Deep Silver to publish Shenmue III in the second half of 2018


Deep Silver and Ys Net have announced their collaboration to publish YsNet’s forthcoming, long awaited game Shenmue III. As the press release reads, the global publishing deal will cover the release exclusively on PlayStation 4 and PC: both physical and digital versions. The current release date is scheduled for the second half of 2018.

Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media/Deep Silver, said:

“Shenmue is one of a few game franchises that have historical value whilst continuing to ignite passion across gamers. We are delighted to have signed this publishing partnership and look forward to utilizing our global publishing network to maximize the potential of this highly anticipated game.”

Yu Suzuki, the director of Shenmue III and CEO of Ys Net added:

“I am very pleased to secure this global partnership with Deep Silver, which is comprised of incredible men and women who have a deep passion for bringing Japanese titles to the rest of the world. Throughout this process, Deep Silver has expressed a deep passion for Japanese games, the Shenmue franchise and its fans—this gives me further confidence in Shenmue III and that we have found the best partner possible.”

Shenmue III is the eagerly anticipated sequel to Dreamcast classics Shenmue (1999) and Shenmue II (2001). The brainchild of award-winning game director, Yu Suzuki, Shenmue set out to combine action gameplay from his arcade classic Virtua Fighter with RPG mechanics to weave a long-form epic for home consoles.

Shenmue III was officially announced on stage at Sony’s E3 2015 press conference and simultaneously launched on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, breaking two Guinness World Records upon raising over $6 million dollars. The game is currently in development at Yu Suzuki’s independent company, Ys Net, located in Tokyo along with many original Shenmue team members.