Let’s all give ourselves a congratulatory pat on the back, because the Internet came together to break a new Kickstarter record.
Shenmue III the game that was ceremoniously announced during Sony’s E3 press conference not only beat it’s initial $2 million goal, but shattered it. The project ended up raising a staggering $6,333,295. This is a new record for funding a game on Kickstarter. The previous game to hold that record was Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which raised $5.5 million.
Interestingly, it’s not the most crowdfunding ever given to a video game. That would have to go to Star Citizen. After its Kickstarter garnered over $2 million, the studio continued to crowdfund the game on its own site. People bought into the project until the studio set a final goal of $65 million. Currently the game is sitting at over $85 million.
During an AMA on Reddit, series creator Yu Suzuki said he was hoping to raise around $10 million to make it a true open-world game. But, it does look like Sony will be actively helping in its development, so hopefully his original vision can still come to fruition.
Just like Star Citizen, maybe studio Ys Net can continue to raise money outside of Kickstarter considering the game won’t be released until 2017.
For many younger gamers, Shenmue is an unknown property. Back in 1999 it was the first game to really have a vibrant, open world with cinematic storytelling. The games haven’t aged particularly well, but maybe Sega could give it some updates and re-release Shenmue and Shenmue II as part of a remastered collection. We can only hope.
Shenmue III is expected to launch on PS4 and PC in December 2017.