Sega licenses out Mega Drive games to third party

If you live in Japan you will soon be able to buy brand new Mega Drive games for the first time in about six years.

Sega has licensed 21 Mega Drive games out to a company that produces ‘built into the controller’ games consoles, a first for any company.

Such items have been around for years, but have always contained pirated versions of compressed (and usually incomplete) console games, usually from the Nintendo NES range. Sega officially endorsing such a product is an industry first.

The new unit will be called Bee 1 and will include a six button Mega Drive pad, into which is built a hardware based Mega Drive Emulator and 21 games.

The games are:

Sonic the Hedgehog
Super Monaco GP
Flicky
Columns
Super Shinobi (Revenge of Shinobi)
World Championship Soccer
Ninja Spirit
Sonic Adventure Hero
Ninja Furiki Cat
Exploration Trip
Mappy, Watery Guy
Flix Vs Jerry
Ground Sinker
Kesamaru
Sonic in Danger
Ninja Gaiden
Peetan
Space Striking
City Tiger
Oira Jajamaru