Sega isn’t just banking on Yakuza, Persona, and Sonic the Hedgehog for the upcoming years. During The Game Awards 2023, the company announced five of its classic franchises are making a return, with new games in development. Most of these titles in the works are continuations of series that have been dormant for some time.
The specific titles of these upcoming games haven’t been announced, but the franchises shown off were Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, and Streets of Rage. Each title that was shown off sports a completely new, and except for Shinobi, more realistic art style separate from their entries of the past.
Many of the games also look to have been overhauled gameplay-wise. Streets of Rage and Golden Axe have been brought from the world of 2D beat ’em ups into a new 3D world. From what we’ve seen, especially on the Shinobi side of things, these titles seem to be true evolutions of the retro Genesis games that came before them.
With the exception of Streets of Rage, these series are among many in Sega’s library that haven’t been touched in quite some time despite outcry from fans. This will hopefully be the beginning of Sega going back to its well of properties to bring them back into the modern world.
While no release dates were shared, it was stated that these games will be released in the coming years. So starting in 2024, we should look out to see more of these titles.
