Sega will be launchign their new Mega Drive Classics Hub to let gamers play classic modded console games legally. The new emulator lets gamers play 16-bit Genesis games, which many of them are available on Steam.
According to the Sega's official website, this emulator will be the front-end for emulated Sega ROMs that many gamers already own on Steam. It will support more than 40 Genesis titles, and it will be available on April 28 on Steam as a free update for gamers that are interested. It will also support different options like controllers, keyboards, optional graphics enhancement filters, and a save system that lets players save at any point of the game.
The emulator will also support access to the Steam workshop for all the compatible titles. Players will be able to take advantage of this because the game company is letting them use and share modified version of their classic games. According to Ars Technica, this may be the first time a big game company has allowed to promote modified versions of their games.
In the past, many fans of famous games wanted to distribute their own kind of version of the game with modifications, but big game companies have sent cease and desist letters to make them stop. There have been many classic game makers that hated the idea of emulation due to the threat of piracy.
Sega Europe took to Twitter to announce that they will provide more details Steam Workshop functionality next week. The workshop might provide players with legal ways of modifying their favorite classic Sega games that will be compatible with the emulator.
The emulation hub will be available to download on April 28, and it will be a free update. Sega fans will only need to purchase their favorite classic games, which are supported by it. The titles currently available in Steam's Sega Genesis Classics Collection will be updated with the new hub features. The current list of supported game titles is still missing a few emulated games from Genesis that were already available in Steam's library.
Check out the game company's announcement video below: