Sega has suddenly announced that 60 classic games from its back catalog are about to be removed from Steam. It’s not like you’ll be lacking ways to play, say, Streets of Rage after these versions of the games come out, but the removals are notable for a few reasons, including the fact that these are some of the only ones legal available classic game ROMs that you can find all over the internet.
The full list of games being removed is available on Sega’s official support site, which also confirms that they will be removed on December 6 at 11:59 PM PT. The list includes a few Dreamcast ports in addition to the Sega Genesis Classics collection, which includes a total of 60 games on Steam. We’re talking things like Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, and Phantasy Star IV – all bona fide classics from the 16-bit era.
While on consoles this collection is, as the name suggests, a collection – and it’s also being removed on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation – on Steam, every Genesis game is available for purchase individually, with most selling for $0.99. The emulator that comes with the games isn’t particularly great, although it does have nice features like Steam Workshop support that lets you download your own ROM hacks.
But the real reason to buy these games is that once you install them, you can just browse to that installation filter and find a ROM file that you can use in any way you want – no encrypted files to data mine or DRM to to circumvent. Only raw ROM files that you purchased legally. That means you can put those ROMs into the emulator of your choice and play them however you want, completely legally. Short of getting your hands on a USB cartridge reader and dumping games yourself, it’s almost impossible to get your hands on raw ROMs without pirating them, which makes this collection particularly stand out among retro re-releases on PC.
The question is why Sega has chosen to suddenly remove these games from the market. The titles were released between 2010 and 2012, so they have all been available for over a decade without any problems. However, three individual games from the collection were dropped in 2022. The entire Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy was removed just before the launch of Sonic Origins, a series-specific package that was maligned by its own developers.
We know Sega has big plans for old IP, with revivals of many classic games in the works, and it’s possible the company is planning some sort of new classic collection that would replace these in the near future. December 7, the day after these games take place, marks the one-year anniversary of Sega’s big Power Surge reveal, so the timing is certainly notable. Let’s hope that whatever happens, these classics get the treatment they deserve.
New versions of Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio and my absolute favorite beat ’em up from 34 years ago could make 2024 and beyond very special.