An updated Sega classic game “OutRun Online Arcade” will be hitting PSN and XBLA in Japan and Europe, but not for Americans. Only lucky Xbox 360 owners like myself will be able to enjoy this title, I find this amusing and in a way sad. I can understand the exclusive games for a system, this allows the developers to focus on just one consoles architecture and thus make the best game for that system possible.

After discussing the topic of exclusive DLC just last week in reference to games like Fallout 3, Tomb Raider, and Grand Theft Auto IV, the line between exclusivity being a good or bad thing gets a little blurred.

Now, with an exclusive deal on a region… I have to wonder what is up, we only have three options to look at as to how this comes about:

Microsoft and their “moneyhats” – Microsoft wants people who own their system to have games exclusive to their system, they have never really hidden this fact, and as a 360 owner, I am completely fine with this practice. But North America only?

Sony did not approve – SCEA (Sony’s American devision) has to approve of a game for America, where Japan and Europe have their own divisions. It is quite possible, though I think unlikely, that the American division did not find the game up to par with whatever standards they put forth on American released PSN games (again, I think not likely, but I’m ruling out no possibilities here).

Sega did not approve – The last piece to this puzzle. With Americans being the file sharing people that we are, not just torrents on the computer, but to the point of abusing the game sharing option found only on the PS3, it didn’t seem profitable to distribute the game here.

Maybe it was the aforementioned submission process Sony puts their titles through (Japan/Europe/America) rather than the one submission for all regions that Microsoft offers. With America not seeming to be as big of fans of the OutRun series as much as other regions, it would be a waste of money to submit here. There is also the theory that “Sega is stupid” .. which I don’t agree with, but people back that up with how their franchises are treated in recent times.

As of now though, with all the above theories going around, I am still confused, a region exclusive deal is just not making much sense.

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