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Shenmue III has been delayed once more, this time being pushed back to November 19th, 2019. Announcing the delay by way of a blog post, Deep Silver and creator Yu Suzuki stated that “whilst [the game is] almost ready” the highly-anticipated sequel “simply needs a little more refinement before being truly finished”.

“We feel that the extra time we have will help us deliver the true Shenmue experience players around the world deserve! We thank you for your patience and understanding,” the brief statement concluded.

Shenmue 3 was first announced at PlayStation’s E3 press conference in 2015, the same year it was successfully Kickstarted to the tune of $6,333,295 – breaking world records in the process. Since then the original 2017 release has been pushed back several times, moving from 2017 to early 2018, then August 2019, and now November 2019.

“We apologise if this disappoints any of our fans, but we hope you can understand that we are endeavouring to ensure the game is polished before release,” Deep Silver added in a follow up tweet.

A message from YS NET & Deep Silver Shenmue III will now release on 19th November 2019. Whilst almost ready, the game simply needs a little more refinement before being truly finished. (1/2) — Official Deep Silver (@deepsilver) June 3, 2019

The agreement for Koch Media’s publishing arm Deep Silver to handle publish the physical and digital editions of the title worldwide was confirmed last year.

“I knew they were good when I was working at Sega, who also has business with Koch Media,” Yu Suzuki told MCV at the time. “We had been hunting for partners, and I’d been hearing from other people as well that Koch Media was a publisher we could trust. They have a very good track record as well, so we decided to see the people at Koch and we came over to the region to see them. Finally, we inked the contract.”