SEGA is ending support for nine of its older mobile games, meaning these classic titles are now free to download on Android and iOS for a limited time. We don’t know how long it will be free, so you should get them immediately, especially if you don’t want to lose access.
The nine retro SEGA games that are losing support but are now free on Android and iOS are listed below:
These games were originally part of the SEGA Forever program and were previously paid apps, or they could be played for free with ads, unless players made in-app purchases to remove them. I bought Sonic CD Classic, and it cost me about $4.99 when I made my purchase, but it was based on when you bought it. Now, SEGA has removed both the price and the ads, giving players one last chance to download these favorites.
SEGA hasn’t spoken about this change; instead, we know it because you will get an in-game pop-up message in the titles above. The message says, “Support for this game will be discontinued, but you can continue playing offline!” It also guides you to SEGA’s homepage for details on other SEGA games.
This may mean that even after the games are taken down from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, players who have already downloaded them will still be able to play offline. This follows the same pattern as earlier SEGA Forever games like Phantasy Star Classics and Vectorman Classic, which were removed from app stores but stayed playable for those who had them installed.
The SEGA Forever program, which released these mobile versions, officially ended in late 2023. The last game added to Android under this program was in 2019. While the quality of these ports wasn’t always consistent compared to the original versions, they at least had full controller support and reached tens of millions of downloads together.
Even though official support is ending, the ability to play them offline means they can still be enjoyed for years, as long as they’re downloaded while still available. A good idea would be to download them and put them into a folder on your phone.
Keep in mind that they could go down as soon as today, so if you’ve been saving or meaning to play them, now is your chance. If they go down, then you won’t be able to download them again without an APK. SEGA likely won’t comment on this situation, but there will likely be other places to play these old-school games.
In the best-case scenario, this could mean that SEGA has other means in mind to sell these games. There are other storefronts, and maybe the 30% revenue share with Apple and Google isn’t worth it for SEGA.
Source: The Verge