The Shenmue series was at one point believed to be dead after the big production of this IP series proved to be too much. Sega killed off the project and it left players with an unfinished story after the completion of Shenmue II. Fast forward years later and you’ll hit the announcement of Shenmue III through series creator Yu Suzuki and his studio at Ys Net. Despite the announcement, to get this game off the ground, the developer directed fans to a Kickstarter campaign that brought in several million dollars and that ultimately got the game started in production.
Despite the first two installments not turning enough of a profit to keep the story going, Shenmue III will not wrap up the overall story. Instead, it’s been reported that this story will only take players to less than 50% completion so there’s a ton of content to get through in the future. Unfortunately, the future still doesn’t look to be all that clear for Yu Suzuki. When speaking to VGC, it was unveiled that the developer is looking at a few areas to see the funding and production of Shenmue 4.
For starters, a good profit turned out from Shenmue III would be ideal, however, seeing how there are core fans who have already backed the project and even secured a copy of the video game, we’re not entirely sure just how many more potential players will be flocking to the marketplace when it does release. Likewise, the developer stated that it would also depend on the partners they pick up for the upcoming installment.
Even if Shenmue 4 does make it into production, we’re still likely a few games away before actually wrapping up the entire story. At this point, it’s unclear if this franchise can continue to thrive after the launch of Shenmue III so we’ll simply have to wait and watch it play out. Currently, Shenmue III is set to launch on PC and PlayStation 4 platforms this November 19, 2019.
Source: VGC