Sega fans are noticing that several classic games are now unavailable on mobile. Without much warning, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Crazy Taxi, and other older Sega games have been delisted on Android and iOS, as the company pulls support from these titles.
We did get a bit of a heads-up, as anyone who had the games got a pop-up saying that they would be taken offline soon. At the same time, it was noticed that all of the games were made available for free, giving anyone interested a brief window to pick them up and own them for good.
Sega Just Removed Some Of Its Best Games From Mobile Devices
While we did get some forewarning thanks to the message pop-up in-game, Sega never actually told us when these titles would be delisted. However, some time yesterday, fans started to notice that they were no longer showing up in storefronts. True enough, following links to the store pages won’t give you anything anymore, so if you hadn’t claimed them on your account already, then you’ve missed your chance.
The games affected by this wave of delistings are:
- Sonic CD
- Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2
- Streets of Rage
- Streets of Rage 2
- Crazy Taxi
- Super Monkey Ball: Sakura Edition
- Virtua Tennis Challenge
- Shining Force Classics
- Golden Axe Classics
All of these titles were part of the ill-fittingly named Sega Forever program, which brought older Sega games to mobile. They were supported with ads, but you could pay to remove them. For whatever reason, Sega has decided to ditch the Sega Forever program, although any mobile games that were not released in this initiative are still available on the app stores.
This is far from the first time Sega has gone on a delisting spree like this. Last December, more than 60 games were removed from console and PC storefronts, including Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio. Sega is apparently considering setting up its own streaming service to support these games, so we’ll have to see if that pans out.
- Date Founded
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June 3, 1960
- CEO
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Hajime Satomi
- Subsidiaries
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Sonic Team, Rovio, Relic Entertainment
- Headquarters
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Shinagawa City, Tokyo, Japan