After it's announcement at Sony's E3 2015 presentation Shenmue III went to Kickstarter looking for backers and met it's $2 million dollar goal in less than 9 hours.

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Kickstarter has been a fantastic resource for video game developers.  It’s a direct channel to their audience, it’s a tool to measure if the fans want the game and if the goal is met swiftly enough the developer can add stretch goals to give fans even more content and goodies.

So when Shenmue III went to Kickstarter looking for $2 million the fans responded in numbers.

The Guinness World Records site reported that the Kickstarter campaign for Shenmue III has become the fastest video game crowdfunding campaign to raise US$1 million in pledges. The campaign took 1 hour and 42 minutes to reach the US$1 million landmark, beating the previous record of 6 hours and 5 minutes set by Torment: Tides of Numenera.

In just a few more hours the goal of $2 million was reached, and the project is well on it’s way to the stretch goal amount of $4 million.

Shenmue III has been successfully funded on Kickstarter, smashing through its USD $2 million target less than nine hours after the campaign went live.

Sony showcased Shenmue III and revealed the game’s crowdfunding campaign today during its E3 press conference.

“We can unfold the continuous story,” said creator Yu Suzuki. “Shenmue III will be the story you have waited for. The fate of Shenmue is in your hands now.”

The campaign began with several USD $10,000 pledge opportunities (one of which came with the original jacket worn by Masaya Matsukaze during Shenmue press events 14 years ago, and the other an invitation to a dinner party in Japan with Yu Suzuki) but they’re all gone.

The Shenmue III team has indicated December 2017 as their best estimate for delivery of the Kickstarter backer rewards so the game itself is some way off.

There is, however, a list of stretch goals set for targets up to USD $4 million, ranging from German, French, Spanish, and Italian subtitles to a so-called ‘skill tree system’. The team explains there will be more details to come for these goals after funding is reached, although the funding page is yet to be updated with a statement.

Source: IGN