SEGA has revealed that it is actively considering high-definition remakes of Shenmue and Shenmue 2 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Speaking to MCV, the industry giant’s European boss, Jurgen Post, said that while the projects have not yet been officially greenlit by SEGA, the company is giving Shenmue HD is ‘full attention.’
“There is definitely a desire [to go back to our classic games],” Post said. “Even online, people are constantly talking about products they would like to see come back, and Shenmue 1 and 2 are probably in the top two places. We are looking into it. It is an old IP, it is a beloved IP – and not just by consumers, but also within Sega, we have people saying that if we could do Shenmue 1 and 2 all over again, we’d definitely go for it.
“The issue is that it is a big game. It is a project from many years ago. If we are to do it, we’d want to do a fantastic conversion to the current platforms, and there are a lot of licences in the game, which were cleared many years ago, so we will need to renegotiate those contracts. We are looking into it. We haven’t given it a green light, but it has our full attention.”
Shenmue HD has been rumored for a few years now, and as far back as 2012 suggested it was working on the project. Sony’s third-party arm has acknowledged consumers’ demands for revisiting the cult classic series, though has stopped short of committing to a re-release.
Shenmue was originally released on the Dreamcast back in 1999 and was followed by a sequel two years later. Shenmue 3 was announced after years of rumors during Sony’s E3 2015 press event, where creator Yu Suzuki unveiled the project via Kickstarter.
A huge success on the crowdfunding site, Shenmue III raised $6.3 million by the end of its Kickstarter run and became the fastest videogame on the site to hit the $1 million barrier.