They asked the community of dedicated fans to pull their work, which was freeware. They did this in order to ”protect our intellectual property rights”, said the publisher.
The group of fans say they had repeatedly asked SEGA for their official nod of approval to keep going and inferred that the Streets of Rage creator was ‘happy’ for them to proceed. A little while after their latest version of the remake went public SEGA got a frowny face.
Here is the official response: ”SEGA is committed to supporting any fans that take an interest in our games, and where possible we do so by involving them in Beta tests and other development, marketing or research opportunities.”
“However we need to protect our intellectual property rights and this may result in us requesting that our fans remove online imagery, videos or games in some instances.” Streets of Rage debuted on SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive back in 1991.
Check out the Streets of Rage remake blog for more on the project.