Sega teases Shenmue HD release on XBLA/PSN

[DoubleO_Ren]

Oh my god I just realised I'd be a boss at the arm wrestling with my lightning speed thumb and middle finger sliding on the Xbutton on the PS3. That was impossible to pull off on the Dreamcast and even more so on the clusterfuck of a controller known as the 360 controller.

Hope it comes to PSN eventually, it's the only chance I'll get to play Shenmue again..

Of course it will, they'll come out at the same time, who ever wrote this topic title needs to edit it quick!

[Mitsuzuki]

This news won't register on my "holy shit" meter until official word is released.

[shenhua legend]

This could be so good for Shenmue, if they do a good port and the price is right, maybe we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Please be true.

[Peter]

Have to admit this really has got me buzzing. Its great to see glimmers of the Community starting to reawaken also. I think this is as close to announcement as your gonna get for now. The body language and the smile indicate that there is good news on Shenmue DLC on the horizon and that he knows it. Its not a purse of the lips/shrug of the shoulders "no comment" response we are all so used to over the years. Its a positive reply, with a smile and flat out admission that the most requested title for HD DLC is Shenmue. You wont get more than that until Sega announce it. But when they start teasing the next DC DLC game, and all signs point to Shenmue, then this place is gonna explode!

[Master Kyodai]

It definitely IS a positive statement. Even if they do not say "We are really working on it" they at least admitted that Shenmue is "among the most requested games", which is good news.

Personally I am not super-keen on a Shenmue PSN/XBLA release unless it is really a remake, i.e. improved gfx, textures or so. Just "Shenmue plus an emulator" will not do it for me as i already have all versions available and i am not dreaming about "playing Shenmue again with a different controller".

I hope they will improve the games at least a bit. Personally i was a bit disappointed by some of their releases, for example i found "Crazy taxi" especially poor, that it didn't even come with all original music tracks made it a sub-par release in my eyes. Also while it was "neat 3D" like 12 years ago it looked pretty poor by todays standards. At least some of the car and NPC models were really screaming to be remade in a bit higher resolution.

[Mitsuzuki]

It's been quite some time since I've given the series another round, but it is giving me pause with the potential re-release on the horizon.

For those who have been thinking of revisiting the game, will you now wait a little longer to see how this development pans out?

[Virtua]

Great to see old members returning!

Oh and people think Virtua was Ryudo because not too long ago, Ryudo had that very same avatar.

Ha, really? He must've nicked it from me. I drew my own avatar, a 'HD' render of a Wonderboy sprite.

[AnimeGamer183]

As far as I am concerned (at this point), they are working on Shenmue and you bet your lilly ass I will buy it once it comes out on PSN. They usually dont tease us that blatantly just to come up with nothing, its obviously not an official announcement, but the whole "we might be workin on em *wink wink*" premise is good enough to get your hopes up for in my opinion. Everyone keep your eyes peeled.

[Spokane]

Ryudo made it famous.

That means he likes your work .

[Bluecast]

I have to remain skeptical. Every single time in 10 years we get excited about something we get let down. Every single damn time. Adam Doree fucked up. Shenmue Online was canned. Shenmue Gai was shut down.
Too many "maybe" or "we'll see" from Yu. Yu leaving Sega. SOA is likely but Shenmue I have no doubts won't happen. Be surprised if it does and eat crow proudly.

[Bluecast]

Great to see old members returning!

Oh and people think Virtua was Ryudo because not too long ago, Ryudo had that very same avatar.

Ha, really? He must've nicked it from me. I drew my own avatar, a 'HD' render of a Wonderboy sprite.

I could not remember where it came from TBH. Just had it sitting on my HDD forever.

[Balzak802]

I just saw this news and am excited as hell. This is the first time that I am actually excited for an HD Remake since I usually see them with games that have already recieved their respective sequals. I just hope that it is true because if it is, I will buy at least 3 codes for me and other people that have yet to experience Shenmue.
I just hope that if these HD Remakes are sucessful enough, we could get Shenmue 3 in the end.

[Peter]

If this dude knew what he has started, he will be crying into his Cheerios

[mue 26]

Been a heck of a long time since I've made an effort to post anything (even after all the TGS hooplah) here, but this latest tease makes me want to reiterate an important notion that most of us have here:

Yes, since the man has gone so far as to suggest that Shenmue I and (hopefully) II HD upgrades have been highly demanded for and are highly probable, I want to go out on a limb here and suggest that they *most likely* are coming relatively soon in the near future (can't help it - as a Shenmue fan you get used to using so many qualifiers when disucussing when something will hopefully happen...) . Otherwise, just like some others have already wondered, why else would he throw this tease out there?

But, here's the main point. If both SI and SII get HD remakes, or even if just SI gets a remake, Sega ends up putting enormous pressure on themselves to follow up with a proper Shenmue 3 project. Becuase if they end up leaving it at just SII (or worse still, just SI this time around) they risk alienating the so-called 'new generation' of gamers that we have wanted to expose Shenmue to for some time now.

In other words, if they hype up the new HD remakes as remakes of Dreamcast classic masterpieces (because I'd imagine that's how they'd market these downloads so that you know, people actually buy/download them) but then choose again to never follow up with SIII then they shoot themselves in the foot and provide us longtime fans and the usual popular gaming media rags with unlimited reason with which to hound and talk smack about them for failing to fulfill their promise of completing the saga and repeating history again.

So - in my estimation, a great deal of importance actually lies within the possibility of SI and SII HD remakes at this time. Irregardless of whether these HD remakes makes the series popular and/or relevant to the current generation of gamers, their probable release has the potential to be a powerful catalyst that we all need to be rallying behind now - after all, why release them again if you're just going to disappoint us all again?

But in all honesty, really happy to hear this. I'm definitely all for sharing the experience with the current generation of gamers - it's been over 10 years now but the amount of content, secrets, detail, and high-quality production values put into the games is still dizzying and I'd love to explore, dissect, and discuss all of that all over again.

Still holding out fot that epic 'complete collection' edition that would include SI HD, SII HD, SIII along with complete series' artbook, guidebook, and soundtrack all in a fancy jade collector's case that's obviously coming out one day...right?

Good to see you back Wanderin, I always enjoyed reading your posts!

But yeah I do agree, Sega does indeed only increase the pressure on itself to make a move in regards to the future of the franchise by re-releasing the games (which is why I won't fully believe they really are doing this until it's official). However, it's dependent on one thing, and that's that the game sells considerably well. If it's sales (touch wood) end up being a disappointment, Sega will just do their best to bury any memory of the game and every Sega employee with have to take an oath denying the existence of the series. In other words, we need it to sell well, very well.

With that said though, I do absolutely believe it can be a huge surprise hit, and I absolutely agree that a successful re-release is our fastest and most direct route to a Shenmue 3. If it did sell well, Sega would be able to ignore Shenmue no longer!

It's good to see this tidbit of info getting decent coverage too, it's on the Metro's website today And yeah that guy who said it is definitely getting locked in Sega's basement (the one Yu only recently escaped from)

[Ryo911]

Seriously can not wait for this, if it is true this is awesome news. Lets now hope they manage to keep 100% of the soundtrack as mentioned in the interview they only managed 70% for JSR Re-Release.

Do you think they will release 1 and 2 at the same time?