The popular Spanish video games magazine Hobby Consolas seems to mention Shenmue within its pages quite often, and now, in the latest issue, #422, Shenmue 3 Enhanced is mentioned during a Q&A section between readers and the magazine’s own editors.
Since the magazine is written in Spanish, once again our good friend Iago has kindly translated and shared the excert from the magazine for our fans to enjoy!
[Originally published on Hobby Consolas Issue 422 (September 2026)]
For context, the below is an excerpt from the section “Teléfono Rojo” (Red Phone), where readers can write to mysterious expert “Yen” for answers to their questions. The excerpt below is from an inquiry from Raúl Fernández. His inquiries are written in bold, and Yen’s answers are written in regular text.
Long live Ryo Hazuki!
Hi again, Yen! It’s a pleasure to write to you again and, I hope, to read your wise replies again.
As soon as Inin Games opened pre-orders for Shenmue III Enhanced, I got the collector’s edition. With this one, I now have 4 of this game: I’m a pure passion for Yu Suzuki’s saga… because I want it to continue! And I also got it for a console I don’t yet own: the Switch 2. Knowing that I’m not in a hurry to get it, and despite the fact that the price is going up in September, do you think it’s a good idea to wait until Black Friday or should I get it early?
Hello again, Raúl! Well, now there are two of us who have more than one copy of Shenmue III: in my case, the Kickstarter one and the PS4 collector’s edition. And I’ll definitely be getting the Inin Games remaster too.
Under normal circumstances, I’d tell you to wait, since Nintendo offered some great discounts on the Switch 2 for Black Friday 2025. However, this year, with the €30 price increase on September 1st, I don’t know if they’ll do it again. Given the circumstances, I prefer a bird in the hand to two in the bush and would grab it right now. Last year, I think the fact that Nintendo wanted to clear out the stock of the starter pack with Mario Kart World played a role.
On that note, I don’t know if you’ll agree, but my impression is that the enhanced version of Shenmue III is Suzuki’s last chance to relaunch his excellent series, and that if it fails or is lukewarmly received, we can forget about the fourth instalment (or even a possible prequel, as has been rumoured). What do you think about this? Could Sega be encouraged to get involved with the series again, even if it’s just with a remaster of the first two games for Switch 2?
I’m worried about the fact that time is running out, since Yu Suzuki is already 68 years old, and Shenmue is a saga inextricably linked to his name. But, aside from that, as you say, the sales volume of the remaster of the third instalment will be key to whether there can be a sequel, in principle by Inin Games, although they only have the rights to the third game. Because, as you point out, the rights to the first two games are still managed by Sega, which is very detached from the series.
Certainly, being a saga so heavily reliant on its history, for the general public who are still unfamiliar with the saga, it doesn’t make much sense to adapt Shenmue III to Switch 2 if the same isn’t done first with Shenmue I & II HD Remaster. The problem is that the port D3t did in 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC was mediocre beyond belief.
Even so, I dream that this potential Shenmue IV could be co-developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the team responsible for Yakuza and the latest Virtua Fighter games, two other Sega series that are practically sisters to Shenmue.
