What’s Sega up to as it delists over 60 classic games from digital storefronts

In an unexplained move, Sega has announced the removal of over 60 of its beloved classic games on Mega Drive / Genesis and Dreamcast from digital storefronts from the beginning of December.

A page has appeared on the Sega website, pretending a bit like it’s, ‘Oh, nothing to see here’ while simultaneously removing one of the few legitimate ways to play these old classic games outside of downloading dodgy ROMS and playing them in your own emulators.

The full list of games destined for removal is listed below and it is worth noting if you have already bought the games via the Sega Classics series you will still be able to keep and play your downloaded games. Meanwhile, if you play Sega Classics as part of your Nintendo Online subscription, you can continue to play as long as your subscription remains valid.

From December 6th however, the games will no longer be available for purchase anywhere.

This is obviously quite a bold move at a time where emulation is very much in the news due to Nintendo’s personal battle with it. Maybe Sega has something else up its sleeve and is planning on repacking its classics. It is also worth noting that several of its big titles such as Crazy Taxi are being remastered or reworked and they may just not want similar versions knocking around for a few dollars for comparison.

The entire Sega Classics bundles are vanishing from PlayStation and Switch but a list has been provided for those that will disappear from Steam and Xbox.

There must be more to this than simply removing them, and only time will tell what that boardroom decision is.