Standalone Sonic titles to be delisted May 20th ahead of Sonic Origins release [UPDATING]

[UPDATE 05/20/22 – 11:30pm EST] The standalone versions of Sonic 1, 2, CD, and 3&K have now been removed from Steam. The games have also been removed from the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis Classics bundle, making the achievements for those games unattainable for new players in the compilation. Sonic 1 on Xbox 360 and Sonic CD on PlayStation 3 are still available as of this update.

[UPDATE 05/20/22 – 3:48pm EST] As I said about 40 minutes ago, the PlayStation 3 releases were likely to be delisted soon and sure enough, they have been. Sonic 1 and 2 are no longer available in North America but Sonic CD is still hanging on. List updated just below:

[UPDATE 05/20/22] Since I’ve gotten so many comments about this, here and on Twitter, I wanted to update. I just ran through all the platforms and below are the titles that are available as of May 20th, 3:00pm EST. Unfortunately, we got a lot of reports late on May 19th that the Xbox 360 titles were returning errors or, worse still, purchasable but not downloadable. So buy Sonic 1 at your own risk there.

On PlayStation 3 it seems all titles beyond the original Sonic have been completely removed from the PlayStation Store except for North America, though these are probably going to fall off soon. Then there are the Steam versions which are still up in the air. Sonic 1, 2, and Knuckles may be exempt from delisting as Sega’s announcements have always said only the “standalone” releases would be removed. Those are technically DLC for the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis Classics launcher which puts Sonic CD at greater risk. For at least another day I’d still say all those could go either way though.

I’ll update this list as things change but the original article from April 26th will remain intact further below.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Xbox 360 (AU, EU, NA)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
None

Sonic 3 & Knuckles
None

Sonic CD
PlayStation 3 (NA)

[UPDATED 04/27/22] Thanks to HandMaskTar for pointing out Sega Japan’s official announcement and list of confirmed to-be-delisted titles. I’ve marked the versions confirmed to be leaving with ** but kept the rest in case anyone is still interested in other releases of the games. Sega’s post doesn’t mention Sonic CD but the earlier news did call it out so I’d still consider it at-risk for now. Our original post from April 26th follows:

Gotta Go Fast… and buy some old Sonic games before they’re delisted. With the Sonic Origins collection on its way June 26th, Sega has confirmed that the standalone digital versions of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD will be delisted on May 20th. Although we don’t have all the details, the statement shared by Twitter user @Tracker_TD does offer a few exceptions. The Sega Ages releases of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 on Nintendo Switch will remain online as will the version of Sonic 2 included in the Nintendo Switch Online service.

Standalone digital releases of the games are spread across Steam, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and on mobile for Android and iOS. Of particular note are the 3D releases for Nintendo 3DS which offer a unique presentation and are a little harder to track down physically; 3D Sonic is included in Sega 3D Classics Collection but 3D Sonic 2 is only available on a cart with the Japanese release of Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives 3: Final Stage.

The lists below were been updated on April 27th with ** titles that Sega Japan has confirmed will be leaving on May 20th.

Sonic the Hedgehog