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