Sega Ages

The first Sega Ages series was released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn in Japan and concluded in 1998. Although the majority of the titles in this series remained exclusive to Japan, three games from the line - Out Run, Space Harrier and After Burner II,[2] would be compiled into the video game compilation Sega Ages Volume 1,[1] released in Europe in 1996 by Sega itself and Sega Ages released in North America in 1997 by Working Designs under their Spaz imprint.[2] Despite the title, no additional volumes would be released in these territories. Due to development technicalities at Working Designs, they had to make a sacrifice to Out Run by removing the original arcade music from the disc so that all three games could fit. The game would still contain the arrangement version of the music. Reasons for the removal are explained in the developer / translator notes at the back of the manual.

^† = Released in North America as part of Sega Ages and Europe as part of Sega Ages Volume 1.

The second series was released for the PlayStation in 2003 and concluding in 2008, known as the Sega Ages 2500 series - this title comes from the ¥2500 price point the game had.[4] The series was created from Sega's interest in the success of D3 Publisher's Simple budget-title video game series, which features low-budget games at a low price point. This interest would lead to Sega and D3 Publisher forming a new subsidiary company in 2003, known as 3D Ages (スリーディー・エイジス/3Dエイジス, Surīdī Eijisu), with the sole reason to create games under the Sega Ages 2500 series.[5] Later in 2004, D3 Publisher would leave the project and give Sega complete control of the company.[6]

The main focus of the series was to remake older Sega video games with 3D visuals, alongside improved sound and gameplay. Following the departure of D3 Publisher, the series would soon shift into featuring compilations of other Sega video games alongside remakes of these games.[6] The series officially concluded in 2008 after 33 entries, although several other Sega Ages 2500 games, featuring games such as Streets of Rage and Alex Kidd, were planned for release.[6] 3D Ages was disbanded in late 2005 and absorbed into Sega.[6]

Due to complications with Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sega was disallowed from releasing the games individually outside Japan.[6] Instead, nine of the games in the Sega Ages 2500 series would be compiled into the Sega Classics Collection compilation for the PlayStation 2, released in North America by Sega in 2005 and in Europe by Conspiracy Entertainment in 2006.[4]

^† = Released in North America and Europe as part of Sega Classics Collection. Alien Syndrome was removed from the European release to lower the game's rating.

The third series was released for the Xbox 360 that was both introduced and concluded in 2012.[7] This series consisted of releases from the Sega Vintage Collection series, originally released in North America and Europe, from 2007 to 2009, as well as re-releases of games from the Sega Ages 2500 series - the latter games were only released on the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 and had the Sega Ages 2500 name stripped from the title.[8] The games were developed by M2 as opposed to being made in-house by Sega.[7] Ten releases were made in total, making it the shortest of the Sega Ages series.[9]

The fourth Sega Ages series was released for the Nintendo Switch in September 2018, available through the Nintendo eShop storefront. This series was developed by M2, with lead producer Rieko Kodama from Sega.[10][11][12][13] Although Sega said that games from the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast would be made available later on,[14] the series concluded in Japan in August 2020 and concluded elsewhere in the following month without these, although Sega stated their intention to continue re-releasing older titles in other ways.[15]