'Shenmue III' News: Creator Aiming for $11 Million Stretch Goals on KickStarter

By Liezl Dunuan, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Sega's "Shenmue III" video game recently made it to the headlines. The game, which took to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to funding for its development, broke the world record for the fastest video game to raise $1 million dollars through a crowdfunding campaign. "Shenmue III" reached $1 million dollars in a record 1 hour and 42 minutes after the campaign was launched during Sony's E3 press conference.

"Shenmue III," according to its Kickstarter page, aimed to raise to $2 million dollars for the game's development. The game is the third installment of the "Shenmue" video game series of Sega, which is an open-world action-adventure video game. The first game of the series was first published in 1999 for Dreamcast only, and the second game was published in 2001 for Dreamcast and Xbox. The game was in fact considered one of the most expensive video games during its time. The game, according to its creator Yu Suzuki is 16 chapters long and because of its expensive production cost, remains unfinished.

It follows the epic adventure of 18-year old Ryo Hazuki, whose father was murdered by a man named Lan Di. He seeks to "unlock the mysteries of a legendary stone mirror" while avenging his father's death.

As of June 28, 2015, the game has reached more than $3 million in pledges. In an IGN report, the game has set new stretch goals between $5 million to $11 million, owing to its record crowdfunding streak. The report includes a breakdown of the some of these stretch goals:

$5.1 million: Portuguese language option
$6 million: Battle system expanded; advanced free battle.
$6.5 million: Battle system expanded; ragdoll reaction.
$7 million: Battle system expanded; AI battling.
$7.5 million: Battle system expanded; high ground battle system.
$8 million: Choubu area expanded; mini games x4.
$8.25 million: Choubu area expanded; betting games x4.
$8.5 million: Choubu area expanded; kung-fu mastery.
$9 million: Choubu area expanded; part-time job.
$10 million: Bailu village expanded; mini games x4.
$10.25 million: Bailu village expanded; betting games x4.
$10.5 million: Bailu village expanded; kung-fu mastery.
$11 million: Bailu village expanded; magic maze.

In the same report, Suzuki even mentioned in another interview about the possibility of doing a "Shenmue IV" in order to complete the full story. He said, "There are a total of 11 chapters that make up the whole story. Over the past 14 years I originally planned for there to four or five games to the series. If at all possible, I would still like to realize the full story of 11 chapters."