2017 is the plan.

There is no corner here...

lol it is 2017 until the devs says otherwise.

Considering the first two games didn't sell very well, surely they were reluctant at how many fans the game has left 15 years later.

And the game is still not a guaranteed success. For all we know, all the interested people will Kickstart it, and it may end up selling zero at retail.

And that's where Sony jumps in, they will fund the marketing and retail publishing to bring in new customers that have no idea what Shenmue is at this point.

I liken this game to No Man's Sky - developer assures funding to make the game, and Sony helps them gain major visibility and helps increase sales.

Sony has agreed to do basically all of the marketing for Shenmue 3, which is why they marketed Shenmue 3 at their E3 presentation. It was the first part. If it failed to get any attention still, that would have been that. Currently, everything is a maybe and people just need to donate to the Kickstarter and worry about everything else later.

Well the first game sold 1.2m in a dead console.

BTW it was the 4th best selling game on Dreamcast selling more than Resident Evil Code: Veronica for eg.

"If Suzuki's Kickstarter is successful [and very quickly after our conversation it was], SCEA will add funding and other support"

Yu Suzuki will definitely get his 10 million. We just need the kickstarter to reach 6 or 7 million for Sony to say "oh u needed 3 more  to make it the best? here take it"

At best I see a late 2017 release but most likely a 2018 release. Has the game even began full production?