yet  The donation pool seems to be skyrocketing at this point, naturally!

Yeah, Sony really put on a show this year, and Shenmue III blew us all away I think. I can't tell you how shocked I was to hear that one.

I'm glad to see someone made an article about this. Good catch here.


EDIT: It's official: Shenmue III is happening. They've raised $2.9 million as of this edit.

Elrinn: Yeah, but I just found out that Sony is actually going to give more money after the Kickstarter is over. Seems pretty underhanded--forcing Shenmue players to support Sony whether they like it or not--but I'm still glad that this game will happen, at least by a realistic release year of 2017!

Well they aren't supporting Sony since it isn't a PlayStation exclusive and Sony isn't pocketing the money, but the developers. All this is doing is helping get the team the money and push they needed to get this game made after a decade of waiting. I actually thought it was quite cool of Sony to help.

Regardless, these guys deserved a chance to finish what they started, so I agree with you that this is a great thing.

I wonder if this means Sonic Adventure 3 is a possibility as well. . . .

2016 s his 25th anniversary. . .

Oh, my freaking yes goodness times! Make this happen!! I own the first Shenmue on Dreamcast and the second on X-Box, and I love them both. And it always made me sad when I had beat Shenmue 2,  it ended with "The story continues...". So angry! I, even to this day, tell my friends about my disappointment in the series ending. But this is real!? You take my money right now!!

Well, let's be smart about this and do some research first, not that I doubt the word of my fellows from Vizzed... But then... You take my money!!

Oh, man... Well, they already got the money for the game, just saw that. Looks like my money is going to better spent on getting a PS4.

From what I've seen it seems like the kickstarter isn't mostly for financing the game itself, I mean just think about how much the previous games have costed I doubt 2 million would be enough to make the sequel.

I think it would mostly be Sony who may be funding it and the kickstarter if anything is more of a way for them to gauge the interest in the game, while the game coming out is awesome, I find using that as method as somewhat unethical, I just hope it doesn't become some new kind of trend to try to trick customers to gauge interest.