The company had previously stated that it would be removing apps that didn’t meet their standards.
Back on May 8, Sega announced that it would be taking down a list of titles of mobile games that had not been meeting its standards for the type of playing experience that it wanted to provide to players, though it did not release the names of the titles at that time.
What was known was that the unwanted mobile apps would be removed from all major app stores.
The company was presumably working on its strategy to place a greater focus on mobile games as it moved away from the console experience. It said that the apps that it would be removing were titles that they considered to be unable to meet their current standards. This announcement was made close to another one that was released by the company that said that players could expect to see 20 new titles in the near future, each of which would have “console quality”.
The mobile games that Sega has now removed have come down from all app stores, regardless of the platform.
The initial list of mobile game apps that have been pulled from the Sega catalog include: After Burner Climax, Altered Beast, Ecco the Dolphin, Golden Axe 1, 2 and 3, Jet Set Radio, Phantasy Star II, Space Harrier II, Streets of Rage 1 and 3, Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2, Super Monkey Ball Tip’n’Tilt 1 and 2, and Virtua Fighter 2.
Sega has explained that if one of these games had already been purchased by a mobile device user ahead of the removal of the option from the app stores, it should still be possible for that person to download it, even though it is no longer available for sale. However, the company also pointed out that there will be no more support provided for that game. It is, therefore, available only to be downloaded and played until the time comes that it will “becomes incompatible with the latest phone operating systems or hardware,” at some point in the future.
That said, the company also suggested that this may not be the end of those mobile games, as “given the right situation,” they may look into recreating the apps within “an updated form.” Sega has not provided any more details about which games could potentially reappear in the future.
By the time this article was written, the blog posts from Sega stated only that “It is important for us to ensure that all of our fans, regardless of platform or operating system, have a great playing experience and after evaluating our complete list of titles, we have determined that a number of them no longer meet our standards,” without saying exactly which of the mobile apps fit that description.