Golden Axe III is the last installment in the Golden Axe series released for the Sega Mega Drive on June 25, 1993. The cartridge unit was only released in Japan while the North American release was a Sega Channel exclusive. It was never released in Europe.The game has been subsequently re-released (along with many other Mega Drive titles) for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable as part of the Sega Genesis Collection. It was also re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on September 4, 2007, and in PAL regions on October 5, 2007. It was released on the North American Virtual Console on October 22, 2007. It also appeared in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.