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[Update] Sega pulls After Burner, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe and more from Android and iOS stores

Game over yeeeeah (Updated: Sega says more removals to come)

[Update] Sega pulls After Burner, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe and more from Android and iOS stores
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| After Burner Climax
Updated on May 22nd, at 15:21: A Sega spokesperson has told us that "a few more games should be removed from the stores in the next few weeks".

Sadly, like last time, we don't know what the game will be.

Surviving Mega Drive ports Sonic Spinball, Streets of Rage 2, Shining Force, Shinobi III, and Gunstar Heroes could be killed on iOS. And both platforms could lose the non-F2P Crazy Taxi, ChuChu Rocket, Virtua Tennis Challenge, and Spellwood.

We'll let you know if we spot any more removals.

Original story follows…


After Burner

A week or so after saying that it would kill off iOS and Android games that "no longer meet our standards", Sega has done the deed, and pulled a handful of mobile games from sale.

Predictably, both iOS and Android gamers have lost After Burner Climax. The arcade port was already removed from PSN and Xbox Live Arcade, presumably due to expired licensing agreements for the game's real-world fighter jets.

Jet Set Radio has been removed from all Android stores. It disappeared from the iOS App Store late last year, with Sega citing some some minor compatibility problems with iOS 8.

Some iOS exclusives are now gone, too. That's all the Super Monkey Ball games bar Bounce, and Mega Drive ports Altered Beast; Ecco the Dolphin; Golden Axe 1, 2, and 3; Phantasy Star II; Streets of Rage 1 and 3; Space Harrier II; and Virtua Fighter 2.

Gaming graveyard

A few old Mega Drive games remain, like Gunstar Heroes, Shining Force, and all the Sonic games.

These dead apps are added to a pile of murdered Sega games that includes older versions of Football Manager, The House of the Dead: Overkill - The Lost Reels, Zaxxon Escape, and Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II on iOS.

Sega promises that current customers will be able to re-download purchased games. And of the newly delisted apps, it says "while we have nothing to announce at this time, given the right situation, these titles may return in an updated form".

I wouldn't hold your breath.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer