Sony is helping develop Shenmue 3, says title was most-requested third-party game

The $2.9 million crowdfunding campaign for Shenmue 3 isn’t the only thing driving the project to reality.

The long-awaited third entry in the epic Dreamcast franchise was a big surprise at Sony’s E3 press conference earlier this week, where the platform holder revealed the launch of a Kickstarter for the title.

Originally set with a target of $2 million, the game was propelled past the mark in under nine hours. Its total at the time of writing currently sits just under $3 million, at$2,912,098.

But game development is a costly process, so series creator YuSuzuki is working alongside Sony to make the project a reality.

Speaking during PlayStation’s E3 livestream,director of third-party production and developer relations Gio Corsi said that the publisher would be assisting with development of the title.

He added that Shenmue 3 was the most-frequently-requested title from fans, after the team opened up requests for third-party collaborations via the #BuildingTheList hashtag.

But this wasn’t enough to guarantee the game’s release on PS4, with Cosi suggesting that the Kickstarter acted as a form of thermometer to measure player interest – interest that has undoubtably proved hot.

If the fans come in and back it, then absolutely we’re going to make this a reality," he said.

It remains to be seen on what scale the Shenmue franchise returns, given its past history as a big-budget series with longer-than-average development times.

Impresive as it is, the $2.9 million crowdfunded so far pales in comparisn to the original Shenmue’s record-breaking $47 million pricetag.

According to Shenmue 3’s Kickstarter page, the game is slated for release in December 2017.