Sega has announced their brand new "free" (read: ad-filled) "service" Sega Forever, which offers classic Sega games on Android and iOS. Sega Forever will launch tomorrow (the 6/22) with some classic titles like Altered Beast, Sonic The Hedgehog, Comix Zone, Kid Chameleon, and Phantasy Star 2, but also promises games from every Sega console including the SG-1000, Master System, Genesis, and even the Saturn and the Dreamcast. SG-1000 through Genesis games are supposedly going to be emulated, but Saturn and Dreamcast games will be full mobile "ports", meaning we'll finally get some proper Saturn gaming on Android!

Each game also comes with "up-to-date" fetures, like cloud saves, touch controls and leaderboards, and Sega promises to add new games "Every two weeks". If you don't like ads, you can optionally get rid of them for a measily $2 in-app purchase, or you can just deal with the ads and enjoy some free Sega games.

Source

This is definitely some interesting news, the fact that Saturn and Dreamcast games may finally be easily playable on mobile devices without having to resort to emulation is pretty great news, and while touch controls are awful in most cases, the fact that these games will feature controller support means we'll have a great way to play those hard-to-emulate games on the go...as long as Sega ports the right ones (Panzer Dragoon series plx).

 

[Bubsy Bobcat]

Dreamcast!!?? Ooohh shit gimme that sweet sweet Sonic Adventure 2 on the go boyyyyy!!

 

[sarkwalvein]

Phantasy Star 2? I'm in. There I go Algos System!

 

[Stephano]

I have no idea how this will be profitable for sega... but alright i guess. Good for them.

 

[DeoNaught]

As long as i have Vector-man 1 & 2

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I have no idea how this will be profitable for sega... but alright i guess. Good for them.

Ads. Every game has ads, and if you want to get rid of them you have to pay $2 per game. While there are some people using adblockers, I imagine the vast majority aren't, which will likely add up to a fair amount of cash in the end.

 

[RevPokemon]

Dreamcast!!?? Ooohh shit gimme that sweet sweet Sonic Adventure 2 on the go boyyyyy!!

Interested how it will compare to Reicast which already is pretty good at certain DC games

 

[Stephano]

Ads. Every game has ads, and if you want to get rid of them you have to pay $2. While there are some people using adblockers, I imagine the vast majority aren't, which will likely add up to a fair amount of cash in the end.

I know that adds will help, i'm just curious if they would provide as much revenue as if they were to sell the games. I'm not complaining, nor am i a business major (I'm a EE), but hey, if Sega is getting enough revenue to be considered "Doing well off" then everyone wins.

 

[chartube12]

Take notes Nintendo. This is how you should be offering the virtual console on the switch, smartphones and tablets.

 

[BlueFox gui]

OMG SONIC ADVENTURE 1 AND 2 PORTS, I'M SURE HAHAHAH THATS AWESOME

 

[gamesquest1]

I have no idea how this will be profitable for sega... but alright i guess. Good for them.

Even a small amount from ads is better than nothing and leaving others to profit from selling emulators

 

[Stephano]

Even a small amount from ads is better than nothing and leaving others to profit from selling emulators

That is also true.

 

[BlueFox gui]

That is also true.

who cares we still have saturn and DREAMCAST HAHAHAH XD

 

[gamesquest1]

That is also true.

Yeah it's kinda weird nintendo and sega etc are competing against free and full library, sega have recently been opening up to the idea that they need to compete with emulators and make things cheap and easily accessible or everyone will just flock to free and fairly simple, nintendo seem to be coming around to it too....although they are dragging their feet and muttering under their breath in the process

 

[BORTZ]

Saturn games? Bortz is now a very very curious spider...

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

I have no idea how this will be profitable for sega... but alright i guess. Good for them.

Make ads annoying as hell to the point where it forces the user to buy the game if he/she wants to actually enjoy it.

I downloaded pirated apks of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 so will stick to that but may give the others a shot.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

OMG SONIC ADVENTURE 1 AND 2 PORTS, I'M SURE HAHAHAH THATS AWESOME

Yeah. It's going to be amazing playing Sonic Adventure on a touchscreen.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Well, from playing Phantasy Star 2 for some minutes I can say that ads are not so annoying, you must watch ads only when you save state, but then the problem is that you can only save state to the cloud, so not offline saving, if you buy it local save is enabled.
This can get a little annoying when on the go. But it is quite cheap 2€.

 

[anhminh]

"They can't pirate your game if it is free"

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

Well, from playing Phantasy Star 2 for some minutes I can say that ads are not so annoying, you must watch ads only when you save state, but then the problem is that you can only save state to the cloud, so not offline saving, if you buy it local save is enabled.
This can get a little annoying when on the go. But it is quite cheap 2€.

It's cheap but meh, it's digital games.

 

[DeoNaught]

Well, from playing Phantasy Star 2 for some minutes I can say that ads are not so annoying, you must watch ads only when you save state, but then the problem is that you can only save state to the cloud, so not offline saving, if you buy it local save is enabled.
This can get a little annoying when on the go. But it is quite cheap 2€.

So what if your in airplane mode? does it refuse to work?