The last batch of games released on this service was in June 2023, with The Revenge of Shinobi, Ghouls ’n Ghosts, Landstalker and Crusader of Centy (Soleil).
Almost an entire year of no new Genesis/Mega Drive content seems absurd considering this console was rumored to be why the Expansion Pack tier is so much more expensive than a regular NSO subscription in the first place.
It's not like SEGA's run out of first party games for it, either. The service is missing countless titles they usually include on absolutely everything. Stuff like Gain Ground, Shadow Dancer, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Sonic 3D Blast, Vectorman, Streets of Rage 1 etc.
Just kinda bizarre.
by gobananagopudding
29 Comments
Licensing is hard, I guess.
This is part of the service I oftentimes forget exists. I would not be at all surprised to find it is the least used of all of the apps based on what they can see.
And a bunch of these games have been available (plus more) on Sega Genesis Classics for years
I forgot there was a Genesis app
I’ve always disliked Nintendo’s drip-feed approach to their retro library on consoles.
Back when they announced the virtual console for the Wii, I assumed they were just going to dump all the games they could on there at once. Then just add more as the various licensing issues and whatnot were resolved.
If they start over again, from scratch with the Switch 2, I’m going to cry. Well, I won’t because I own all these retro systems with flash carts etc, but I’ll be very disappointed anyway.
I really tried to enjoy Nintendo Online and even subsricbed for plus for a YEAR eventually (because thats the shortest period of time you can choose)
People are providing better FREE software thats more customizable and more often updated.
If I gave out awards for emulators, id hesitate giving them a participation trophy because their service feels like somebody demanding you pay them for a FULL YEAR for their best service and they stroll by 4 times while everyone else comes in more regularly for free and actually listens to you.
Edit: To have access to all emulation provided by Nintendo you MUST subscribe for a year. Look it up.
Probably won’t happen in terms of first party, particularly first party with appeal. Sega still wants you to buy their various collections
Sega doesn’t give a shit. People must not be playing the genesis app. And why would they? I was raised in a Sega only household. I love some Sega. They are missing critical parts of their library.
I guess there’s a similar reason why Master System and Game Gear haven’t returned when they were on Virtual Console
They gave up, they’re still in the process of negotiating more stuff, they have more stuff ready but the general NSO pipeline is scheduled towards other priorities. It can be anything.
Between all the classic collections, licensing, a lot of companies not existing anymore, fees, etc they can only do so much with each NSO app. It sucks but like everything else it all boils down to ‘does the cost outweigh the profit?”
I just bought an emulator handheld for the price of a couple of years’ subscriptions instead.
In my estimation NSO+EP is best calculated as though Sega’s contribution doesn’t really exist. If N64 and GBA isn’t worth it, N64+GBA+SG isn’t worth it
For me, the two Nintendo systems make it worth it – I already have a Genesis collection so there’s a bit of overlap for me in the Genesis libraries. If each game on those services was $5 and there were 20 titles for each system, they would cost $500 to own the lot, or the EP membership over 10 years.
I feel like the Yakuza/Like a Dragons have been making ports of games people wanna play/haven’t tried. The last 2 games had Daytona 2, Spikeout and SEGA Bass Fishing.
Not to lambast the Genesis collections but these have been available for decades, either by legal compilations or ROMs. It’s not as easy to port Model 3 arcade hardware.
They did. In fact, they specifically said, “gobananagopudding wants more of these games and we don’t want to give them to him.”
Dang, I didn’t realize it had been that long. I really wish Nintendo wouldn’t drip-feed the content like this, especially when we’re only getting 1-3 games a month across like 6 different classic platforms.
Why would sega let them add missing games that sega sells for money
It was never intended to be all inclusive
I don’t care if they put any other game on there if they’d just put the Sega version of X-men
It’s probably very hard to track down licensing for games that are over 30 years old. The best games probably have multiple companies who each hold licenses to parts of the game.
I thought it was just all the games from the Genesis Mini (that Sega wasn’t already selling standalone)
My hope is that Switch 2 will have a Dreamcast section 😅
Not sure why people trusted Nintendo to regularly release these games that they don’t even own the IP for. NSO expansion pack is really not that great of a deal. Most of these games can be EASILY emulated on very cheap 3rd party portable devices. The reviews and guides for these devices are very accessible these days so there’s really no excuse for folks to say things like “it’s not easy to do.” As you can see, we can’t rely on corporations to preserve games because time and time again they fall short.
If I were to guess, Nintendo is spreading out it’s licensing money. Ever since the GBA hit we get the odd sprinkle of third party games there I’d never would’ve guessed could be a priority. Konami gets some money for giving us a Castlevania GB game that’s not even on the collection. Interplay gets some for Quest of Camelot, of all games. Alone in the goddamn Dark for GBC? And then the big Rare dumps we got recently.
I don’t know if it’s them spreading the funds for licensing third parties wider whereas before they concentrated much more on SEGA, or if something has gone sour between SEGA and Nintendo preventing further games from dropping… but it is interesting that it’s nearly been a year now since the last game-drops, and even if they do drop them again I wonder which ones they’ll choose to give us. Will it be games SEGA doesn’t think they can sell in separate re-releases, maybe? They did after all have that SEGA AGES re-release line going, that I think stopped around the time they decided that didn’t pay enough for them, and then we got games for NSO instead. Could SEGA be thinking of starting that line up again, and now they don’t wanna give Nintendo “freebies” anymore?
Yes they did
Anyone reckon there’s a chance of 32X stuff like Chaotix showing up? I never got to play it back in the day
I think so
They probably didn’t continue it cause there’s also the Genesis collection of games
And it’s not making them money like the expansion pack service
Virtual Console after the Wii has been very half-assed. It makes no sense when they’re literally just putting up ROMs. Is it that hard to host all retro games and sell em for a few bucks?
Sega Genesis Classics and Sonic Origins is probably why we won’t get certain titles.
Wish they would add Dreamcast.