Why Shenmue 1 + 2 HD Port is a BAD idea

[yuke1]

Now I want an HD port of these games as much as the next person on this forum, but after giving it thought, I understand why these ports are a BAD idea at this point in time.

As you hopefully all know, the Shenmue experience is greatly enriched by the ability to import saved data from previous titles. This means that a Shenmue 3 player would likely want to import their Shenmue 2 save. Obviously this save file will not come from the Dreamcast nor the XBOX, leaving only the HD Port of the game remaining.

Now assuming there are absolutely no licensing problems and Sega gives the okay to release these HD ports, where and when do you release them? If you release these ports without confirmation of Shenmue 3, your entire efforts could be for nothing. For instance, if the ports had been released back when we heard rumor that Sega already had them completed for the Xbox 360 and the PS3, we all know from experience that we would not have gotten Shenmue 3 in that same generation. Now one may simply argue, "well why not import your PS3/Xbox 360 save onto your PS4/Xbox One via USB or similar means?" This may sound flawless at first, until you consider systems that may not receive a port of Shenmue 3.

It seems like the community has made up its mind on wanting Shenmue 3 as a PS4 exclusive. There are logical reasons why this may probably be the case, but I digress. Now consider a casual player who is not as savvy as all of us here. He may buy an HD Port on a console that will NOT feature Shenmue 3 in the future. If they bought Shenmue 1+2 HD on any Microsoft console, and Shenmue 3 comes out for the PS4 only, well they are simply out of luck, because importing THAT save is clearly out of the question. If that player still decides to play Shenmue 3, he will either have a weaker experience (compared to the rest of us), or will reluctantly buy the ports AGAIN simply to get the full experience out of Shenmue 3. This will obviously leave a few people unhappy.

As soon as we have confirmation about where and when Shenmue 3 will appear, then there is no reason for an HD Port to be released accordingly. But I believe at this point in time, it is too early to be assigning destination consoles for the HD Ports. I hope that anyone who reads this understands that this kind of delay for the Shenmue 1+2 HD is BETTER for US in the long run when we finally get to play the long awaited Shenmue 3.



I believe that all our efforts should be concentrated on getting Shenmue 3 out of Sega rather than the HD Ports, if that happens, the HD Ports will come naturally. The HD Ports alone will serve us no point.

[MechaWumpa]

Microsoft has no interest in future Shenmue titles right now, https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/4294792782923857
We don't know which gen consoles Shenmue 3 would be released on, but PS4 and X1 have similar archs which means porting is not a problem, on top of that, x86 archs are easier to program than Sony's previous consoles. As far as Gen7 consoles go, it might be easier for Sega to release on those since they already have had the equipment for those consoles (and might not have to invest as much for Shenmue 3?), but porting between PS3 and X360 to/or S4 and X1 might result in what Square Enix did with Kingdom Hearts by jumping between 4 different consoles. Honestly I think 1+2 HD and Shenmue 3 would just be produced for PS4 considering what AdamKoralik's said about Shenmue's future.