Shenmue 3 May Be Coming After All

Steve Anderson : End Game
Steve Anderson
The Video Store Guy
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Shenmue 3 May Be Coming After All

Long time gamers out there remember, in all likelihood, coming in contact with a round of Shenmue at some point. The original, the sequel, or just being part of the crowd that was longing to see more of this series come out. The third one has been in development hell for years now, and may be more likely than ever to actually happen, for a change.

Shinmue's creator, Yu Suzuki, was recently caught out at the Monaco Anime Game Show talking about a few different things when, as it commonly does, the conversation turned to Shenmue. More specifically, the conversation turned to Shenmue 3, and if it will ever be made.

Suzuki, meanwhile, shocked reporters by saying that, indeed, Shenmue 3 may well make it back into circulation and thanks to an unlikely source: crowdfunding. Yes, Suzuki may well be looking to turn to Kickstarter, of all things, to bring back the long-awaited return to Shenmue.

Given that the budget for the first two installments of Shenmue was, reportedly, $70 million, he may well have to scale things back a lot in order to get such a thing accomplished. That's why Suzuki actually has a plan B...not to mention a plan C. Should a game not be in the cards, Suzuki has plans to finish the storyline by going to an anime, or at the very least a manga, to explain how the whole thing finally wrapped up.

There are, make no mistake, plenty of old-school Shenmue fans who want to see this series get wrapped up one way or the other. However, it's a pretty safe bet that they don't have $70 million between them, so chances are the video game idea isn't going to fly. It could, of course, and we have absolutely no idea when it will show up, but still, the idea is there and it's reasonably sound.

It also goes to show the impressive power of Kickstarter and other crowd funding systems in terms of video games. The revival of Wasteland, and now, Shenmue possibly, all coming around thanks to crowd-supported gaming funding venues.

As more developers come up with exciting ideas that can't get funding any other way, and turn to Kickstarter to get them off the ground, we may well be looking at the rise of the indie gaming era in earnest. It's already made some very impressive strides, and its best may well be yet to come.
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