http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebar...christmas-eve/'After Burner Climax' To Be Removed From Sale On Christmas Eve
In a sad move, Sega will be removing the arcade port of After Burner Climax from both XBLA and PSN on this coming Christmas Eve. Rumors of licensing issues, due to some of the planes used, appear to the main cause behind this.
The news was broken via Noriyuki Shimoda’s Twitter account. As he was the producer for the game this information should be regarded as legitimate, especially as it was also later confirmed by Sega Japan as well.
This port of After Burner Climax was also well received back when it was released in 2010. Mainly because it was clearly an excellent game in its own right but also because many hoped Sega would release more arcade games digitally (Planet Harriers we are looking at you).
Unfortunately, that never really happened and we got a few scatter shot PC ports instead.
The original arcade game, released back in 2006, also had a full motion cabinet and ran on Sega’s own Lindbergh arcade board. It had quite the following so it’s XBLA and PSN release was very much welcomed.
The game got its name from the then new slow-motion “climax mode” (shown above), that allowed players to achieve multiple missile lock-ons at once.
It’s unclear what will happen to the remaining arcade cabinets though. If this is indeed a licensing issue then the arcade version would be equally liable.
Regardless of that, it’s sad news that After Burner Climax is being removed from sale. However, if you have a 3DS I can thoroughly recommend the 3D Classic port of After Burner II that will be released early next year. In fact, all of Sega’s 3D Classic games are a must buy (especially Galaxy Force II, which is my personal favorite).
Not to mention that you should buy After Burner Climax post-haste, if you haven’t done so already. As it’s time among us is sadly coming to an end.
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/12/11/af...ng-this-month/After Burner Climax faces XBLA/PSN delisting this month
This month is your last chance to pick up Sega's arcade-ported shoot-'em-up After Burner Climax on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Digital storefront monitor lifelower reports that the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions of After Burner Climax will be permanently delisted on December 24.
Buyers will be able to redownload purchased copies of After Burner Climax at a later date, but once the game is delisted, it can no longer be bought or added to a user's software library. Sega Nerds speculates that expired licensing agreements between Sega and the manufacturers of the real-world aircraft featured in After Burner Climax are to blame for the game's forthcoming removal. A similar issue resulted in the deletion of Sega's Ferrari-licensed racer OutRun Online Arcade from digital storefronts in 2011.
Starting next year, if you want to legally play After Burner Climax and don't already own a digital copy, you'll need to track down an original arcade machine. Here's a tip: The GameWorks across the street from the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle hosts a pair of Climax cabinets, so you might want to make plans to visit the next time you're in town for PAX Prime.
Note: The earliest glimpse of After Burner Climax was seen at a private, closed-doors showing during E3 2005 along with early Virtua Fighter 5 and The House of the Dead 4 running on Sega's Lindbergh arcade hardware, in addition to a CG trailer for Chrome Hounds for Xbox 360 and a real-time Sonic The Hedgehog demo on some console dev-kit / PC.
The then yet-to-be-named next-gen After Burner is @ 3:30:
If you don't have After Burner Climax you better get it now before it's gone forever.
$9.99 on NA PSN and XBLA:
http://www.playstation.com/en-us/gam...er-climax-ps3/
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Pr...5-d80258410a06