Shenmue 3 sets new Kickstarter record, hits $2M goal in 9 hours

Announced last night by Yu Suzuki on-stage at Sony's E3 press event, Shenmue 3 is now the fastest game project on Kickstarter to surpass $1 million pledged, having done so in less than two hours.

It's also the second-fastest project to reap $1 million across all of Kickstarter, second only to the crowdfunding campaign for the Pebble Time watch, which seems to have hit the magic million mark (according to data provided by Statista) roughly 30 minutes after launch.

In just over nine hours the project hit its $2 million funding target, and now has 31 days to rack up additional pledges. Of course, Suzuki himself noted at GDC 2011 that developing the original Shenmue from scratch cost Sega roughly "$47 million" -- in 1999. It's not yet clear how much he expects to spend on this new entry.

"I want to make it," Suzuki said back at GDC 2011, in response to fan outcry for a Shenmue 3. "Probably Sega will let me make it. I think. It's simply a problem of budget."

Interest in the campaign, which is being run by Suzuki's studio Ys Net, seems to have been rampant enough to take Kickstarter's website temporarily offline due to high traffic.