News – Major New Update For Sega Mega Drive Classics On Steam

The Sega Mega Drive, or Genesis if you live in North America, contains some of the greatest games of the 16-bit era, many of which are currently available on Steam.

However, if this was good enough all by itself, this week Sega Europe announced a major new update that concerns every single one of these titles on Steam. Even better, this update which is coming on April 28th, will be completely free.

This update brings with it two fundamental changes. The first of which, is the brand new addition of a Sega Mega Drive / Genesis themed hub room. One in which you can view your library, and enjoy all of these classics of the 80s and 90s. According to Sega this virtual gaming room is:

based on a bedroom of an early nineties SEGA fan with dynamic time-of-day conditions, retro SEGA paraphernalia, a shelf full of MEGA Drive games (including the ones you own) and of course a CRT TV!

That’s not all though all, as it’s actually the second major change that bears the most importance. In fact, this is a change that has recently had most of the industry talking.

You see, as soon as this update hits Steam, every single Mega Drive game will now feature Steam Workshop support.

This really is one hell of an announcement, as this means that gamers will now be able to legally share modified versions of all of Sega’s classic 16-bit titles for the first time ever.

Yes, gamers have been doing this for years, and in the process have come up with some very unique and interesting modifications, such as including Sonic within Streets of Rage. However now Sega are actively encouraging it.

On top of both of these changes, the Sega Mega Drive hub will also bring with it: spot-on emulation, local co-op support, optional graphic enhancement filters, the ability to save at any point in the game, and finally full controller / keyboard support for every title.

A massive 50 classic Mega Drive / Genesis titles are currently available on Steam. All of which will both be accessible through the Sega Mega Drive Hub, take advantage of all these changes on release. A complete list of all these games can be found courtesy of Sega at the following link.

All in all this is an amazing move by Sega, one which pushes the spotlight back onto some of the classics that have helped make gaming what it is today.

Not only that, but whilst this update will obviously please anybody who ever owned a Mega Drive, Sega are hoping these updates will encourage more and more gamers to experience some retro classics, possibly for the first time ever.

One thing’s for sure, there’s an awful lot of life left in retro gaming.