'Shenmue 3' Release Date: Game Delayed To November 2019

“Shenmue 3” developers have confirmed that this awaited game’s release has been delayed for three more months. The game reportedly needs more polishing before its developers can call it complete. So far, the game has been in development for almost half a decade.

Director Yu Suzuki and publisher Deep Silver have confirmed that they’ve delayed the game’s release date. From Aug. 27, the release date has changed to Nov. 19, according to "Shenmue 3’s" official Kickstarter page. Back in 2017, the game's release had already been delayed to a 2019 release date.

The announcement also said that the developers want to refine and polish up the game some more to deliver the best experience for “Shenmue” fans. However, the announcement didn’t mention which parts of the game the devs were planning to refine further. For now, fans can only wait until later this year to see if the game will be released.

In November, “Shenmue 3” will be released in the same month as Kojima Productions’ “Death Stranding,” another game that fans have been waiting for a long time. Instead of a delay, “Death Stranding” had a long development period, with its developers releasing a trailer in 2017 and 2018.

However, many fans couldn’t understand what its director was trying to show to the fans at the time, and the teaser only made sense with a recent trailer unveiled this year. Both games have appeared on Sony’s E3 main stage and were instant darlings among many fans familiar with its directors and their subsequent works. Suzuki’s “Shenmue 3” has yet to release a recent trailer for their game.

Meanwhile, fans on the Kickstarter seemed to be fine with the delay based on the comments. Many fans showed support by letting the developers take their time with “Shenmue 3.”

The “Shenmue” series was one of the earliest open-world RPG games where players explored and followed a central character of a story. In “Shenmue,” players would be Ryo Hazuki, a young man seeking vengeance for his murdered father. In his quest for vengeance, Ryo would have to face dangerous criminal figures who could be connected to his father’s murderer.

Players would also have a fighting system based on kung fu and other martial arts as the fight off these criminals. Other than its fighting system, players also live the daily life of Ryo Hazuki, which mostly involve warm interactions with the locals, completing jobs for money and other open world adventure activities.

For now, we’ll have to wait for November to see “Shenmue 3” in its completed form.