Sonic 2006 Makes Surprise Re-Appearance on Xbox 360 Marketplace

Sonic 06 port confirmed????

/joke please dont hurt me

Well, that's... unexpected. 

For what it's worth, they've said the Xbox Backwards Compatibility would be ending back in 2019, only to keep it going until November 2021 where they said again that they'd be discontinuing it, so if they do decide to do another wave (there's an Xbox showcase happening in June, so the timing kinda matches up) it wouldn't be a first. There's also that report SAMMY SEGA put out just last week where they said they wanted to focus on doing more remasters/remakes/ports, so this could be a part of that as well?

Would be pretty weird if this was a mistake too. Who's the person still out there at Microsoft working on the Xbox 360 who accidentally flipped the 'add this game back to the store with a brand new price' switch?

Was 06 even at any point available for digital purchase before this? I was under the impression it only had a physical release.

8 minutes ago, silverthepsychic said:

Would be pretty weird if this was a mistake too. Who's the person still out there at Microsoft working on the Xbox 360 who accidentally flipped the 'add this game back to the store with a brand new price' switch?

To be fair this happened with the original Forza Horizon recently, however that game is backwards compatible and reverted to its last price point before being taken back down. 06 is different in that it is currently not part of the program, and has not reverted to its price point from before its delisting, but rather a reduced price point. This seems somewhat deliberate to me, but I could be reading into it too much. 

1 hour ago, Sean said:

HEY I SAID NO FUCKING SONIC 06 TOPI-...

Wait wtf

Oops admittedly I did miss that but I'm guessing since this is more of a PSA regarding availability (potentially a small window of it too if it's a mistake), it's no harm no foul? 

19 minutes ago, pppp said:

Was 06 even at any point available for digital purchase before this? I was under the impression it only had a physical release.

I'd always thought this was the case as well. Which unless we're both mistaken, means this almost certainly cannot have been an accident.

31 minutes ago, pppp said:

Was 06 even at any point available for digital purchase before this? I was under the impression it only had a physical release.

Was gonna answer 'yes' to this but I did a bit of digging through the web archive (maybe they changed the marketplace URL at some point?) and all the listings for 06 are conveniently from November 2010 or after, when October 2010 was when they initially delisted the 'bad performing' Sonic games so it very well might not have been? It'd make sense, since 06 has DLC and gamer packs and the demo exists that was on the marketplace as well, but there's other SEGA games that aren't digitally available that didn't do nearly as poorly as 06 as well, like the SEGA Superstars Tennis game or the original SEGA Genesis Collection so that may very well be the case.

The game was definitely available digitally for some time before it was removed, briefly brought back, and then removed again. 

I definitely don't think it was ever as cheap as it is right now so the price is new but the page listing, even down to the odd assortment of screenshots, is the same as it always was.

First Ugly Sonic is back in Chip 'n Dale, now this,

Tomorrow I'll wake up to Underground being renewed to a new season.

I never had this game, but wanted to play it, and it’s been years since I touched my 360, let alone an xbox. Do they even still connect to download stuff?

Haha, it's rad that SEGA delisted a bunch of classic Sonic 16-Bit games on the Xbox 360 Marketplace, only for Sonic 2006 to suddenly reappear on it days later!

Anyways, you can't go wrong for that price! It's available on UK Marketplace as well for £3.39, a steal (https://marketplace.xbox.com/en-gb/Product/SONIC-THE-HEDGEHOG/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802534507d6?DownloadType=Game)! I don't ever remember a digital version existing on the Marketplace, just DLC and videos, so this is an interesting development!

I just went ahead and bought everything off the Sonic 06 store page on my old creaking Xbox 360, because besides the Sonic Hard Missions... I realised I never actually played any of the DLC. And they're cheap as chips too, so why not eh?  

EDIT: This might be helpful to some people... buying the game straight off the Marketplace website never works for me anymore, so if it happens to you as well, you might need to dig out an old Xbox 360 and connect to the store and buy that way.

8 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I honestly do wonder if this is an indication of another BC wave. If it was just the game going back up, I’d shrug it off as a mistake, but altering the price makes it seem more intentional. Could be that like in 2019, Microsoft are going back on the BC being done statement, and might be going on another wave, especially with Sony stepping up to the court and making it clear they intend to toss their hat in the ring with the Plus revamp.

With new competition, and a pretty woeful library of OG Xbox BC titles, Microsoft might’ve jumped back in, and SEGA hopped in with 06, either with hopes that morbid curiousity, nostalgia, and a cheap price point could get them some profit out of the deal. Not that I’m complaining - bad game or not, any steps towards game preservation and accessibility is always a good one in my book. Wouldn’t mind if SEGA put some leg work in and added Heroes, Shadow, and Riders as OG Xbox BC titles. 

My guess is they won't be dropping them in waves anymore like they used to, just random stragglers will pop up in the program from time to time going forward if anything. Surely there are titles from ActiBlizz' back-catalogue that MS will want on the service when that deal closes, and they have gone on record to say that the limiting factor with further BC additions at this point are rights issues and publisher permission. 06 definitely falls into that latter category. 

Now if they can just port Shadow the Hedgehog to PC so I can play it on 4k resolution that'd seal the deal

Definitely an odd one, but welcome to see nonetheless. I guess it's too early to tell what exactly this actually means but I've always been in the camp that despite its flaws, 06 didn't deserve to be so unceremoniously delisted. I'd wager this is more a move by Microsoft in regards to BC than anything by SEGA, but I'm glad to see any signs that pivot in the direction away from total effective erasure of the game.

But then, it's probably an error and will be gone tomorrow.

18 hours ago, Zadent said:

I never had this game, but wanted to play it, and it’s been years since I touched my 360, let alone an xbox. Do they even still connect to download stuff?

Yes. Microsoft services are harmonized so one account does all the same things everywhere, as such all the services are one in the same as well. With the exception of the 360 not supporting 2FA (so you need to go through their website to generate a device password), everything works pretty much as it always did, entirely seamlessly. Heck it pretty much has to for the backwards compatibility to make any sense as it is.

2 hours ago, Edward850 said:

Yes. Microsoft services are harmonized so one account does all the same things everywhere, as such all the services are one in the same as well. With the exception of the 360 not supporting 2FA (so you need to go through their website to generate a device password), everything works pretty much as it always did, entirely seamlessly. Heck it pretty much has to for the backwards compatibility to make any sense as it is.

I wish they'd make the browser version of the marketplace actually work with making purchases though, the endless buffering bug has been around for at least 3 years.

Posted By: Godot

I need to get an xbox 360.

...Yes this is totally be an error. 

If this is leading up to them issuing a cease-and-desist to Project 06, I may never forgive them.

Error or no, I bought it out of FOMO just in case.

1 hour ago, Zoomzeta said:

...Yes this is totally be an error. 

Don't think it is, otherwise the price wouldn't be so cheap. Someone (most likely Sega) went out of their way to decrease the price.