According to Sega Europe’s executive vice president of publishing, John Clark, plans for remastered Shenmue games have been something the company has wanted to put into motion for quite some time. Nevertheless, while the Sega executive has confirmed that it’s a project that the firm desires to implement, Clark stopped short of directly confirming that remasters for Shenmue 1 and 2 are presently in the works.
Although Clark didn’t openly declare that Shenmue 1 and 2 remasters are currently in the process of being created, the phrase “it’s not a task we’re not working on” sounds like the exact kind of corporate double-speak that has to be used in public discourse in order to avoid revealing concrete information too soon. So, even though it hasn’t been locked in as an inevitability just yet, it’s safe to presume we will see HD updates of the games sometime in the near future.
Of course, with Shenmue 3’s release having recently been delayed until the second half of 2018, there’s a chance that fans won’t be able to get their hands on remasters of the first two games until next year as well. After all, it would make the most sense for Sega to launch the HD versions of the titles sometime around the availability of the third entry in order to fully capitalize on gamers’ peak interest in the franchise.
While Sega is “actively pursuing” HD remasters of Shenmue, no official release date or platforms have been announced.
Source: MCV
