If you never owned a Dreamcast, then chances are you never experienced Yu Suzuki’s epic Shenmue. The sequel was ported to the original Xbox, but wasn’t a huge seller; which means the series has remained fondly in the memories of Sega fans. It was one of the last big franchises to hit a Sega platform before they ended their hardware.

Over the years it’s been pretty popular to troll Sega fans with the hope of a new Shenmue being revealed, but now there’s a strong rumor that not only will the first two games be released in HD but a third game may be on the way as well.

According to Gamerzines, Sega has had both Shenmue HD and Shenmue II HD complete for a long time and poised for release on both XBLA and PSN. Apparently they’ve just been holding out to find out the future of the franchise (Shenmue III) before releasing them, and the rumor is that they may be out later in the year.

I’m hoping they do release them. There’s a whole new generation of gamers who needs to experience some of Yu Suzuki’s genius. Now lets get some AM2 HD collections with Daytona, Scud Racer, Virtua Fighter, and Virtua On!