"Shenmue 3" is coming and game fans can thank the almost 33,000 donors who made it happen, CNet reports.

A Kickstarter campaign to make the third version of "Shenmue" started Monday evening during the Sony PlayStation keynote address at the Electronic Entertainment Expo and just nine hours later it had reached its goal of $2 million.

Currently, "Shenmue" has seen more than 32,900 backers donate at least $2.5 million to the campaign to bring "Shenmue 3" to PlayStation 4.

"Shenmue" hit $1 million on Kickstarter faster than any game and was the second fastest to reach that number behind the Pebble Time. "Shenmue 3" hit the $1 million mark in less than two hours, while the Pebble Time hit that number in just 49 minutes.

"Shenmue" got its start in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast. The game is a mixture of action-adventure and role-playing. It is set in Japan. The storyline of the game centers around a young man trying to avenge the murder of his father.

The first Shenmue game was extremely popular. It was followed up by "Shenmue 2" for the Dreamcast in 2001 and on Xbox in 2002. However, "Shenmue 2" failed to have the same popularity of the original.

Sega published both titles and decided to abruptly end the series. "Shenmue" fans were confused that the series ended without a clear ending to the storyline. 

Fans of "Shenmue" used the Internet in an attempt to get the game back into circulation. They distributed online petitions, posted their wishes on social media and made fan sites to insist that the game return to consoles.

However, Sega would not budge and focused on its other games.

At E3, Shenmue fans got their wish when Sony announced that "Shenmue" was coming back and to the PlayStation 4 console. "Shenmue" creator Yu Suzuki then took the stage to announce that the Kickstarter campaign was live and accepting donations.

Sega has released the rights to "Shenmue" to Suzuki and will not be involved in "Shenmue 3." Suzuki said that he needed at least $2 million to move forward with the game.

According to Tech Radar, Suzuki is very optimistic about "Shenmue 3."