On a single day, the retro gaming gods giveth and the retro gaming gods taketh away. The good news is Sony announced the PlayStation Classic will be here in early December. The bad news is the Sega Mega Drive Mini won’t be joining in the festive fun.
In a post on Twitter, Sega confirmed the 16-bit reboot has been delayed until 2019 in Japan. The translated post says Sega needs the time to review both the design of the device and the hardware itself.
However, in better news, Sega has confirmed the machine will see a release in Europe, and also in the United States under its stateside monicker Genesis. Unfortunately, Sega did not take the opportunity to confirm which games, or how many of them, will be baked into the console’s hard drive.
また、よりセガファンの皆様に満足いただけるクオリティを達成すべく、メガドライブのオリジナルメンバーを中心に設計を見直し、ソフト開発も実績のある国内デベロッパーと協力して進める体制をとりました。ファンの皆様にはご迷惑をおかけし申し訳ありません。今しばらく期待をもってお待ちください。
— セガ公式アカウント (@SEGA_OFFICIAL) September 19, 2018
It’s also unclear whether or not the cartridge slot will be functional, enabling old school gamers to jump into the attack and retrieve those dusty Streets of Rage titles.
This isn’t the first reboot of the Mega Drive, by any stretch. There are other options out there, such as the licensed consoles from ATGames. That firm is scheduled to be involved in the production of this hardware too, but its Genesis Flashback console was poorly-received from a critical perspective.
Related: Best PS4 Games 2018
However, this is gearing up to be a proper first-party release and is naturally generating a little more excitement than other attempts to capture some 16-bit nostalgia. The 2018 release was supposed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the consoles launch in Japan, but let’s hope Sega can get it right when the Mega Drive Mini eventually arrives sometime in 2019.
Are you more excited about the Mega Drive Mini or the Sony PlayStation Classic? Which Mega Drive games do you hope the 16-bit reboot will support? Drop us a line with your thoughts @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.