Xbox's Phil Spencer: Biggest request I get is to bring back Shenmue

The most repeated request new Head of Xbox Phil Spencer hears from Xbox owners is for a new entry in Sega and Yu Suzuki's Shenmue series.

"The big Shenmue contingency," Spencer said with a laugh in an interview with Polygon. This group of gamers has "definitely" gathered his attention, the report states.

Don't expect a new Shenmue from Microsoft anytime soon, however. Spencer said on Twitter in February that it's not going to happen. "I know there is lots of Shenmue love out there, but it's a Sega game. We can't build it," he said at the time.

The cult series, originally planned as a trilogy for the Dreamcast and left unfinished after the second game, has not been seen since the release of Shenmue II on the original Xbox in 2002. In November, Sega confirmed that a mysterious Shenmue 3 trademark was actually a fake.

Suzuki gave a Shenmue postmortem talk at GDC last month. You can watch it below.

Though a new Shenmue game doesn't sound likely, Spencer said that Microsoft will have the "best lineup of content in a long time" in store for E3 in June. It's this content that Spencer no doubt hopes will help the Xbox One catch up to Sony's PlayStation 4.

"We're early on in the console generation, and obviously Sony's having a great launch," he said. "Console gaming is doing incredibly well right now. Six months ago, everybody wondered if console gaming was dead... but this is a long, multi-year generation and my fundamental belief is that great games create the best platforms."