Shenmue III
For the longest time, Shenmue fans had given up hope of ever seeing the conclusion to Ryo Haruki’s quest for revenge. Shenmue II released in 2001 and entangled fans of the series with its story that was reminiscent of Chinese revenge cinema. But, just as Ryo was one step closer to solving the mystery of his father’s murder, fans were forced to take several steps back, for Sega had no plans of ever releasing a sequel.
See, the original Shenmue cost a little over $47 million to produce, making it the most expensive game to release at the time. This tradition carried over to the sequel, and despite achieving cult-hit status, the game was ultimately placed in development hell for the better part of a decade.
Then the unthinkable happened. During Sony’s 2015 E3 press conference, the same conference that saw the Final Fantasy VII Remake and the revival of The Last Guardian, Sony unveiled Shenmue III. Together, Sony and Shenmue director Yu Suzuki launched a Kickstarter campaign to make Shenmue III a reality. The Kickstarter campaign ended in July and raised over $6 million making it the highest-funded videogame on the crowd-funding website, and the sixth highest-funded campaign – period.
