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Shenmue 3 shatters Kickstarter Game records ; $2 million achieved in 8 hours

evanmisha

Member
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Shenmue 3 has just passed the 2 million dollar mark on Kickstarter, reaching its funding goal in under 9 hours and with around 24.5 thousand backers. That's an average donation of roughly 82 dollars. This is easily the fasting gaming Kickstarter of all time, dwarfing the previous record holder Yooka-Laylee's 1 million in 6 hours.

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Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller

The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter broke $1 million faster than any video game before it through crowd-funding, and the second fastest to reach $1 million out of any Kickstarter project ever. However, it has obtained its goal of $2 million in 8.5 hours (8 hours, 43 minutes to be exact), and has become the fastest video game to reach $2 million in crowd-funding as well, and the fastest of any Kickstarter Project to achieve its goal of over $2 million or more in any category on Kickstarter.

Yooka-Laylee had obtained the honor of fastest Kickstarter Game to reach 1 million just a month and a half ago, but has been quickly dethroned by Shenmue 3. Yooka-Laylee obtained the $1 million record in 6 hours, Shenmue 3 shattered through it in 90 minutes. Though that's nothing to say on the quality of either project, both speak tremendous volumes on the growth and movement for Kickstarter projects, and the simple fact that gamers (*surprise*) will put money where their mouth is for video games they want that publishers and developers just don't make anymore, especially if proven talent responsible for the things they love are behind it.

With Yooka-Laylee, Bloodstained, and now Shenmue 3 recently shattering all sorts of records, it certainly is going to take notice within the industry, and its affects should be interesting to watch, as well as how all three projects develop. Shenmue 3 will likely be the poster-boy of successful Kickstarter game projects for at least a while, and there's still 31 days to see if it shatteres any other records.

Certainly is interesting statistics that likely will come up a lot more in the future.
 

params7

Banned
I'm glad. Gotta find a way to play Shenmue 2. I regret selling off my Dreamcast and never owned an Xbox. Shenmue 1 was mindblowing when I played it.
 

TBiddy

Member
That's pretty awesome. Great news for the fans!

I do still think it was a bit odd to announce a kickstarter at E3, but clearly it worked.
 

nib95

Banned
Now get cracking! Lol. I need this game on my PS4 stat! Presumably the rest of the funding has already been agreed.
 

Daingurse

Member
Shenmue fans stepped up, Jesus.

I've never played Shenmue 1, and couldn't get into 2, but even I'm feeling the hype. Definitely want to try and play those games before 3 is released. A remaster would be great but I got a Dreamcast connected with a VGA box. I really want to own Shenmue 1 now especially lol .
 

klee123

Member
I would have bothered to back it, but since there's no physical PS4 release, there was no incentive for me.

Still, it has been fully backed so it didn't need my money lol.
 

user_nat

THE WORDS! They'll drift away without the _!
Not sure how I feel about this. Rather not see it become a norm for bigger publishers.

Good for fans of Shenmue though, next up Half Life 3.
 
I just realized I have a Shenmue avatar and I haven't contributed yet.

Not sure how I feel about this. Rather not see it become a norm for bigger publishers.

Good for fans of Shenmue though, next up Half Life 3.

SEGA is not publishing this. Yu licensed the brand and is developing it independently.
 

double jump

you haven't lived until a random little kid ask you "how do you make love".
Sony and whoever else is obviously already making the game. Everybody that donated probably just put a little money towards the future marketing campaign.
 
They only need another $50m to actually make it now.

I feel pretty confident in saying this KS was more of a thing to show how much demand there is for the game from a tangible financial perspective and convince a publisher to put an investment in this. There's someone else (probably Sony) that's going to foot a significant part of the bill for this.
 
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