Holy smokes, I forgot this was even a thing.
So, my Kickstarter backer’s copy of Shenmue III randomly showed up today. It’s been so long, and the final game has been out for so long, that I’d given up on ever getting this.
To put this into perspective, there was a years-long push for Shenmue III to even exist. Finally, the game was officially announced June 15, 2015 during Sony’s press conference at that year’s E3 gaming expo. I backed it one month later, on July 15 (which must have been right before the backer window closed).
The game was planned for a December, 2017, launch. It was delayed to “the second half of 2018,”, then delayed again into 2019. Finally, the actual release date was pushed back from August 27, 2019, to November 19, 2019.
Now that the game has been out for an entire freaking year, my copy just arrived in the mail today. I would say that I’ve been waiting more than five years for this, but I really haven’t. I kind of just assumed that I wasn’t ever going to get it as I moved onto other things.
But it’s here. I own a physical copy of Shenmue III for PS4. Of course, as the fall gaming season really heats up (and I’m anxiously awaiting Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity), I have a feeling I won’t get around to playing the game at all this year.
But, I mean, Yu Suzuki was certainly not rushing this game out, so I don’t see any need for me to rush to play it now that I finally have it in my possession.