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Sega Pulls Fan-made Streets Of Rage Remake "To Protect IP"

by Jeff Cork on April 13, 2011 at 09:14 AM

9,099 Views

Last week, a fan-made Streets of Rage remake was released online, containing more than 100 stages and 19 playable characters. Bomber Games, the team who developed the indie project, coded the game from scratch and then made it freely available to fans. Sega responded with legal action a few days later, and the official download links were quietly removed. Now Sega has elaborated on why it responded the way it did.

"Sega is committed to supporting any fans that take an interest in our games, and where possible we do so by involving them in Beta tests and other development, marketing or research opportunities," the publisher explained in a statement to Destructoid. "However we need to protect our intellectual property rights and this may result in us requesting that our fans remove online imagery, videos or games in some instances."

Clearly, Sega has a point. It's unfortunate that the company seems content to let the property languish, necessitating such a fan project in the first place. There's clearly a market for this kind of game, so here's hoping that someone within Sega with the power to do something about it is paying attention.

Email the author Jeff Cork, or follow on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Game Informer.

Filed under: News, Sega, streets of rage

Comments

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by Prince of Snark Euphoric Ennui I Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:46 AM

Glad I downloaded it last week then lol.. It's a great remake and really takes me back to being a kid again. I just hope this in someway means sega's going to work on an official remake of their own at some point..
by The Doctor Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:46 AM

Oh, yeah, Sega definitely has a point. This free downloadable fan game could tear their company down like a house of cards. I mean first off the fact that people have hacked the source code for Streets of Rage blows my mind. That could take the industry down as a whole. Why would we bother purchasing games when we can download something like that for free?

Oh, yeah, poor Sega. They're never gonna move all those copies of Streets of Rage now. Genesis sales are going to plummet. What's next? Taking Game Gear off the shelves? It sure is a dark day for Sega.
by C0 p1loT Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:46 AM

oh yeh, sega has nothing, fans make better remake of their games than they can, thats why
by Rain Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:49 AM

Thats a shame. It is really cool to see people work on a project like this that a ton of people really want to play, release it for free, and see so many people love it. But when Sega pulls it out of the interwebs, makes me wonder how hard this must be for the guys and gals over at Bomber Games, who really put their heart and soul into this.
by Peter Quinlan Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:50 AM

I find your lack of awesome disturbing, Sega.
by Peter Quinlan Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:50 AM

I find your lack of awesome disturbing, Sega.
by Eyros Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:53 AM

So... how much is Sega making from anything SoR related these days? A few digital downloads here and there... is the amount those downloads bring in (which likely wouldn't have slowed down even with this project still available online) worth tarnishing your reputation? Apparently so.
by Meta77 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:54 AM

@.@ silly sega. it wouldnt have messed with a single thing.
by Dustin Foxx Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:57 AM

glad i already downloaded it. Saga needs to quit complaining, they havent made a good game sine 93'.
by Blake Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 09:59 AM

That is how you get rid of your fan base. Having a community of people who love your IPs so much that they create their own version from scratch, only to have it taken down. Gotta say, I lost some respect for them, even more so than all the crappy Sonic games.
by Gary Pryor Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:00 AM

I suggest GI do all of us Fan-game makers a favor and not report on them, no matter how awesome.
by WesternGamer Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:02 AM

Didn't Gearbox greenlight a fan made Duke Nukem 3D remake? Sega sucks hard on this one, and now the Sonic remake will probably meet with the same fate.
by Dustin G Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:04 AM

Here would have been a great idea, tell them not to do it before they spend all their time on creating the game then shutting them down. Gotta say Sega, not one of your more classy moves... well, I take that back look at Dreamcast & Sonic. Lol. Just another reason to ignore anything Sega makes.
by woods0419 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:04 AM

So they are upset that someone took a game they made years ago, and made a great remake of it? They would rather the game stay dormant? I love their, "if we can't have it, no one can" mentality.
by PIZZAKING92 Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:09 AM

Not cool sega, not cool.
by SamuraiCER Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:14 AM

Kinda jerkish on the part of sega...I mean all they really do for SOR is push out the original 3 on a collection. If sega was smart, they hire Bomber and try 2 get this out on PSN, XBLA, and Wiiware. It can b done
by Warbuff Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:30 AM

I hope they offered the team jobs after shutting them down.
by Reg Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:53 AM

Many of you might not know this but the team that worked on Streets of Rage Remake actually got PERMISSION from Sega many many years ago before they worked on this game at all. Versions 1 - 4 have been in existence, downloadable and very playable all this time. Version 5 was supposed to be a perfection of all their hard work so far and they put an extremely large amount of effort into it. For Sega to just swoop in after all this time and do that to them is terrible. There should be some sort of action taken towards this because its really not right. But I will wait to see what the guys at Bombergames decide to say/do in relation to this.