Twenty-two years ago, the SEGA Dreamcast was still flying high before the release of the PS2. The system had a lot of great arcade games and had just received a unique cel-shaded title called Jet Set Radio. The game lets you rollerblade around and graffiti up the city of Tokyo-to. JSR eventually got a reboot of the game on the original XBOX and an HD re-release on the 360. Then it all went silent.
Not being shy away from digging old franchises up to tempt gamers, SEGA has finally come around to two of their Dreamcast staples. According to Bloomberg, one is the JSR mentioned above; the other is the late ’90s arcade classic Crazy Taxi.
The article calls the upcoming releases “big budget” reboots part of the SEGA’s Super Game plan. In short, SEGA now had a taste of the free-to-play (freemium) game model and wanted a slice of the pie. Apparently, the Crazy Taxi refresh has been in the works since possibly before 2020. Jet Set Radio’s development status is unknown.
How far along or potential release dates are still lost in the mist. SEGA’s rep refused to state Bloomberg’s findings. However, this wouldn’t be the first time these games have been refreshed and re-released. I believe Crazy Taxi already had a free-to-play mobile game, but it wasn’t very good, if I remember correctly.
Jet Set Raio with online multiplayer is something I can get behind depending on the monetization model. I’m down if everything is strictly cosmetic and the gameplay is unaffected. As far as Crazy Taxi is concerned, would that work as a multiplayer game trying to get people to spend money on different taxi models or paint jobs?
What do you think of this move by SEGA to dig up decades-old franchises and turn them into freemium games? Let us know in the comments section below.
[Source: Bloomberg]
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