Yu Suzuki is Already Looking Ahead to Shenmue 4

Shenmue 3 launched earlier this week, and has barely been out for three days, but developer Yu Suzuki is already looking ahead to a sequel. The third game in the series might have taken 18 years to come to fruition, but that seemingly hasn't dampened Suzuki's desire to tell more of Ryo's story.

At the very end of Shenmue 3, a personal letter from Yu Suzuki appears during the staff credits. "I sincerely hope that, together, we can continue to spin the tale of Ryo and his adventures in Shenmue 4," the letter reads. "This goes out to all who have ever loved and supported Shenmue," Suzuki writes, per VGC.

The news of a potential Shenmue 4 perhaps shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Speaking to USgamer earlier this year, Suzuki took his water bottle and placed it on the table between us at about the halfway point, saying "whole story of this bottle, about here [sic]." He then clarified that this was about "40%," so we're nearly halfway through the story of Ryo with the release of Shenmue 3.

Additionally, Suzuki told VGC earlier this year that plans for Shenmue 4 would be made easier if sales of this new third game are good. There's currently no word on sales figures for Shenmue 3 at the time of writing.

Currently, USgamer doesn't have a Shenmue 3 review. We only received code for the game a day before it launched on Tuesday this week, and so we're dedicating time to playing the game before publishing our final thoughts.