Marking a year since Shenmue III‘s Kickstarter campaign was announced during Sony’s E3 press conference, YS Net has taken to its Kickstarter campaign page to thank fans for their support in smashing the game’s funding goal as well as filling us in on its progress. In a video, Yu Suzuki gives us the following update:
It has already been a year since the Kickstarter. Your cheers at the Sony announcement still ring in my ears. Since then, we have been gradually bringing on new project members. Late last year, we began using Shenmue 2 characters to do simple battle and conversation tests on Unreal Engine 4. With our key developers on board, the prototype build started in January. It has been six months since the project has really taken off. Battles and facial expressions are coming together, and cheers from the crew are growing. It makes me feel like it will turn out to be a good game. From all of us here, we ask you again to please keep up your support!
Shenmue III is expected to launch in 2017.
[Source: Kickstarter]