Could the Shenmue I & II Be Coming This Summer?
Several Eastern-European retail sites have Shenmue I & II, the re-released collection of the first two Shenmue games, slated for release on August 21st. The release date of the collection has not been officially announced though an official trailer confirmed that it’ll be coming out this year.
Mind you, retail sites aren’t completely reliable when it comes to unannounced release dates. There’s also the fact that Shenmue I & II was rumored to have had a release date of June 26th. That release date was seen on the website of UK retailer Newegg.
However, back in September 2017, one of those Eastern-European sites (Alza) had reportedly already listed a Shenmue I & II collection on their website long before the collection was officially announced.
With all that said, it would make sense for the re-released collection to come out in the summer if Shenmue III is actually going to come out this year. A summer release for Shenmue I & II would make sense since the (presumed) point of the collection is to introduce new players to the story of the series before the third game comes out. Also, Shenmue III is currently slated for release in the 2nd half of 2018.
It should also be noted that back in January, one of Shenmue III’s producers tweeted that the game was going to come out in 2018.
Of course, we probably won’t know for certain when the Shenmue collection will come out until E3. Sega is listed as one of the companies that’ll be participating in E3 2018.
Shenmue I & II is going to be available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One later this year.