After Shenmue 3 collected more than three and half million dollars on Kickstarter support has slowed. A potential reason is the ongoing discussion about Sony and Shibuya Productions role in the
game's financing. Now Yu Suzuki has posted an update on Kickstarter regarding this issue to clarify the situation.
Suzuki stated, that Sony and Shibuya Productions "have been wonderful partners [...] with their assistance on the production and marketing end, and in Sony's case with some publishing support as well, Ys Net is able to use more of the money we collect through Kickstarter purely for Shenmue 3's development. It is also important to note that your funds are going strictly to Ys Net for development of Shenmue 3 - Sony and Shibuya Productions are not seeing a cent of your Kickstarter dollars."
Suzuki also hints at more stretch goals come the ten million dollar mark, which will lead to a much larger, completely open world. But even in its current form, he is already pleased and says it will be a true sequel to be proud of.