The argument for the preservation of classic games from forgotten eras will seemingly never come to an end. Sega has produced some of the most iconic games of the past few generations. Space Channel 9, Crazy Taxi, and Jet Set Radio immediately come to mind from the Dreamcast generation, and PC has been the only place to play them for quite some time. Now, in 2024, Sega is removing three huge collections of classics for no discernable reason.
Gotta Go Fast if You Want to Add These to Your Collection
Steam, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation are about to lose out on countless retro titles, thanks to Sega’s decision to randomly delist these collections. Starting on December 6 at 11:59 pm PST, players will no longer be able to purchase digital versions of the following collections:
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- Sega Mega Drive Classics
- Sega Genesis Classics
- Sega Dreamcast Classics
There’s a huge list of games that are about to vanish off of digital storefronts. With physical copies of these collections available, we can also expect their value to start skyrocketing. We know how people are with rare games and consoles, so expect this normally $30 game to start going for much, much more. We saw how awful people were with the PS5 when it first came out, and now, we can look forward to paying crazy amounts for a collection of retro games.
It’s a strange decision. Unless Sega is gearing up to release the ultimate collection of classic games on a single disk/service, why remove the ability to purchase them? Part of me wonders if they’re going to do something similar to Antstream Arcade, where players can jump in and purchase individual games and play them when they want. Otherwise, this just feels like a weird misstep for the House of Hedgehog.
Sega does confirm that if you’ve already purchased these collections, you’ll be able to re-download them at any time. But, why even bother removing them in the first place? Is it something to do with licensing? Is it because Tim Walz loves Crazy Taxi? Companies complain about people emulating games, yet remove access to some of their greatest hits of all time. Make it make sense, people!
