Despite earning over $3 million on Kickstarter, Shenmue 3 is still an unknown quantity. Creator Yu Suzuki said recently that the game will need much more than $3 million to be a full modern imagining of the original series, and up to $10 million for it to take place in a fully-featured open world. It's hard to know what the game will be if it falls short of those goals, but one thing is now certain: Corey Marshall, the original Western voice actor for the first and second instalments, is returning for the new one.
That's good news for Shenmue fans, but it's also a new way for the studio to attract funding for the project. "Corey is as excited for Shenmue's return as we all are, and to help out, he has magnanimously offered his voice for a special reward," the Kickstarter update announced. That special reward involves a personally recorded message from Ryo himself, but it'll set you back $1,000.
The crowdfunding campaign has proven beyond doubt that there's demand for a Shenmue return, but why? If, like me, you don't understand the phenomenon at all, Andy Kelly makes a good case for it.
