Shenmue 3 Delayed Until November 2019

Are you trying to locate some sailors? It turns out you'll have to wait a little while longer.

Push Square is reporting that Shenmue 3, which was originally scheduled to release in August, has been pushed back until Nov. 19, 2019. And it appears that news originally came by way of the game's Kickstarter page, where Yu Suzuki himself stated that "the game simply needs a little more refinement before being truly finished." This isn't a huge delay by any stretch, as it's only three months and the game will still land in 2019. But wow, what a difference it is going from the fairly quiet month of August into the often-packed fall. There's going to be a lot more competition there.

Then again, who is buying this game? Does it really have to worry about running into major annualized properties and Star Wars games when it's a Kickstarter project targeted toward people who understand sailor jokes and forklift references? Maybe not. We'll have to wait and see.

For what it's worth, Shenmue 3 has come together quite well since being announced at E3 2015. Back then, it was nothing more than a dream; a title for a game getting a bit of stage time at Sony's E3 conference while still needing to round up crowdfunding cash to actually get developed. Now the game is looking pretty solid — at least in terms of Shenmue titles — so if Yu Suzuki wants three more months to really polish it off, he might as well get it. After all, Shenmue fans have already waited 18 years for a third game in the series. What's a few more months on top of that?

Shenmue 3 hits PC and PlayStation 4 on Nov. 19, 2019. We'll keep an ear to the ground and let you know if any other Shenmue-related news stories make the rounds.