Yu Suzuki takes to Kickstarter to fund development of Shenmue 3

Unexpectedly, veteran game designer Yu Suzuki briefly took the stage during Sony's E3 press conference this evening to announce that he's launching a Kickstarter campaign to help fund development of Shenmue 3.

This is notable because, quite frankly, the public outcry for a new entry in the Shenmue franchise has grown so loud as to actually impinge on Suzuki's career; despite working on a variety of influential titles at Sega, he has faced a rising volume of questions along the lines of "when will you make Shenmue 3?" since shortly after releasing Shenmue 2 on Dreamcast (and, later, the original Xbox) in 2001.

Thing is, he led development of Shenmue and Shenmue 2 while working at Sega; it's yet unclear why he appeared at Sony's press conference to announce a crowdfunding campaign for the third main entry in the franchise, rather than relying solely on a funding arrangement with a major publisher -- like, say, Sony or Sega.

It's worth noting that Suzuki appeared at GDC 2014 to deliver a postmortem of his work creating the original Shenmue; in interviews conducted during that conference, he acknowledged that he was looking into Kickstarter as a way to fund Shenmue 3.