Sega Genesis Mini (aka Mega Drive Mini) announced

To commemorate the console’s upcoming 30th anniversary, Sega took the opportunity to unveil its own miniature “classic edition” version of the legendary 16-bit Genesis (or, as it was called in the rest of the world, the Mega Drive). The so-called “Mega Drive Mini” will be released in Japan first, with “the US and other territories later this year,” according to AtGames, whose technology will power the console.

You may recognize AtGames, whose Sega Genesis Flashback console tried, and failed, to match Nintendo’s efforts last year. From our review:

As a one-time Genesis kid whose nostalgic sweet spot is a Sega Genesis, I feel qualified to say that the Genesis deserves better from its owner. But as long as Sega is willing to license out its platform instead of making its own hardware, it seems unlikely to get better than this, the most declarative console war victory imaginable.

Just last week, Sega’s COO said the company was interested in getting back into the hardware business, following the explosive success of Nintendo’s classic reissues. Sega famously exited the hardware business after the failure of the Sega Dreamcast in 2001.

As promising as that sounds, the source interview linked suggested that Sega would opt to distribute the AtGames Mega Drive Flashback which, per the review above ... is not great. The model in the image above, with a cleaner version shared by Sega on Twitter which you can see below, doesn’t resemble AtGames’ previous offering. For starters, it’s smaller than the Flashback console, missing a full-sized cartridge post and adding the console’s original volume slider.

Of course, we don’t know many details about the Mega Drive Mini, though AtGames is answering some things in the replies to this post. In response to a question about the inclusion of a rewind feature, like the one featured in the Flashback console, AtGames said it will let “Sega announce all of the features, but yes, it will have the basics like that.” Asked whether Sonic 3 will be included, AtGames replied that it wouldn’t be included because it “has license issues with the music.” As for how it differs from last year’s Flashback unit, AtGames said, “Different emulation, additional features, etc.” adding that, while the Japanese version pictured above clearly has no cartridge slot, “other territories will have cartridge slots.”

We’ve reached out to Sega for details and will update this post accordingly.