The Japanese publisher wants everyone to play the remastered versions, which is not fair.

In a press release, “SEGA announced today that the company would delist the digital versions of the stand-alone titles that will be featured in the upcoming game, Sonic Origins on May 20, 2022. It will include Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic CD. There are a couple of exceptions – Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 will remain available via SEGA AGES on the Nintendo Switch, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will still be playable via Sega Genesis on Nintendo Switch Online +.”

The four games are five dollars each. So you can get the whole bunch for a total of twenty, which is still a steep price for a quartet that’s been around for nearly three decades, but whatever. On the other hand, Sonic Origins will be more expensive: $40, so it will be twice as much as the original versions, the first three of which you can run from your web browser with a bit of searching and for free.

OK, we’re told that all four games are being remastered, so the content of Sonic Origins will be more modern (where SEGA has been criticised for putting the hard missions, backgrounds, and music behind DLCs, for a reason). However, it’s still easier to access the original games (which have been fan-revamped) on PC, so the Japanese publisher’s work may have already been surpassed. The Denuvo DRM copy protection (which is even a performance killer on older machines, especially when starting the game: it took up to 40 seconds to “phone home” in Sonic Mania) doesn’t help either.

Sonic Origins will be released on June 23 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, so they’re taking away the option to buy old games a month before launch. That’s fair.

Source: VG247