Sega’s HD remasters for Shenmue 1 and 2 finally have an official release date of August 21^st. As announced by Xbox Live director of programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, the remasters are currently available for pre-order and pre-download on the Microsoft Store. Those on the West Coast who purchase the bundle will see it unlock on August 20^th, 9 PM PDT.

Interestingly, Sega itself hasn’t officially confirmed the release date. Regardless, Shenmue 1 and 2 HD Remaster costs $29.99 and will also be available for PlayStation 4 and PC. Despite featuring the same story and gameplay from the earlier Dreamcast versions, the remasters will sport a modern interface.

Players can also choose between classic or modern controls and even experience the game’s Japanese audio for the first time. In the meantime, creator Yu Suzuki is working on Shenmue 3, the long-awaited sequel in the franchise, for PS4 and PC. It’s been delayed to 2019 but development is still progressing steadily.

Update: Major Nelson has clarified that he was talking about the podcasr and not about Microsoft. “OK. Let’s step back a bit. In the podcast, I said I was doing something never done before. When I said ‘we’ it was in the context of the podcast…not the overall Xbox business. Sure there are some announcements for E3 but I don’t know everything that we (Xbox business) are announcing,” he clarified on Reddit.

After Head of the Xbox division Phil Spencer revealed that there would be more announcements prior to Microsoft’s E3 media briefing, with Halo 5: Guardians’ reveal being one of the initial titles. This would allow for the company to focus on other things at next month’s expo – which apparently includes something that has never been done at E3 before.

This was revealed by director of programming for Xbox Live Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb on his weekly podcast. “It’s going to be the first time this has ever been done at E3. Ever.”

We’ll be honest. If it’s like the Cirque du Soleil performance where Kinect was first showcased, we will be highly amused.

Other than that, we know that Microsoft will focusing on more games this year. Rumours indicate that Ryse: Son of Rome 2 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be announced. What are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments.