sega bid farewell to the video gaming console market almost two decades ago. However, the company has still kept its hold on some of the most iconic and beloved characters of the gaming industry. This nostalgia may be the reason behind Sega’s recent decision to release five of its Classic games as free mobile ports on iOS and Android.
Sega to release classic video games on iOS and Android
The all new initiative by Sega has been named Sega Forever. The Japanese video game developer had made the announcement of releasing the classic games on June 21 morning.
The company stated that Sega Forever is a new banner, under which the classic games will be rereleased on Android and iOS run devices. Initially, only five games will be reissued in the United States. Every two weeks, one game will be released and after that, each game will start out for free. The players will be provided with the option to turn off the advertising permanently with a $1.99 in-app purchase.
Which are the first five games?
The first five games that will make its way to Android and iOS run devices are all Genesis titles, namely “Comix Zone,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Altered Beast,” “Phantasy Star II,” and “Kid Chameleon.” However, Sega has no plans of stopping there. The company’s chief marketing officer Mike Evans stated that the organization has 20 years of “classic gaming content” ranging from “SG 1000 Mark I” through to “Master System,” “Genesis,” “Game Gear,” “Dreamcast,” and “Saturn.”
Hurdles in the path
However, the biggest hurdle in the path of Sega currently is emulation.
Although the Genesis games (which will initially re-issued by Sega) can be emulated easily using Unity, the game engine, problems might crop up during the emulation process of games such as “Dreamcast” and “Saturn.” The Unity gaming engine runs a software that tricks the game files into believing that it is being run on different hardware.
However, even Evans confesses that “Saturn” and “Dreamcast”- if emulated - would provide only 85 percent of the original quality, which according to him is not good enough.
Other than the emulation part, Evans states that company will gather feedback from consumers with regard to which game to give priority to and bring back under the Sega Forever initiative.
Evans is trying to create Sega Forever as a Netflix equivalent of retro gaming. Although the company may not start any monthly subscription for the program like Netflix, Evans wants people to think of the new initiative as an access to the past, which is much more affordable than other classic gaming companies.
