It's time for your annual Shenmue 3 rumour!

E3 is just around the corner, which means it's obviously time for the rumour mill to creak into action and start guffing out hints that long awaited games are finally going to be confirmed. Today it's the turn of that old favourite, Shenmue 3, the MIA concluding chapter in Yu Suzuki's ambitious and expensive series of adventures about revenge, martial arts and driving forklift trucks.

This latest kerfuffle seems to have started on Japanese website Gamestalk and boasts the classic features of any good conspiracy theory: murky photos of unknown origin, annotated with red circles and arrows. In this case, they purport to show images from some sort of promotional video bearing the logos of both original Shenmue publisher Sega and, for some reason, Square Enix. The PS4 and Steam logos are also visible, along with a Spring 2016 date.

Ready for the proof? Open wide, here it comes. The images appear to show a close up of a jacket, which seems to have the same motif as the one worn by Shenmue lead character Ryo. Three petals can also be seen. The first petal has one cut in it while the second has two. This, apparently, proves that an HD remaster of the first two Shenmue games is on the way. The third petal has three cuts, so obviously Shenmue 3 is happening. Obviously.

And if all of this sounds pretty convincing to you, here's an appropriately sized pinch of salt to go with it.