The Ferrari is arguably the centrepiece of Outrun. Either that or the girl along for the ride. However Sega’s contract with Ferrari has recently expired, leaving the digital download version of the game in a rather difficult predicament. In conversation with Eurogamer.net, a Sega spokesperson had this to say;
Due to the expiry of the contract with Ferrari, OutRun Online Arcade will remain offline on PSN but will still be available on XBLA until Dec 2011
I’m actually a little surprised how straight to the point that is. As it stands now, OutRun Online Arcade is confirmed to be removed from the European PSN store at the very least. Variations of Outrun 2 are of course still available on disc for earlier consoles, but as far as I’m aware we could be seeing the last days of OutRun Online Arcade. At least Xbox owners will have an extra year to pick it up, but I guess from December next year you will no longer be able to buy or re-download the game from any console digital distribution service.
It’s been a bad week for Yu Suzuki fans.
[Source: Eurogamer]
That is was a good racing game, but wierd drifting.
Unfortunate outcome over losing the license, but not the end of the world since there are still disc based versions of OutRun 2 available on multiple platforms.
What kinda sh– Oh, licenses. Guess this is another reason for me to dislike digital games.
Is there anything different about the XBLA port when compared to the PS2/Xbox game? Besides the HD visuals I haven’t heard of anything else. This is one of my favorite racing games ever so I may have to buy it before they take it down.