Outrun to be removed from XBLA

Not long ago, we brought you a story regarding Sega’s recent policy to discontinue Sonic games of average quality. Today comes news that Sega will also be discontinuing the sale of Outrun Online Arcade on Xbox Live later in 2011. For unlucky users on the UK PlayStation Network, the game is already unavailable for purchase.

This has nothing to do with sales or quality, however. Instead, it has to do with Sega’s expiring licensing agreement with Ferrari. Given that Ferrari vehicles and Outrun go hand in hand, if there’s no Ferrari license, then there’s no Outrun. This is not the first time a practice like this has occurred – Microsoft has pulled a number of games from Xbox Live Marketplace because of strange licensing circumstances. When developer Midway Games was in financial trouble last year and transferred ownership of Mortal Kombat to WB Games, the Xbox Live Arcade port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 vanished from the marketplace.

If you already own Outrun Online Arcade, there’s no reason to be stressed out: Microsoft has always allowed you to re-download games you have already purchased, even discontinued ones. This does, however, bring in to stark contrast the way business between retail disc games and digital marketplaces is conducted. Should Outrun Online Arcade have been released to brick-and-mortar stores, game discs could have been available on store shelves for months or even years after a licensing deal like this had expired, and the used game market would have ensured that the game would have stayed available for those who would seek its purchase (indeed, previously owned copies of Outrun 2006 for the PlayStation 2, a game which is similar in content to Online Arcade, are still prolific).

For those of you who do not yet own Outrun Online Arcade and have been on the fence, the clock is officially ticking.