While initially planned for a December 2017 release, Shenmue 3 will no longer make that date. In a new Kickstarter update from director Yu Suzuki, Shenmue 3 is now slated for the second half of 2018. This is due to Suzuki’s team needing more time to develop the game, due to it being larger than expected.
More details on the status of Shenmue 3 will be published in the next backer report on Kickstarter. This news closely follows an announcement that Shenmue 3 will not be making an appearance at E3 2017, so it’s safe to say this announcement was inevitable at that point.
Shenmue 3 was originally announced at E3 2015, and subsequently became the biggest Kickstarter success in the video game category. Unfortunately, video game Kickstarters can often be the most unstable, so anything referring to an initial release date is likely far from being set in stone.
Source: IGN