The plot on this one seems to keep thickening..... well not that much but a little bit. There's no way for anyone to know whether this Gamerzine report is true or not, as of right now it's just yet another unsubstantiated Shenmue rumour. The good thing though, is that this seems to have sparked some interest in gaming press and the story now has been given a decent bit of attention on Eurogamer as well as getting a mention on Edge-online
Check out the EG http://www.eurogamer.net/ Sega reply and say the same thing the first guy said.