At this year’s E3, Sony shocked gamers when they announced vaporware legend Shenmue III was being revived as a Kickstarter project. The campaign almost immediately reached its goal of $2 million, but the story quickly became more complicated. Shenmue mastermind Yu Suzuki later claimed he actually needed $5 million to make “one of the things I really want to do with Shenmue III become a reality” and $10 million to make the game a true open-world experience. Considering the original Shenmue reportedly cost upwards of $70 million to make, it perhaps isn’t that surprising that Suzuki is having trouble sticking to a budget.
Well, Shenmue III probably won’t end up getting $10 million from fans, but with less than three days to go before the end of the Kickstarter campaign, the game has officially surpassed the $5 million mark. Suzuki is also raising money from sources other than Kickstarter, including Sony, so hopefully he’s nearing the amount needed to realize a solid percentage of his vision.
In celebration of Shenmue III hitting the $5 million mark, you can check out a new, brief teaser trailer at the top of this post. Hopefully the thing Suzuki needed $5 mil to add wasn’t just lots and lots of fireflies.
(Via Polygon)