Sega
is launching a new
mobile gaming
initiative called Sega Forever, the long-lived publisher announced
today. Under that banner, the company plans to bring loads of games
from all eras of its 30-year history to Android and iOS devices as
free-to-play apps. While all the games will share some universal
trappings, they will be distinct releases rather than multiple parts
of a larger Sega Forever app. They’ll come with ads built in—a
common sight in free mobile games—and it’ll cost you $2 to remove
them from any given game. The service is starting up tomorrow, June
22, with five Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games: Sonic
The Hedgehog,
Comix
Zone,
Phantasy
Star II,
Kid
Chameleon.
After that, Sega promises more games will be released every two
weeks.
In
an interview with GamesIndustry.biz,
Sega’s Mike Evans, who’s credited with leading the creation of
Sega Forever, laid out his vision for the service. Borrowing a page
out of Nintendo’s mobile strategy, Sega hopes that releasing these
games on more accessible platforms and playing on people’s
nostalgia will revive interest in classic series, driving players to
new versions, like the recently released Crazy
Taxi: Gazillionaire,
or even proving there’s enough demand for the company to pursue
similar resurrections. As it just so happens, Sega recently
proclaimed that one of its big goals moving forward is the revival of
long-dormant series.
While all of the Sega Forever apps will be
reworked to control via touchscreen, according to a Sega press
release, they will be a mix of “ports” that have been
specifically re-engineered to run on mobile devices and “official
emulations” running the original games inside a program that
simulates the console on which they were released. All Sega Forever
games will also include support for Bluetooth controllers, so you
don’t have to make Comix Zone even harder by trying to beat
dudes up with crummy touchscreen buttons.
Evans
also didn’t rule out taking Sega Forever beyond this initial mobile
model. He mentioned that “about 90 percent” of the games are
running on the Unity engine, a piece of software that’s used by
tons of developers to make games for just about every available
platform, and that, assuming the Mobile
Application roll out goes well, Sega Forever could
come to PCs, Facebook, or consoles. Evans even mentioned being open
to the possibility of turning it into a subscription
service—presumably without the ads—for set-top boxes, like Apple
TV. It’s about time people realized just how far ahead of its time
e Sehga Cthannel was.
Ref:
http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/179648/global-health-gets-on-front-foot-with-new-digital-standard-179648.html
