Listen up After Burner Climax fans! On Christmas day of this year, this Sega arcade port for the Xbox 360 and PS3 will be delisted off of their respective digital stores. Fans of the arcade version of the long running After Burner series who were on the fence have until Christmas Eve to make up their minds if they want to play it at home. Otherwise, their minds will be made up for them.
This news did not come via press release from Sega. Instead, it came from eagle-eyed followers of the XBLA Marketplace @lifelower. Hence, we don’t know what the official reason for the delisting is. Some theorize that the license agreement between Sega and the holder of the rights to some or all of the designs of the jets featured in the game has or will expire. A similar reason was given for the delisting of Outrun Online Arcade back in 2010.
The good news is that After Burner Climax will not be entirely inaccessible after the delisting. Gamers will be able to redownload the game if they already owned it naturally. The original arcade cabinets may still roam what few arcade places are still around today. Moreover, there is an iOS port as well. Admittedly, it might be a bit of a step back from the motion capable, Super Deluxe Cabinet take on the game.
Interestingly, all the talks of the delisting don’t mention the iOS port. Unless that version is significantly different, which it isn’t, or it had a different license agreement, it too might be delisted as well.
