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Sega considering Netflix-like game subscription service

LordOcidax

Member
We like it or not this is the future. It’s going to be an ip battle but $70 games dollars is going to stay too. So, is an option.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Don't get the reactions here, they should announce that they won't be delivering their games in every way they can utilizing all current technologies and methods to suit each audience or what? But lol @ still calling this stuff Netflix-like when so many companies/fields have subscription options etc.
 
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cireza

Member
Jurassic Park Ian Malcom GIF


They pulled the Genesis Collection from online stores, so I can believe this.
Yeah, but the Nintendo Online offer with the shit-ton of roms on many consoles is the only place I am willing to put a bit of "subscription" money. Not going to pay something else for "only" SEGA games.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
If Sega had most of their home and arcade games on sub plan (excluding licensed stuff of course like old sports game etc..), games were downloadable and not streamed, it might be totally worth it for $10/mth or $100/yr.

But you'd have to be a gamer who skews to liking 1980-2000 games, which is a lot of action and arcadey games. And you'd have to forego any awesome Sega Sports games from back in the day. Once they went multiplat and changed direction of games, it seems most of their best games the past 10-20 years are Sonic, Total War and Yakuza.
 
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6502

Member
let's be honest, this could be great! Start with all 8/16bit roms, all games older than 24 months where possible and fund arcade ports of unreleased games like scud race every 6 months for the service. After so long start making retro arcade sequels... maybe a museum mode ala atari 50. Would be better than gamepass for me.
 
I'm sure there's a way and price they can pull it off. I see it as a Sega archive or Sega portal, some would pay each year and others will dip in and out for a month and it would have to be cheap for the bulk of the existing games. If they want to align themselves with other subs it could be a huge failure.

There's a whole official rom and ports library model just waiting to be made for people to pay into rather than getting by other means. A bit like Gabe said, give them a service and they'll buy instead of pirate, this whole thing started as there was no way to play the classics so people did it themselves. Really Sega should 10-15 years into this.
 
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poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Everything is an xbox Genesis.

Interesting to see gaming jump deeper into the subscription trend, just as the movie industry is starting to realize it isn't worth it with Comcast, Disney, and Paramount all losing billions last year alone.
?
Comcast, Disney and Paramount are pulling out of the streaming game?
 

Kruza

Member
Man... where was something like this 30 years ago?? I would've had great fun with this for sure! 😄

I was one of Sega's biggest fans. And I have to admit that as great as many of them were, the vast majority of Sega's best games -- arcade and console-specific types -- are now mainly nostalgic experiences without lasting power. So hosting a subscription service to rent their content instead of buy makes complete sense. However, I think that the main potential problem with this idea is that most of Sega's games are just too old! It's really a long shot for Sega to be reliant on the children and grandchildren of their diehard fans to support this service and their content enough to become successful in the current video game market.
 

MacReady13

Member
I'm wondering now where all these people who said to me that I was worried gaming would become all subscriptions are now... EA. Ubisoft. Micrsoft. Sega. Nintendo. Sony. When will people understand exactly what they're doing by buying into these eco systems...?
 

MacReady13

Member
The amount of gamers who are in complete denial about which way the wind is blowing is actually shocking to me.
Not denial. Anger. Anger that gamers would allow this shit to continue. The amount of dumb fuck Xbox fans who have podcasts proclaiming gamepass as the greatest thing for gaming is astounding to me. And yet here we are... heading down this inevitable path of never owning anything you pay for.
 
In what world does Sega think they are still a relevant force in the gaming industry? Their library doesn’t have the staying power to be successful in this.
 

Fahdis

Member
I can't see this working. Nintendo is the only other one that could pull off a service and really should. And by that I mean do it at a high price point for parents who can afford it and offer them day 1 game discounts instead of day 1 games on the service.

Bitch Slap Drag GIF
 

Dr. Suchong

Member
I remember when people used to complain about the price of able TV in North America. Now everything is diced up and sliced up, it's like 4 or 5 times more expensive to get the same content.
The last thing we need, gamers need, is another paid subscription service.
This.
Throughout my gaming life I've always bought every console from Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft so as to be assured of being able to play everything and not miss out.
That was pretty galling to say the least.
Now imagine that over tens of gaming streaming services.
Fucking nightmare.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Maybe the games don’t have enough legs for modern day gamers but the number of 1990s arcade games alone across all their arcade boards could fill a gamers bscklog all year.

They got so much content across consoles and arcade machines. It’s like sitting on gold.

Then again maybe gamers just don’t give a shit about ancient games.

Did those genesis bundles sell well? They released a bunch and must had covered all their best games.
 

Disco Dave

Member
I already own many Sega games stretching back to the Mega Drive. I have a large physical Sega Saturn collection that I’ve had to emulate on PC and Android/iOS because of aged original hardware components.

I had no option but to emulate Shining Force 3 scenarios 2 and 3 (with the translation patches) because Sega didn’t (and still haven’t) translate them to English back in 97/98.

I can see the value for newer generation gamers but even then you can pick up Sega collections physically for under £10 now.

It’s a hard sell.
 
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You've got to think takers of a "Sega only" premium service would be very limited. Maybe a budget EA Play type vault service.

What the individual publishers lack for this type of service is new content, most are only releasing a handful of games per year if that. A lot different from NBC/ABC/CBS etc. where they all have a lineup of content.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I remember when people used to complain about the price of able TV in North America. Now everything is diced up and sliced up, it's like 4 or 5 times more expensive to get the same content.
The last thing we need, gamers need, is another paid subscription service.
This is complete fucking bullshit - anyone stanning for cable companies is deluded. If you are paying $1000 a month for streaming services I don't know what you are doing, but you are doing something wrong.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I already own many Sega games stretching back to the Mega Drive. I have a large physical Sega Saturn collection that I’ve had to emulate on PC and Android/iOS because of aged original hardware components.

I had no option but to emulate Shining Force 3 scenarios 2 and 3 (with the translation patches) because Sega didn’t (and still haven’t) translate them to English back in 97/98.

I can see the value for newer generation gamers but even then you can pick up Sega collections physically for under £10 now.

It’s a hard sell.
I think those are Sega Genesis packs.

If they did waves of arcade machine bundles, or Dreamcast bundles, that might be more attractive. There's only so many times Sega can rehash a Genesis bundle into another combination of games.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I like how there’s now subscription services to remind you which subscription services you have.

Sega used to have the Channel, so technically they pioneered this shit. But much like Ubi, I don’t think they have the library to make it worth subbing for. They would have to offer Dreamcast, Saturn, and arcade games to make it tempting - and that’s not going to happen.
 

nial

Member
They will most probably include their classic 1983-2002 first-party console games on this, and see them being locked behind a subscription fee like Nintendo's classic games on Switch.
Thank god I can easily buy Mister Mosquito on PS5 compared to... this.
 
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