Fans of Yu Suzuki's Shenmue saga have been waiting a long time for this - the original open-world action RPG debuted in North America in 2000 and was followed by a sequel that was not released in the U.S. in 2001 (although it was eventually released as an Xbox exclusive). But finally, after years of waiting, the Shenmue 3 may finally come to the PlayStation 4 with the fans' help.

And it looks like the fans don't want to wait much longer. The conclusion to the Shenmue saga is on its way to becoming one of the fastest-funded Kickstarter projects ever.

According to reports, fans backed the campaign in droves and the game garnered $100,000 in just the first 15 minutes of it going live. In just a few hours, more than 23,000 backers have pledged more than $1.9 million toward the goal of $2 million in order to get the game on the PlayStation 4 - and there are still 31 days left to get on board!

Even the three slots for backers in the $10,000 range have been filled. These three generous backers will be able to bring along a friend to join Suzuki himself at a dinner party in Japan sometime in September 2016 as well as receive other goodies for their pledge.

Suzuki himself announced the launch of the Kickstarter Campaign for Shenmue 3 at the Los Angeles E3 Gaming Convention.

He explained that, over the years, he was had always been asked when he will finally make the next installment of the game, and he had always asked himself how he can get the means to produce it for all the loyal gamers who have been waiting patiently for it.

Kickstarter allowed Suzuki the means to raise the funds to produce the game for Sony consoles and get the tremendous outpouring of support from all the games' fans as well.

It seems it's no longer a question if the campaign will be successfully funded. Once the game reaches its goal of $2 million, Shenmue 3 will be the first in the series to be made available for the PlayStation. The original game and its sequel were originally played on Dreamcast and Xbox.

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