At long last, one of the most hyped and asked for games in years finally has a release date. At Gamescon 2018, Deep Silver took to the stage and officially announced that Shenmue 3 will be releasing on August 27. 2019, with just a little more than a year to go. First announced as a crowdfund on the website, Kickstarter, it immediately picked up steam and now has highest amount of any Kickstarter Campaign, raising more than $6 million in the process with more than 70,000 backers. Now, for everyone who backed the game, your long wait will be rewarded.
It’s been quite the journey for Shenmue 3. The last game in the series was Shenmue II which released on the Dreamcast in 2001, making this one of the longest waits between sequels for a video game franchise. Then before Sega could attempt a third game, they bowed out of the video game console market and began developing titles for other companies. Hope seemed to be lost, until E3 2015 came long, when Sony announced that the title was going to be crowdfunded through Kickstarter. Once it did reach its goal, and beyond that, the game was delayed a few times before finally being picked up by Deep Silver for publication.
The original Shenmue was a launch title for the Dreamcast back in 1999. At the time it was groundbreaking in terms of it’s open world mechanics and quick-time-events, setting the tone for future sandbox games to follow. Speaking of those games, Shenmue I + II were just released as a collection for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, so if your wondering why the love for this series still lives on to this day, go and check them out.
The announcement trailer only shows a glimpse of what’s to come in the next year, so keep your eyes peeled for more information leading up to the release. Shenmue 3 launches on August 27, 2019 for the PlayStation 4, and PC. You can check out the announcement trailer here.