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 Vol. 1,[1] released in Europe in 1996 by Sega itself and 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.

^† = Released in North America and Europe as part of Sega Ages Vol. 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.[3] 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.[4] Later in 2004, D3 Publisher would leave the project and give Sega complete control of the company.[5]

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.[5] 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.[5] 3D Ages was disbanded in late 2005 and absorbed into Sega.[5]

Due to complications with Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sega was disallowed from releasing the games individually outside Japan.[5] 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.[3]

^† = 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.[6] This series consisted of releases from the Sega Vintage Collection series, originally released in North America and Europe, 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.[7] The games were developed by M2 as opposed to being made in-house by Sega.[6] Ten releases were made in total, making it the shortest of the Sega Ages series.[8]

The fourth Sega Ages series was released for the Nintendo Switch, available through the Nintendo eShop storefront. This series was developed by M2, with lead producer Rieko Kodama from Sega.[9] It was first announced in August 2018, with ten titles announced for the series.[10][11][12][13] Although Sega stated that games from the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast would be made available later on,[14] the series finished in August 2020 without these, although Sega stated their intention to continue re-releasing older titles in other ways.[15]