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Sega Closing Some Mobile Games, But Isn’t Saying Which
Sega has announced today that it will be closing a number of its mobile offerings. The titles slated for delisting will be removed from the Apple App Store, Samsung App Store, Google Play Store, and Amazon App Store.
There’s just one problem. We don’t know which games are being terminated.
We reached out to Sega for more information, but we were referred back to the company’s blog post. The publisher doesn’t have additional information to share with us at this time.
“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,” the company writes.
For those that have purchased one of the affected games, you’ll be able to continue playing after removal. You’ll also be able to re-download them. This indicates that these are likely premium games and not free-to-play games-as-services.
Sega does say that some of these games may be re-listed in updated form down the line. While the title list still hasn't been disclosed, we do have confirmation of the intent behind the removals.
“A number of titles in our mobile catalog date back to the earliest iterations of devices," a representative told us via email. "Mobile gameplay along with technological advancements have given players high expectations for what they should expect. Therefore it is in the best interest of players that we are investigating in our games and will remove the titles that no longer fit the mark we aim to reach. The on-going focus of our mobile games business is to treat our legacy IP with the utmost care, while also creating new titles that appeal to the modern mobile audience.”
[Source: Sega]
Our Take
Sega is making the right call here if games haven’t been updated and are no longer optimal on the latest operating systems. It’s frustrating to purchase a mobile game only to have it crash or freeze because the developer or publisher has abandoned it.
As long as those that purchased the old versions get the updates when the game returns, all’s well. It’s just a shame we don’t have a list of the titles that will be impacted by this move.
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