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One Year Later, Shenmue III Developers Don’t Have Much To Report On Development
One year after launching its successful Kickstarter campaign, developer Ys Net and its head Yu Suzuki have released an update on how development of Shenmue III is going. It doesn't answer a lot of questions, but it is something.
According to Suzuki, the team is creating a prototype build for the game began back in January – which he points out is when the project really ramped up. He continues, saying both the game's battles and facial expressions are starting to take shape, leading to lots of cheers from his team. "It makes me feel it will turn out to be a good game," Suzuki says in the video.
The creator closes by asking fans to continue their support of Shenmue III. Not explicitly saying it, but potentially asking for more backing via the game's still-running PayPal campaign.
Shenmue III was announced last year alongside its Kickstarter campaign at Sony's E3 Press Conference as a joint production between Ys Net and Sony. It was met with large fanfare, meeting its funding in full in under 13 hours,and the developer has opened a second crowdfunding effort (the aforementioned PayPal campaign), as well as having been relatively quiet regarding the status of the game, its funding, and which backers would get what rewards.
No release date has yet been provided for Shenmue III, which is assumed to be still early in its development cycle, though its crowdfunding pages point to a December 2017 launch. Sega has recently shown an interest in re-releasing the first two games in the series.
Our Take
Suzuki has an uphill battle in front of him, one it may be hard to win. It seems to me that having such a long-awaited, highly-anticipated game comes with a big pro and con. The pro, perhaps most obviously, is the game stands a good chance of being successful, and one could surely argue that it already is. The con, however, is that Suzuki is facing a lot of expectations, from a lot of people. One year after Kickstarting his game, his approach seems dicey, at best. Being this secretive with a game people have invested a lot of money and time into could end up being to his detriment. It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out, and I wish the best for Suzuki and his game, but, as of now, I have my reservations about how good this game will actually be.
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