Sony and Sega have announced a selection of six classic games originally released for the Sega Genesis will be available for download on the PS3's PlayStation Network later this year.
Sonic the Hedgehog and its sequel,
Streets of Rage 2,
Golden Axe 2,
Comix Zone, and
Altered Beast will begin appearing on the service as $4.99 downloads starting March 29, with a new release coming every four weeks afterwards (in the order listed above).
Subscribers to Sony's PlayStation Plus service, however, will be able to download the titles for free and weeks earlier than non-subscribers.
All six titles have been available on the Wii's Virtual Console for a price of 800 Nintendo points ($8), with initial availability ranging from 2006 to 2007.
With the exception of
Golden Axe 2, the games have also appeared on Xbox Live Arcade for a price of 400 Microsoft points ($5) with release dates ranging from 2007 to 2009.
These particular games have also appeared variously as part of compilations or standalone releases for the PC, Game Boy Advance, Saturn, Game.com, Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, PSP, Nintendo DS and iOS, as well as separate retail compilations for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Three of the titles, as well as a version of the original
Golden Axe, are also available as part of a series of plug-and-play Genesis controllers released by Radica in 2004 and 2005.
