Sega has never really been great at recognising its past, outside of the Mega Drive/Genesis console in which we have witnessed a multitude of compilations, micro consoles with unbuilt games etc make their way to various systems and retailers. However, with the few exceptions, very little been released from Sega’s arcade glory days or their other consoles the SG-1000, Master System, Sega Saturn or Dreamcast.
Now it transpires Sega are delisting seemingly most of their retro games and collections from both console and PC on 6th December 2024. Depending on the system, will depend how much will be affected by this. For instance, both PlayStation and Nintendo Switch will lose the Mega Drive/Genesis Classics collection while the Xbox is also losing the following:
Altered Beast, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Monster World, Nights into Dreams, Sega, Bass Fishing, Shinobi, Sonic the Fighters, Streets of Rage, SVC: ToeJam and Earl and Virtua Fighter 2
With the exception of Crazy Taxi due to music licensing, we doubt there’s any licensing issues that are causing such a mass deletion from so many platforms all on the same day. It is however important to point out that the Sega Ages games are still to be on the Nintendo Switch and the Mega Drive titles are also not affected on the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, though this has not been updated since 2023.
What we are hoping is that Sega are about to drop a tonne of games, either individually or as collections from all past consoles and arcades where licenses allow, and that this is why so much is getting removed. However, Sega could also look to do this in a subscription manner as Nintendo are doing. Whatever it is, we hope to hear something soon.
