Dry days for retro fans.
On December 6, a number of Sega Classics titles will be delisted from Steam, Nintendo Switch, and the Xbox and PlayStation ecosystems. The publisher made the full list of delistings available in a post yesterday, noting that all owned and downloaded games will still be available in players' libraries.
The list is diverse, particularly on Steam, where games as disparate as Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, and NiGHTS into Dreams will fall off the radar alongside Genesis-era fare like Comix Zone, the first two ToeJam & Earl and VectorMan titles, and Ecco the Dolphin. Sonic won't escape the delisting entirely either, as Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3D Blast (as well as puzzle spinoff Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) are on the chopping block.
The select games and bundles will go dark (and unavailable for new purchases) as of December 6, at 11:59pm PST.
The best hope for folks looking to hold on to their Sega Classics (to play, study, or hang on to for preservation efforts) is to either download all the selected games ahead of December 6, or stick with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, where "select individual classic titles will still be playable," according to Sega.
While delistings are nothing new in the industry, the breadth of retro titles (and strong reputation of many on the list) is notable here. Given that so many older games are completely unavailable, this feels like a potential blow to preservation efforts, particularly for the games launched on under-represented consoles like the Saturn and Dreamcast.
You can check out the post for the full set of delistings by platform here.
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