OutRun Online Arcade taken off PSN News • News • PlayStation 3 • Eurogamer.net

News Xbox 360 PlayStation 3

UPDATE: XBLA version to be removed Dec 2011.

UPDATE: SEGA has provided Eurogamer with the following statement with regards the XBLA version of OutRun Online Arcade: "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."

ORIGINAL STORY: SEGA has removed excellent racing game OutRun Online Arcade from the PlayStation Store, Eurogamer can reveal.

The Sumo Digital-developed game was removed at SEGA's request. "Due to the expiry of the contract with Ferrari, OutRun Online Arcade will remain offline on PSN and XBLA," a SEGA spokesperson told Eurogamer.

It's still up on Xbox Live Arcade, which conflicts with SEGA's statement. We're checking on that now.

OOA sees gamers race their choice of Ferrari through a selection of 15 stages in the shortest time possible.

It was releases worldwide on Xbox Live Arcade in April last year. The PlayStation 3 version was exclusive to Europe. Oli awarded it 8/10 in Eurogamer's review.

Last week eagle-eyed gamers on forum NeoGAF noticed OutRun had disappeared from European PlayStation Stores.

Days later Eutechnyx's Ferrari The Race Experience was released exclusively on PSN. Strangely, OOA is still listed on SEGA's UK website.

SEGA's comments suggest fans won't see a new OutRun game until the Japanese company renews its licence with the famous Italian car manufacturer.

Spurred on by his love of Ferraris, game developer legend Yu Suzuki created the original 1986 arcade OutRun featuring a car believed to be a Ferrari Testarossa convertible - despite SEGA not owning the official license.

It wasn't until 2003 and the release of OutRun 2 that SEGA officially licensed the use of Ferrari cars.

So, if you own OutRun Online Arcade, keep hold of it. It just got a whole lot more collectible.

About OutRun Online Arcade
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- Release date 16/04/2009
- Developer SUMO Digital
More about OutRun Online Arcade
Related game pages
- OutRun Online Arcade on PlayStation 3
- OutRun Online Arcade on Xbox 360

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

Comments (52) Latest comment 2 years ago

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cianchristopher #1 2 years ago

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Can you still download it if you've already bought it? Like, on Steam, if you own a game that's no longer for sale in their store, you can still downlod the game from their servers as much as you like.

Hopefully the same goes here, but for some reason I'm not too hopeful.
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zigs #2 2 years ago

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[link url=http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410968/
]http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/...[/link]
:S I'm still seeing it on the Xbox.com Marketplace. I've not tried to download it, but it looks like it's still there!
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NimbusTLD #3 2 years ago

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You can still download those Midway games if you'd bought them on XBLA, so I would presume so
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OnlyMe #4 2 years ago

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If you can't redownload this game in the future, they better give us our money back for buying it in the first place. Can you actually make a backup of the game?
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SteveHolt #5 2 years ago

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I was waiting for it to be featured in DOTW... Sega should have informed us, this course of action cost them some sales.
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speedjack #6 2 years ago

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Same happened to Mortal Kombat on XBLA, and it looks like thats never coming back.
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layleeloo #7 2 years ago

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Thank Gawd. Like some say, I'm on my 3rd PS3 as the first two had faults so I downloaded it three times. I hope if anything goes wrong, those that already have it will still be able to redownload as we have already paid. (now taking up religion to pray nothing goes wrong with current PS3)
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NorUraeus #8 2 years ago

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Weird that they didn't announce it going 'offline', would probably have generated a nice amount of last minute sales
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Malek86 #9 2 years ago

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Looks like it's still available for download if you previously bought it, I just tried. Well, it's kind of a pain though. And who knows if they might eventually remove it. Maybe I should just get that Outrun 2 for Xbox.

Edited by Malek86 at 12/10/10 @ 13:52
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wyp100 #10 2 years ago

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It appears it's still on XBLA - we're checking with SEGA now to find out what's going on.
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DirtyDubs #11 2 years ago

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Collectable? It sits on your HardDisk so how is that collectable? Not like you can trade it.
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StevilKnevil #12 2 years ago

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I actually bought this on XBLA as well as PSN (don`t ask) .
Can I haz free sonic code mr SEGA?

Its worth a try...
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mfnick #13 2 years ago

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So much for Digital games having infinite 'shelf' life.

This sucks. With the Midway stuff I wasnt so bothered but this is actually a great game. -1 for digital distribution.
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kentmonkey #14 2 years ago

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I thought the same thing DirtyDubs. Odd comment to make for something that can't be sold on.

Technically collectible doesn't necessarily mean more valuable, but that's certainly how it reads.
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lavalant #15 2 years ago

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Strokes boxed copy, another blow for digital distribution.
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Miths #16 2 years ago

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I would never have imagined an expired license deal like this would prohibit selling the product. What about other racing games - do eg. Forza or GT require that the countless license deals are kept active, or else they have to withdraw the games from stores?
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jebus #17 2 years ago

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The perfect arcade racer - sad that it's gone.

Only one thing for it - make an XBLA version of Daytona please
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sonicyoda #18 2 years ago

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@Miths

It's entirely the same. Games like Forza and GT are only pressed aslong as the game is selling. This period of time is usually covered by the licensing which would have been agreed and assigned to a specific amount of time prior to release. When it runs out, the game stops being pressed.

For instance, they clearly don't press copies of the original Gran Turismo anymore, do they?
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Toothball #19 2 years ago

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That's a shame, Outrun is a wonderful game.
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BootLace #20 2 years ago

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For sale: Euro launch edition PS3 with ropey PS2 backwards compatibility, inaccessible linux partition, classic lightweight judder free controller, and limited edition Outrun Arcade game! Highly collectable, �600. (Please note: PSN account details not included).
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Malek86 #21 2 years ago

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Wait, didn't F355 Challenge come out in 2002? I'm sure they had a license for that one.
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TopKatt #22 2 years ago

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Sod that, where's the original Doom gone from XBLA???
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rivuzu #23 2 years ago

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This is unfortunate for us Outrun fans.

But a question remains on my lips. If the license has now been removed in total for Sega to have anything with a Ferrari logo on, what about the Outrun SP2 Arcade cabinets, where you sit in the back end of one? Is their fate also dated for doom?
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Tinrib72 #24 2 years ago

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Tis a sad day to see that go.
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dominalien #25 2 years ago

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This isn't the first time this has happened on PSN. I bought the PSOne Silent Hill and later it disappeard from my country's store. I believe I can still download it, though, since it still appears on my Downloads list.
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Freek #26 2 years ago

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Doesn't bode too well for the "all digital download" future if games can just dissapear like that.
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retr0gamer #27 2 years ago

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Another case for digital download being the a bad move for the consumer.
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neonxaos #28 2 years ago

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Just renew that contract and make a true next-gen OutRun already!
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Der_tolle_Emil #29 2 years ago

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Well that's shit. Luckily I already played it to death on XBLA (and before in Coast2Coast on disc) but it's very bad that this is now disappearing. It's also the first time that I read about games disappearing from XBLA/PSN - a real shame and quite worrying to be honest.
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asphaltcowboy #30 2 years ago

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Pretty sure this is disappearing for those who haven't bought it yet. If you already own it and delete it, I fairly sure you'll be able to redownload it from your Download History in the dashboard...

This is not a guarantee btw

Edited by asphaltcowboy at 12/10/10 @ 15:43
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FuzzyDuck #31 2 years ago

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Digital distribution = crock of shit.
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sonicyoda #32 2 years ago

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@kafiota

That would make a lot more sense.
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CableNut #33 2 years ago

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Ive had it since release was good at the time, no one plays it online any more, so you aint missing much xbox 360 version btw!!
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siro #34 2 years ago

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They should reduce it to 200 points for the remainder if its time to make some quick bucks of it. I'd buy it.
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chrisjm #35 2 years ago

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they couldnt demand it was removed off shelves of game for this reason, so why can they a virtual shelf
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Der_tolle_Emil #36 2 years ago

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they couldnt demand it was removed off shelves of game for this reason, so why can they a virtual shelf

I'm pretty sure that it would be possible with shelf games as well; At least forbidding the publisher to produce new copies to sell.

I also think that licensing deals are a lot stricter when it comes to online titles because you can just pull it from one day to another. Who knows, the strictly timed license might have saved Sega a lot of money making the XBLA/PSN release possible in the first place. Maybe without that it would have been too expensive to even release it at all. All in all there are advantages and disadvantages but since you can redownload your already purchased copy it's not that different (for now) from a disc based release, if you disregard the second hand market.
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gjgjg #37 2 years ago

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Dec 2011? or did you mean Dec 2010? It will affect my purchase plans
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Der_tolle_Emil #38 2 years ago

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Better be safe than sorry and get it now. It's fantastic. Don't worry about noone playing it online, the game is more fun when playing alone anyway.
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daz_john_smith #39 2 years ago

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TopKatt:
"Sod that, where's the original Doom gone from XBLA??? "

Has Doom been removed because it was released pre Zenimax/Bethesda/id merger?

Edited by daz_john_smith at 12/10/10 @ 17:07
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TopKatt #40 2 years ago

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@daz_john_smith

That can't be it, Doom II is still there but Doom's gone for some reason.
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daz_john_smith #41 2 years ago

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@ToppKatt
But the XBLA version of Doom II was released after id merged with ZeniMax, their name appears on the opening splash screens as the parent company

Edited by daz_john_smith at 12/10/10 @ 17:47
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TopKatt #42 2 years ago

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@daz_john_smith

Ah! Maybe that's it then? I wonder if there's any chance of getting something worked out to get it back?

Edited by TopKatt at 12/10/10 @ 17:43
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jambii267 #43 2 years ago

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Damn Shame. Best XBLA Racing game, imho. Get it now before it goes.

Or you can always get the disc based PS2/Xbox version.
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daz_john_smith #44 2 years ago

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@TopKatt
I was going to buy both next time I picked up some MS Points but now I don't think I'll bother buying just Doom II; I've still got my Doom 3 Limited Ed with both Doom and Doom II on it and it works fine on the 360.

I suppose it could reappear on XBLA with ZeniMax branding. Maybe they're improving the supposely poor multiplayer code before re-releasing.

Edit//
Here's the answer:
[link url=http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/d/doomxboxlivearcade/default.htm
]http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/d/doomxb...[/link]
"Publisher: Activison "

Edited by daz_john_smith at 12/10/10 @ 17:56
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kingcrowbar #45 2 years ago

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Coast 2 Coast has been missing for AGES on steam too, but it still appeared in my download list when I bought the Sega pack in the last big sale.
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Baggies1879 #46 2 years ago

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I hope that hasn't buggered up any chance of a sequel. Fortunately I've already got it on PSN and Xbox the Xbox original and Coast to Coast. I love outrun and the thought of no more makes me sad.
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metalangel #47 2 years ago

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Can we confirm whether it's Dec 2010 or 2011 as the article says? Because lately it seems you've fired all your subs.
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metallicorphan #48 2 years ago

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yeah what Metalangel said,as it seems the updated subtitle is thats its this December for XBLA,but reading it says 2011

oh and what is that weird banner on the front page of EG that appears?,i can't click on the top stories because of it
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wyp100 #49 2 years ago

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We've asked SEGA about the Dec 2011 window mentioned in the statement and it's sticking by it.
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TopKatt #50 2 years ago

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@daz_john_smith

KOTICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited by TopKatt at 12/10/10 @ 19:36
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thelzdking #51 2 years ago

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Sequel please!
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MiY4MOTO #52 2 years ago

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So, what does this mean if you've downloaded it? Can you still play it? Does online play still work?

Sad day tho. Perfect arcade racer.
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