As part of their apology, JustAFan1 also posted some evidence of being the actual creator of the fake Shenmue 4 trailer through a link that was essentially a newer, updated version of the trailer. The changes in this new version included new music and footage, as well as their apology.

“I just wanted to set the record straight for all those who think it might still be half real,” they wrote in their apology on the Shenmue Dojo forums. “It’s not.”

“I know many of you will want to hang me for dashing your hopes, but know this was not done out of malice, but love for Shenmue. I realize I went about it the wrong way, and I apologize for that. But I hope all the media attention this has received will do something to convince investors that Shenmue is very much alive and profitable if approached correctly.”

In the trailer itself, they had a longer statement of apology, noting that they are simply a fan of the Shenmue franchise and have no official afficilation with YS Net. “I want to be absolutely clear: I am merely a fan of the series and have absolutely no professional or personal affiliation with Ys Net, nor have I ever had any,” reads the statement. “The creation and release of the trailer, which presented itself as an official piece of promotional material recorded behind the scenes, was a lapse in judgment. I take full responsibility for this action.”

The goal of the video, noted JustAFan1, was to “demonstrate a sustained and substantial market demand and community enthusiasm” for a new game in the franchise. “I meant no harm to Ys Net, its brand, or its loyal fans. My motivation was to champion the series and help encourage its continuation, not to mislead or create distress.”

“While my intent was centered on a positive outcome, the method I chose to achieve it was misleading and unprofessional. I deeply regret creating and sharing information that was not factual, and I understand the negative impact this misinformation had.”

The apology comes in light of YS Net having announced that the studio had nothing to do with the fake Shenmue 4 trailer, and that its use of copyrighted materials also gives the studio grounds to pursue legal action. Whether it will actually pursue these actions in light of the trailer’s creator’s apology is currently unknown, however.

“We are currently working with relevant parties and preparing appropriate measures, including potential legal action,” it wrote. “We sincerely apologize to our fans and all related parties for any confusion this may have caused. We continue to ensure the proper anda ccurate dissemination of information, and we ask for your understanding and cooperation.”

In the meantime, Shenmue 3 Enhanced is slated for release on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo platforms, with owners of the title’s original release on PS4 and PC getting the option to upgrade to the newer version. It doesn’t yet have a release date, however.

Those who purchased the original version on PS4 and PC can upgrade to the new version. Further details weren’t provided, and a release date also remains unknown. As for Shenmue 3 Enhanced’s other features, you can expect improved visuals, more characters in Niaowu, faster load times and 4K textures (leading to more detailed characters and environments).

There will also be Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR support alongside a classic camera perspective based on the first two games. Various gameplay improvements, such as skipping dialogue and cutscenes, fewer “money barriers” in progression, alerts on things to purchase, and more, can also be expected. Of course, players can turn these off to experience the game’s systems in their original form.

Stay tuned for more details on Shenmue 3 Enhanced and check out our review of the original (which performed below expectations, per publisher Deep Silver).

Taking to Twitter, ININ Games recently shared a new survey that asks questions related to Shenmue 3. The survey is a brief one, though notably, one of the questions asks if players would be interested in seeing the game on Xbox Series X/S or Nintendo Switch. Other platforms that the game isn’t mentioned on – PS5 and Mac – are also mentioned.

“We have prepared a quick survey with a couple questions on Shenmue 3. Please consider filling it out if you’re a fan of Ryo’s antics or just familiar with the game. Your feedback will be invaluable to us, as always!” ININ Games wrote on Twitter.

Shenmue 3 is currently only available on PS4 and PC, so given the fact that ININ Games only has the publishing rights for the game and not the entire franchise, one would assume it’ll only be a matter of time before ports are announced. Of course, on the Nintendo front, it should be interesting to see whether the game also releases for the inevitable Switch 2, or whatever Nintendo ends up calling its next-gen console.

Heya folks!

We have prepared a quick survey with a couple questions on Shenmue III. Please consider filling it out if you’re a fan of Ryo’s antics or just familiar with the game. Your feedback will be invaluable to us, as always!

Follow the link 👇https://t.co/2cnGswiMEA pic.twitter.com/loc4lcYeYE

— ININ Games (@ININ_Games) December 6, 2024

Recently, however, on the occasion of Shenmue 3’s fifth anniversary, it was revealed that publishing rights for the game had passed from Deep Silver to ININ, and ININ seems to be teasing upcoming announcements related to the game.

“This exciting transfer coincides with two momentous milestones: the 25th anniversary of the Shenmue series and the fifth anniversary of Shenmue 3. We have exciting plans to celebrate these anniversaries, ensuring that this beloved series continues to thrive and inspire. Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements as we unveil our vision for the next phase of Shenmue’s legacy,” the publisher wrote in a recent press release (via Push Square).

ININ’s Dennis K. Mendel also wrote on LinkedIn, “Let’s make sure that this beloved series continues to thrive and will continue to inspire future generations.”

Given that ININ has only acquired the publishing rights for Shenmue 3 and not the rights for the entire IP, which means any announcement will likely be tied to the 2019 game itself. The likeliest scenario would be the game being announced for Xbox or Nintendo Switch. Either way, it sounds like more will be shared soon, so stay tuned for more updates.

30. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

The fact that the world of Mirror’s Edge had such untapped potential, to the point that many desired a sequel years after its launch, is a testament to its impact. The first-person parkour model would be in other titles, most notably Dying Light, but the focus on platforming and skill-based jumping, not to mention the gorgeous dystopian world, helped it stand out.

So when DICE finally announced Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, which offered a more open world, the excitement was palpable, even if it was revealed to be a reboot. While it retained the fluid movement and responsive controls, the world felt barren, the story rudimentary and the ending inane. DICE has no plans to return to the franchise, and for all its appealing aspects, Mirror’s Edge is pretty much dead.

29. Rise of the Ronin

As a fan of Team Ninja’s Nioh series and even finding some enjoyment in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, it’s sad to see how Rise of the Ronin turned out. On the one hand, it’s earned some praise for its combat and even the directions you can take the story. On the other hand, critics have expressed disappointment with its open world, English voice acting, story and visuals.

While there were plenty of comparisons to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, I feel that they’re both distinct enough and trying to do their own thing. So why is Rise of the Ronin so underwhelming? Well, for starters, it’s a PS5 exclusive in development for seven years, with Sony’s support, which lends certain expectations. This isn’t to say that all reviews were equally hard on the game, as indicated by the 76 Metascore, but ranking fifth in physical sales for the UK at launch and dropping to 14th place the next week is nothing short of disappointing.

28. Need for Speed (2015)

Years of requests for a new Need for Speed Underground title and Electronic Arts delivered…sort of. Employing real-world legends like Ken Block, it was ultimately about a cast of street racers struggling to get noticed. While the customization and visuals received praise, the uninteresting story, AI prone to rubberbanding, multiplayer and lack of certain features (including drag racing) soured fans. There was also the always-online requirement with no option to pause. It would have qualified as one of the weaker games in the franchise, but then Payback happened and drastically lowered the bar.

27. Biomutant

When a game like Biomutant promises a massive world with choices and consequences, extensive character customization, vehicles, deep combat mechanics and much more, it’s hard to not get hyped. The fact that it was five years in the making, with Experiment 101 consisting of former Just Cause developers, further contributed to this. However, all those intriguing bits turned out to be incredibly shallow, from the story and combat to the mission design and annoying narrator. An update helped improve things, and with a million units sold in a few months, it was far from a flop, but it still has a ways to go.

26. The Order: 1886

Ready at Dawn’s The Order: 1886 received extensive attention for its graphics, with gorgeous facial animation and lighting. The presentation also received significant praise, but everything else left much to be desired. The campaign was ephemeral, with the disappointing story (despite such an intriguing setting and premise) and over-reliance on quick-time events bogging down the overall gameplay. Ending on a cliffhanger with no prospects for a sequel didn’t help either.

25. Exoprimal

Piloting exosuits to battle hordes of dinosaurs sounds like a good idea in theory, but what is live service? The developer’s to join the trend resulted in Exoprimal, which featured a story focused on time traveling, simulations run by a rogue AI called Leviathan, and so much dino slaying. The story felt disjointed, with the characters getting little development, and the lackluster map variety and repetitive objectives brought the experience down. The developer has expanded on the different modes at least while also adding new Alpha variants of Exosuits (Beta variants are coming soon), but its launch state was just so underwhelming.

24. Star Fox Zero

Not that Star Fox had the best run since peaking with Star Fox 64, but Zero had PlatinumGames involved. Surely, the Wii U controls would allow for a compelling shoot-’em-up experience. As you’ve probably guessed, that isn’t the case, as the controls were criticized for their unwieldiness. It also didn’t help that the experience heavily mirrored Star Fox 64, though some critics enjoyed the approach. With less than 500,000 copies sold, it flopped hard, and there hasn’t been a follow-up ever since.

23. Thief (2014)

One of the most beloved cult classic stealth series of all time, Thief was considered as revolutionary for PC players as Metal Gear Solid for consoles. So when Eidos Montreal announced a reboot, there was excitement and perhaps a little trepidation, especially after Garrett’s old voice actor was replaced. A dull performance was the least of the game’s problems, with the level design, AI and story all feeling out of sorts. While opinions settled more on the slightly above side, Thief (2014) couldn’t match up to the original games in player freedom and choice.

22. Days Gone

The praise for Days Gone, Bend Studio’s open-world zombie survival title, cropped up most when it was free on PlayStation Plus. Full credit to the team for sticking with it and adding sizable new content and features, but that’s not the launch version. The latter was roundly criticized for its excessive bugs, performance issues and loading screens (that too after delays for more polish), to say nothing of the bland story and awful dialogue. The open world, the motorcycle maintenance mechanics, the shooting – nearly everything had its downsides.

Make no mistake – there were some positives, from the immense undead hordes to the progression, and it notched up some impressive sales numbers, topping the UK physical charts for three weeks in a row and outselling the combined total of Bend’s previous games. However, it was nowhere near the high bar set by first-party Sony titles. Perhaps for this reason, the publisher didn’t greenlight a sequel and directors John Garvin and Jeff Ross subsequently left the studio. As beloved as it is now, there’s no denying that Days Gone underwhelmed at launch.

21. RAGE 2

For its time, RAGE was trying to do something technologically ahead of its time courtesy of id Tech 5. However, it faced criticism for its overall story and forgettable characters, not to mention the aggravating cliffhanger at the end. The fact that it launched after the more successful Borderlands, which captured the Mad Max feel of a post-apocalyptic wasteland far better, also didn’t help. Nevertheless, it did receive some praise for its visuals, combat, side missions and AI.

With RAGE 2, Avalanche Studios decided to go for a more traditional open-world first-person shooter with vehicles. You had the usual enemy camps to clear, some points of interest and enemy convoys to assault, while the story was a paint-by-numbers “gather the MacGuffins” before a showdown with the big bad. The combat and visuals were still worthy of praise, but everything else felt further downgraded over the original, and it had microtransactions.

20. Immortals of Aveum

Coming from a new team with a five-year development cycle and emphasis on a single-player campaign with no microtransactions, Immortals of Aveum was a noble endeavor. Problems arose with the overall story, graphical issues on consoles, iffy dialogue (with the cast trying its very best to elevate it), and controls. With the emphasis on fast-paced mage combat, encounters could feel repetitive, ultimately underwhelming despite some impressive set pieces. Again, it received updates and new content while attracting a following, but Immortals of Aveum failed to leave a mark.

19. Shenmue 3

A sequel that fans (and creator Yu Suzuki) craved since the second game’s release in 2001. An announcement years in the making with $6 million in crowd-funding. A launch finally happening four years later, mired in controversy due to Epic Games Store exclusivity and a publishing deal with Deep Silver. Shenmue 3 finally arrived in 2015 and was panned for its outdated mechanics and storyline that ended on yet another cliffhanger. While some found the antiquated mechanics to be the appeal, it ended up feeling inconsequential and just another chapter in the ongoing story which would likely end.

18. The Callisto Protocol

Spiritual successors to classics from the original creators never fail to generate attention, as seen with Striking Distance’s The Callisto Protocol. This Dead Space tribute sported gorgeous visuals punctuated by over-the-top and grotesque death sequences. Delays and declarations of crunch didn’t help, nor did the performance issues at launch. Of course, despite all that, the experience was dragged for being overtly linear with shoddy melee combat, no option to skip the death scenes, a short playtime, heaps of unrealized potential and ultimately, not measuring up to the legacy of Dead Space.

17. Rainbow Six Extraction

After the success of the limited-time mode Outbreak in Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft did what any self-serving publisher would do – spin it off into a new game and monetize it. Extraction would take a while to launch, initially announced as Rainbow Six Quarantine in 2019 (and eventually abandoning the name for obvious reasons).

It would finally arrive in January 2022 after multiple delays and revealed itself as a session of interconnected areas with procedurally generated objectives and enemies. The sparse content, terrible objectives, bad AI, laughable story and repetition sadly made for a dull experience. While the developer would tout three million players in the first week (likely in no small part thanks to Game Pass), you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who remembered it past the first month.

16. Crackdown 3

Before Microsoft pushed cloud gaming via Game Pass, it hyped the computational powers of the same and how they would revolutionize gaming. Crackdown 3 was an example, touted as having a fully destructible open world. It eventually relegated into a separate mode, which quickly died out, while the base campaign launched after years of delay and generated ire for its archaic, repetitive design. Could you have some mindless fun? Sure, but it was a far cry from what Microsoft hyped the project to be and far from the next big leap for the franchise.

15. Resident Evil 3 (2020)

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has always occupied a weird place due to its shorter length and unorthodox features (like the titular villain). Releasing in the shadow of the brilliant Resident Evil 2 didn’t help – unfortunately, that same fate awaited Resident Evil 3 remake. Despite some fantastic visuals and combat, it was more notable for omitting areas (city hall, the clock tower and more were nowhere to be seen) or changing some of the original’s most iconic moments.

Barring the final sequence, none of them felt like an improvement. The fact that Mercenaries wasn’t included, but we got Resistance, a terrible asymmetrical multiplayer mode, didn’t help. Even with sales at 8.4 million, Resident Evil 3 is considered the weakest of the modern remakes.

14. Wolfenstein Youngblood

MachineGames delivered not one but two excellent Wolfenstein titles, reviving the franchise for a new generation with some incredibly cinematic storytelling that remains impressive to this day. How did it follow these up? Why, with a co-op title focusing on B.J. Blazkowicz’s daughters, Jessie and Zofia. The initial gameplay showings weren’t terrible, and the prospect of venturing to Paris to take out Nazis was appealing.

Unfortunately, Wolfenstein Youngblood fundamentally failed to capture what made the previous games so successful. Enemies were bullet sponges, causing players to constantly run out of ammo, and the missions were forgettable, with bizarre hub-like stages that felt utterly unnecessary to the campaign’s flow. Throw in terrible AI when playing solo and microtransactions, and it felt like a poorly conceived side story rather than a proper follow-up to MachineGames’ hits.

13. Forspoken

You want to believe that Luminous Productions had good intentions when designing Forspoken, first announced as Project Athia. Boasting a premier writing staff and billed as a two-year PS5 exclusive, it could have been the developer’s next big thing. While the combat wasn’t terrible, it did little to uplift the barren open world and dull activities.

The initially awful dialogue and plot also weighed it down, but even as things improved over time, the story was over quickly. It wasn’t long before the developer declared that Forspoken’s sales were “lackluster” and by May, Luminous was reorganized and merged into the publisher.

12. Mighty No. 9

Also considered one of the worst games ever made, Mighty No. 9’s development history would have suggested otherwise. It was helmed by a new team at Comcept who promised a spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise when the developer had effectively kept the series on the back burner.

Then the delays happened, and that whole second Kickstarter campaign to fund a completely different project. By the time Mighty No. 9 launched, it was beset by performance issues, terrible voice acting, lack of content and an overall feel that screamed “cheap imitation” rather than spiritual successor.

11. Skull and Bones

Before its multitude of delays that whittled any faith that anyone had in the developer to deliver a competent pirate game, Skull and Bones had some potential. Its first announcement trailer gave the vibe of an Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag but a stronger focus on naval combat that fans had demanded for years. Of course, then the delays happened, followed by reports of reboots, behind-the-scenes issues, incompetent upper management, leadership departures, etc. When Skull and Bones was close to launching – for real this time – Yves Guillemot made the baffling decision to call it a quadruple-A game instead of the tried and true “triple-A.”

Upon launch, and to no one’s surprise, Skull and Bones was a live service grind for “loot”, punctuated by increasingly dull missions and tedious back and forth. Good thing it sold for $70 and included microtransactions. The results were telling – less than one-fourth of Sea of Thieves’ launch sales in the UK and allegedly 850,000 players, including those who played the free trial.

10. Marvel’s Avengers

Marvel’s Avengers didn’t have the best of reveals, competing against the first-ever gameplay of Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the same E3 showcase. Nevertheless, despite how many felt about the lack of resemblance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe actors, it didn’t look terrible either. Live service was seeing a downturn, but with Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal at the helm, how could it go wrong?

Cut to the underwhelming beta and full release, and the distinction between Marvel’s Avengers and a title like Marvel’s Spider-Man became clearer. Despite unique kits for its heroes and some decent visuals, the mission design, objectives and loot were subpar. Post-launch support added some new heroes and content, which did little to raise the player count, and it was subsequently delisted from storefronts in September 2023.

9. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

While one may joke that Call of Duty is a disappointment year in and year out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 felt especially egregious. Reports indicated that it was to be an expansion to Modern Warfare 2 focusing on the Mexican cartel that underwent a reboot into a full-fledged game. Calling it that feels dirty due to the painfully short campaign with its lackluster and ultimately inconsequential story that sets up yet another sequel.

Perhaps even worse is the Open Combat Missions, promising sandbox-style action but coming off as lazy with simplistic objectives. Multiplayer was knee-capped out of the gate with the focus on remastered maps for its core 6v6 modes, and despite some solid gameplay, the age-old issues of skill-based matchmaking (or at least how COD approaches it) and connection issues still cropped up. Zombies was the only good thing about this release, but that’s been abandoned after some lackluster updates. At least the microtransactions continue to roll in.

8. Anthem

After the mess of Mass Effect Andromeda, it was the turn of the main BioWare team to produce something special. It was…a live service looter shooter, which emphasized co-op over the developer’s tried and true single-player story-driven approach. As impressive as the initial gameplay reveal seemed, it was reportedly fake – Anthem’s development period was plagued with issues, from crunch to terrible management.

The result is a mess, with poor characterization and dialogue, bad mission design and objectives, a baffling lack of quality of life, performance issues, bugs, glitches, unimaginative loot and a barren endgame. Despite changes and updates, Anthem’s attempt at a do-over was ultimately rejected by EA, and support is effectively dead (though servers remain available).

7. Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Speaking of an underwhelming launch, we have the developer going from Ghost Recon Wildlands, which grew into something great to Ghost Recon Breakpoint and its removal of AI teammates, looter shooter elements, bland open world, bullet sponge drones, bugs, glitches, the list goes on. Why did the developer suddenly want to adopt a shared world shooter approach with the franchise (besides live service revenue)? No one knows, but it was disastrous. The developer would eventually claw a good game out of it, one that still fell short of Wildlands, but at least offered a more tactical experience without worrying about gear scores.

6. Resident Evil 6

After Resident Evil 5, impressions of the franchise weren’t exactly the most positive, with many feeling it veered too much into a more action-heavy approach. Even if Resident Evil 6’s trailers were full of action, there was still the hype behind seeing so many fan favorite characters (and Jake) tearing it up together. The result offered some pretty good combat but flopped in multiple ways. The characters felt off, and the overall pacing of walk a few feet, cutscene, rinse, repeat was a killer. While Resident Evil 6 saw decent sales, its critical reception was in the gutter, but thankfully, it led to the rebooting in Resident Evil 7: biohazard.

5. Payday 3

Considering the ups and downs that Payday 2 saw, it was in a pretty good spot by the time Starbreeze stopped producing new content. Payday 3 would have been the perfect opportunity to start over with a fresh new slate, avoiding its predecessor’s mistakes while ushering in a new age of heist-focused co-op gameplay. Of course, it wasn’t to be with the always-online requirement and lack of an offline mode souring fans early.

This would come back to bite the development team when server and matchmaking issues ensured fans couldn’t play for days. Even after their resolution, the sequel faced heavy criticism for removing features present in Payday 2, whether it was the pre-heist planning map, text chat, or just the option to unready. Sales were below expectations, and given the poor reception, Starbreeze has replaced its CEO to try and turn the ship around. Thus far, it doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.

4. Redfall

Arkane Austin, which specialized in immersive sims like Dishonored and Prey – didn’t inspire too much confidence when it was revealed to be working on a co-op looter shooter. The lack of an offline mode or progress for other players except the host in co-op also didn’t help. On the bright side, the state of Redfall made both issues feel like water under the bridge.

Horrendous AI, performance issues, bugs galore (including catchy music playing during serious scenes), horrible bosses, a dull story, lackluster characterization, bad mission design – everything went wrong. You may argue that expectations were low, but Redfall sunk lower, and still flounders despite some major updates.

3. Battlefield 2042

This one hurt for longtime fans of the franchise, especially coming off of a relatively disappointing Battlefield 5. With no campaign, Battlefield 2042 promised a return to everything that made the series great, wrapped in the veneer of modern combat and massive 128-player battles. Reports emerged of troubled development, and the beta earned some ire, but fans were still hopeful.

Cue the disappointment and savage response on Steam, with the sequel becoming one of the lowest-rated games in the platform’s history overnight. From the removal of the class system to the visuals, destructibility, map design and the scoreboard – that damned scoreboard – Battlefield 2042 was a letdown in every way. It’s improved over the years but is still a far cry from the series’ peak.

2. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Before it was revealed as a live service looter shooter with a boring mission design, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had a suitable amount of hype. How could fans not be excited when it was Rocksteady’s first new game since 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight? After its disastrous showing last year, it was delayed almost a year from its original release. Maybe it would add an offline mode and tone down its live service elements, including but not limited to microtransactions and a battle pass.

As it turns out, none of these things happened, and when Suicide Squad launched, it was begrudged for its terrible mission design, repetitive gameplay and boring endgame. After Warner Bros. admitted that it fell short of expectations, Rocksteady would focus on fixing the plethora of network issues and bugs while prepping the first post-launch season. Unsurprisingly, Season of the Joker was another miserable disappointment with its utter lack of story content, boring “new” missions, annoying grind to unlock the Joker as a playable character and audacity to charge for immediate access.

1. Mass Effect Andromeda

Of all the games to disappoint over the years, this one probably hurt the most. It’s not like Mass Effect Andromeda was the next mainline title in the franchise or one that had the budget and resources of Mass Effect 2 and 3. However, as the first new entry in five years, fans looked forward to it all the same. The potential for a new story and setting with an open-world twist also sparked interest. When Andromeda launched, it was quickly clowned for its bugs, facial animation and dialogue.

Those who dived deeper discovered barren planets, uninteresting characters who couldn’t hold a candle to the original heroes and a low-stakes plot. The underwhelming critical reception and sales wouldn’t outright kill the franchise entirely (as evidenced by the recent Legendary Edition and upcoming sequel), but it was the first time that fans began to question BioWare. Of course, Anthem happened, and the rest is history, but Mass Effect Andromeda hurt more.

KARAOKE (YAKUZA 0)

Anyone who’s spent a decent amount of time with iYakuza 0 (or most other Yakuza games, really) has most likely given its karaoke minigame a go as well. A rhythm game in all but name, these visits to karaoke bars are always a blast. Regardless of which difficulty you pick or even which song you pick, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has a talent for musical timing in QTEs. So much so that we’d almost like to see them make an entire rhythm game.

Shenmue 3

Much like its predecessors, Shenmue 3 has its fair share of imperfections. Nevertheless, its combat – which once again takes cues from Virtua Fighter – is still kind of fun, whether you’re carefully dodging attacks or using Skills to decimate foes. Perhaps the most enjoyable part is the training as you practice with wooden dummies, discover Skill Books and study under other martial artists. It’s like a proper arc where Ryo slowly but surely becomes stronger (not strong enough to beat Lan-Di but still).

Shenmue 3 was something of a dream game announcement. It was revealed at a Sony E3 conference as a Kickstarter campaign, which was funded easily and then eventually got a traditional publisher in Deep Silver. While the game seemed to be at least modestly successful, there were a few issues that rubbed fans and backers the wrong way, one of which was a last minute exclusivity deal with Epic Games Store. Well, it seems that part is over at least.

As announced on the official website, the game will finally be seeing its Steam release later this month. Those who got their Steam keys who backed the game for a Steam version will be able to redeem them when the listing goes live. That will mark exactly one year since its release on EGS.

Shenmue 3 is available now on PlayStation 4 and PC via the EGS with the Steam version coming November 19th. While no sequel has been announced as of yet, there are talks about it, including the director’s thoughts on where to go from here, which you can read about through here.

Ys Net’s Shenmue 3 launched last year after much hype and while a sequel isn’t necessarily coming soon, something else appears to be on the horizon. Industry insider AestheticGamer (known better as DuskGolem on ResetEra) stated that a Shenmue announcement was “100 percent” confirmed for this weekend. He also noted that it was “more for people who care about the story of Shenmue than anything.”

It’s already a given that this isn’t Shenmue 4 (which he clarified in a follow-up tweet). Does that mean a novel or series of novels? Apparently this announcement is “more than a book series or a documentary” and something “entirely brand new.” The really interesting part is that this project has already been funded and won’t head to Kickstarter.

This could be more DLC for Shenmue 3, if not some kind of expansion or spin-off. Several paid DLC released for the title last year but these added more mini-games than anything else. Time will tell what this announcement could be so stay tuned for more details.

In the meantime, check out our review of Shenmue 3 here. It’s currently available for PS4 and PC via the Epic Games Store.

Got a 100% confirm the Shenmue announcement is happening this weekend, I won't spoil the announcement but again it's more for people who care about the story of Shenmue than anything.

— AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem (@AestheticGamer1) September 2, 2020

Just to clarify a few things on the Shenmue announcement:
-It's not Shenmue 4
-It's not a port of Shenmue 1,2, 3
-It's something entirely brand new.
-It's more than a book series or a documentary.
-It's not being kickstarted, already funded.

— AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem (@AestheticGamer1) September 2, 2020

Shenmue 3 was a dream game for some, and it was something of a dream come true when the game was crowdfunded and actually set to be a reality. It did, however, get marred with various controversies surronding KickStarter backers being unhappy and Epic Games Store exclusivity. But it still came out and, well, the reception was somewhat mixed. There’s also conflicting information about how well the game did, with publisher Deep Silver saying it was below expectations, but its parent company, Embracer Group, saying it did “fine.” Either way, Ys Net wants to continue and apparently is already looking to Shenmue 4, but it could be quite different.

In an interview with IGN Japan, Director Yu Suzuki mulled over various aspects of Shenmue 3 and the franchise’s future. When talking about a potential next title, he said that it would have to be made with more mass appeal in mind. The third title was, in his head, focused on the grand return for fans who had been waiting years for a continuation. To continue to stay in business, they’ll have to change that. Though, what that actually means is up in the air (thanks to Phantom River Stone for translations).

“With Shenmue 3, I really responded from my heart to the voice of the fans. So I wasn’t especially aiming to make great profits. However, to stay in business, next time we have to think about making a product that will sell. But the best way to go about it… well, that’s something we’ve been having numerous deep discussions about.

“How Shenmue 3 was seen by people who don’t know Shenmue is something that, from a business point of view, needs to be understood, right? And so I analyzed what new gamers weren’t happy with, making various educated guesses about what they meant by their comments and giving them my sincere consideration, although it was painful. Making games is my profession, so I’ve looked at things like how much Shenmue diverges from modern trends; which areas should be improved; what the next step should be to make this kind of game, and so on. If people are saying it’s out-of-date, then in what ways: does it just feel that way, or is it really the case? I want to take these on board and make it clear.”

As of now, nothing official has even been announced about another Shenmue, so we may be putting the horse before the cart, so to speak. For now, fans will have to enjoy Shenmue 3 and its DLC support.