Yu Suzuki’s beloved Shenmue series is set to return in December of this year with Shenmue 3, but players might not have to wait that long to get their fix of Yokosuka, Japan. This speculation comes from Sega Europe registering two domains: shenmuehd.com and shenmueremastered.com. While it could just be Sega covering their bases, it would seem to indicate that the 1999 classic could be getting an HD remaster.
Sega has previously talked about releasing both of the previous Shenmue games in the past, but have said that licensing issues would have to be solved before the games were released. Similar to the Yakuza series, Shenmue featured a lot of licensed products from Sega arcade games to store items.
Last year Sega community manager Dan Sheridan discussed the challenges. “Sadly, it’s not as simple as porting the games to the current platforms,” explained Sheridan. “We need to ensure that any HD remaster lives up to the quality of the original titles.”
Shenmue 3 was announced during Sony’s E3 2015 press conference where the game’s Kickstarter link was unveiled. The crowdfunding effort proved to be a successful one as the game has raised over $6,500,000. The game is being published by Ys Net, and Sony is helping to market the game.
The long awaited sequel is set to release in December 2017. The open world adventure game will come out on PlayStation 4 and PC. In the game’s latest Kickstarter update, creator Yu Suzuki shared several new screenshots.
Let us know in the comments below if you would like to see the original Shenmue remastered!
(Source: Sega Nerds via Gamespot)
