Will there be a Shenmue 3 Xbox One version? Fans are hoping to see the epic conclusion to this decades-old trilogy come to their favorite platform, especially after having waited for so long. The Shenmue games have been well-regarded as cult titles in gaming history for a long time, and now we’ll finally be able to see how this story ends. There is, however, one question remaining: will be seeing Shenmue 3 on the Xbox One?
A leak of the game’s source code hinted that we may indeed be getting a Shenmue 3 Xbox One version as noted by @Wario64 on Twitter:
Shenmue III may be coming to Xbox One, evidence in the source code for the official preorder page shows an Xbox One logo under platforms https://t.co/QrdNREc3Hw
Xbox One logo asset: https://t.co/xfpiDGgsnm pic.twitter.com/lC070zqqQY
— Wario64 (@Wario64) June 6, 2019
That’s a pretty good indicator that we’ll get an Xbox One port, but is this leak real or is it just an unfortunate mistake?
Shenmue 3 Xbox One | Was the Shenmue 3 leak genuine or a mistake?
The Shenmue 3 Xbox One leak had a promising reference to the game coming to Microsoft’s flagship console. Here is the code in question:
<!‐‐ <div class=”shop__radio shop__platform”>
<label id=”xbox” class=”shop__btn”>
<input name=”pltform” type=”radio” value=”xbox” />
<img src=”assets/img/xbox.png” id=”xbox__btn” class=”btn__selector” />
</label>
</div> ‐‐>
At its face, this seems like a good indication that we would be getting Shenmue 3 on the Xbox One. However, anyone with a passing familiarity with coding will note the “<!‐‐” and “‐‐>” tags that wrap around this code. These tags mean that the code has been “commented out”, meaning that it is preserved in the source code as a comment but won’t actually be interpreted by the computer as functional code. Essentially, it’s been preserved for posterity but is non-functional.
Commenting out old code is standard practice in the industry. A feature may be cut or delayed and you don’t want to have to repeat your work; changing a section of code to a comment makes it easy to save your work for later while ensuring that it doesn’t mess up anything in the actual program or website.
Still, the fact that code has been commented out doesn’t necessarily mean that we wouldn’t get a Shenmue 3 Xbox One version. Unfortunately, Deep Silver quickly stepped in via Twitter and quashed any hopes of us getting a port in the near future:
There is no planned version of Shenmue III for Xbox One.
— Deep Silver (@deepsilver) June 7, 2019
