Shenmue III delayed until November

Shenmue III has been delayed by a further three months, according to its director Yu Suzuki.

In a short update posted to the game’s Kickstarter backers, Suzuki and publisher Deep Silver announced that the game will no longer be released on 27 August 2019 as planned, and it is now scheduled to launch on November 19, 2019.

“Whilst almost ready, the game simply needs a little more refinement before being truly finished”, the brief statement reads.

“We feel that the extra time we have will help us deliver the true Shenmue experience players around the world deserve.”

The long anticipated final chapter in the Shenmue series was first announced during Sony‘s E3 2015 press conference, during which it was stated the game would release in December 2017.

It has suffered numerous delays since then, with the proposed release date moving back to the end of 2018, then early 2019, then 27 August 2019.

The previous Shenmue games were released in 1999 and 2001 respectively.

Proposed as a trilogy from the beginning, the third game was essentially scrapped after Shenmue II sold poorly, leaving fans in limbo until the Shenmue III’s surprise announcement in 2015.