SEGA recently announced that numerous iconic games from its catalog will soon be removed from most digital stores, both for PC and consoles.
When SEGA was still a serious competitor to Nintendo in the console market, the Japanese giant treated us to many games that are still legendary today, especially on Mega Drive, Game Gear or Dreamcast (which unfortunately led to a loss of hardware). These cult titles are still available in dematerialized form on numerous platforms, but will soon be removed from the list. Unless you acquire it before it’s too late. However, this could mean that the brand is preparing something in this area.
SEGA is dematerializing a number of cult games from its golden age
As part of a “ Frequently asked questions about SEGA Classics », the Japanese brand informs us, somewhat unexpectedly, that many legendary games from its golden age will soon leave the digital stores of many platforms. More precisely, the ultimatum is given December 6th and targets the online shops PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
On PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, this SEGA delisting only affects the Sega Mega Drive Classics Collection. As a reminder, this includes about fifty monuments such as the Sonic games, Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star and many others. On Xbox and Steam it is more about a targeted delisting of different and very numerous titles. These include Crazy Taxiy, Golden Axe, Shinobi and Virtua Fighter. For the full list of games leaving the Xbox and Steam online stores, see the FAQ below.
However, in it, SEGA states that these games will always be available to those who have previously purchased them. Finally, games delisted on Nintendo Switch will still be accessible via Switch Online, but only for subscribers to the service. Upon hearing this sudden news, many speculated that SEGA was quietly preparing a new collection of classic games. There is therefore perhaps no need to be overly concerned about the disappearance of all these cult digital games on December 6th. However, to be sure, we will have to wait for further clarifications.
Source: Support SEGA