A trusted source close to Atlus USA, today revealed to me that Shenmue HD Remaster will be released this year. Both games, Episodes 1 & 2, may be released together rather than separately. They are presumably being geared up for launch to precede Shenmue 3, which could possibly slip into 2018.

The link to the article is broken on GAF so I can't link it here. There is this though:

http://segabits.com/blog/2017/01/05/sega-registers-shenmuehd-com-domain-impending-announcement/

I wonder who is handling the remaster if true. I vaguely remember a player endorsed mod on pc a while back. Or am I thinking of something else

I hope it is more than just visuals, Shenmue 1*2 are very outdated, only fans tend to enjoy, newcomers don't get the appeal.

As a Shenmue fan I would love this but not getting my hopes up. While Shenmue III finally panned out. Since 2003 nearly every rumor turned out to be fake. So I am skeptical. I hope it's true tho and love it on disc for PS4

Great, hopefully this is true! Not many people plaid the first two games and and if they want Shenmue 3 to sell as good as possible more people have to play the first two entries.

Shenmue 3 will be a commercial failure for sure without a re-release of Shenmue 1 and 2. So the release of Shenmue 3 almost ensure a Shenmue 1-2 HD (or Sega is really stupid, which is possible too...). 

SWEET, greatest shenmue fan here.

I'll believe it when I see it. I still have my copies of Shenmue 1 and 2 for Dreamcast. I imported Shenmue 2 from the UK.

Pretty much this. Loved it when it came out. It felt like something from the future. Now, it's really a chore to play.

Still have my copy of the first. Couldn't play the second until I got it for Xbox 360 via backwards compatibility. By then, much of the appeal was gone.