Earlier today, Shenmue 3 creator Yu Suzuki and publisher Deep Silver announced via their Kickstarter page that the game's release date has been pushed back from August 27th to November 19th, citing that "the game simply needs a little more refinement before being truly finished". It should be noted that this is the third delay in the game's four year development, with the original release date being scheduled for sometime 2018. Obviously, that did not happen.
The hype for Shenmue 3 began way back in 2015 when its Kickstarter campaign was announced at that year's annual E3 Conference. That news came as a bit of a shock to fans of the series, myself included, considering that it was assumed to be a forgotten relic of the long-dead Dreamcast era. In any case, the campaign ended its three-year crowdfunding stretch after raising a little over $7 million of its original $2 million goal, which leads me to believe that there were at least a few people excited for this apparently long-awaited third coming of Shenmue.
It's unclear how candid this delay announcement is, or if it is actually the result of needing some extra polish. However, fans of the series have already waited this long for a proper sequel, what is another three months in the grand scheme of things?