If you were expecting to return to the world of Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue this year, you’ll still be able to do so — but it’ll be in Sega’s Shenmue HD Collection and not so much the latest chapter in the series.
Deep Silver, the company publishing Shenmue III, recently announced that the sequel will not be coming out this year. Instead it’ll focus on a 2019 release to give Suzuki and his team the extra time to make sure it’s up to fans’ standards.
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“The extra time will be used to polish the quality of the game even further, to the high standards it deserves and release the product in the best possible timeframe,” the company said.
A release date wasn’t given and likely won’t be revealed until the beginning of next year.
The project initially began in 2015 when Sony announced it during its press conference, followed by a Kickstarter campaign powered by producer Yu Suzuki. It surpassed its initial goal with ease and, with the help of Deep Silver, it’s moving right along in development.
We’ve seen bits and pieces of the game in action since then, but many fans were hopeful that we would be seeing the newest adventure this year. Alas, you’ll have to wait a little while longer.
Suzuki provided a heartfelt update to the KickStarter supporters over on the official page, noting, “To all of our backers, we are very sorry for the delay. After much discussion with our partners, Deep Silver, we have concluded that extending the release will allow us to deliver Shenmue III at its best. We promise to use this time to improve the quality of Shenmue III. We cannot thank you enough for your enduring support.”
As we said above, you’ll still be able to enjoy Shenmue HD Collection in the meantime, as Sega will release that compilation sometime later this year for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. So even though you won’t be able to complete the quest of getting revenge for the death of Ryo’s father, you can at the very least relive the journey where it began.
We’ll keep you informed when a formal Shenmue III release date is announced. The game will debut for PlayStation 4 and PC when it’s good to go!
