Sega Europe: ‘Shenmue 1 and 2 remakes have our full attention’

Remakes of Shenmue 1 and 2 are still being actively discussed within Sega.

The publisher told fans in May that it was trying to find a way to return the classic Dreamcast RPGs, which were first released in 2000 and 2001. European boss Jurgen Post told MCV this week that although there is still no green light on the project, the company is eager to make it happen.

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 III, which is due late next year, was funded via Kickstarter and raised $6.3m (4.8m) making it the most successful video game Kickstarter project ever.