Dreamcast.....dead?

bugs

Found an article about this, seemingly the chairman of sega has resigned and will take the position of vice-chairman so as to take responsibility for low dreamcast console sales ( thats weird enough, heavy jap ethics there )
They've lost money again for the third year in a row and their ex-chairman is going to concentrate on their new machine, just like they did when the saturn bottomed. But didn't they say they were never making another console ?
Irregardless , the new chairman is to "restructure" the company. Whether this means the dreamcast will stop selling no one knows , but looking at their track record , i'd say its very possible.

Read it yourself : http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000521/20/tech-japan-sega

Shiminay

I didn't realise that DC was in that kind of trouble...

I think it r0><><0rs

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All the best,

Dav
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My page of stuff

bubbles

Serves SEGA right for releasing such a crap console years ago, i.e the Saturn

Burn Sega burn

Noel Brady

Yes, it is true that Irimajiri has quit. You can see thf ull story at...
http://www.game-ireland.com/news/irimajiridefinatelyout.html

However, I think you'll find that Dreamcast is far from dead. The new console Sega were talking about is Dreamcast. It still is a pretty new console you know.

They are actually going to launch a new advertising campaign which sees the console marketed as an ''interactive device''. Sega actually plan to drop the word console from being mentioned alongside Dreamcast completely.

Over the next few months, you'll see them market Dreamcast's online capabilities alot. This is one of the few areas that they have the edge over PlayStation2 as Sony still insist that the world is not ready for internet gaming. Hence Sega's decision to give Cuu Chu Rocket to gamers free.

Noel Brady www.game-ireland.com

bugs

Dunno about the whole new dreamcast initiative , seems pointless to me . They'd be flogging a dead horse in japan cos the ps2 has already taken over from the DC ( the DC was doing awful anyway )
Against what most ppl think , its not actually doing that well over here, lack of games i guess , cos i played some good ones on it ages ago and was in town and still cant believe they're not officially released.
The only ppl it would help is the stupid americans who have "pledged their allegiance" to it, but they don't call them stupid for nothing, when the ps2 drops over there , i'd say they'll all jump on the bandwagon.

But thats not their new console , they are actually developing a new machine altogether, something to do with their subcompany CSK, but it is in production cos they've pumped a bucket of money into it.
Seems like a waste of time to me , i don't think they're ever gonna get back on their feet, way too much superior competition.

I'm not sure about online gaming , Ireland sure as hell isn't ready for it. I just dont find the fun in playing any game with more than 50 ping, some games are fine , like starcraft and sega rally , they require **** all info to be transmitted. But most games on consoles require quick reactions, it'd be completely crap to play a beat em up over a 56k modem, not to mention something like quake 3 on DC with a jyopad to add more pain!

I think sony are actually right there , altho even tho they're waiting a year and a half, ireland will probably be still on ****ing 56K or ISDN.

[This message has been edited by bugs (edited 24-05-2000).]

Lucutus

Noel,

Just out of curiousity, is there a HTML page on the backend of your site with a URL like this:
http://www.game-ireland.com/news/genericnewslayoutpagetoberenamedsothatnamereflectsnewscontentandlinkedintosite.html

???

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Lucutus of Borg

bugs

Rumours are still rife about possible endings for sega, like teaming up with microsoft or sony , can't see this happening, hope it doesnt anyway.

The saturn had better 2D ability than the psx , it had more ram and you could increase it using the ram upgrade , which meant you could play games like street fighter vs *whoever* minus the awful loss of animation and ability to tag in and out.
I played king of fighters ( in my opinion one of the best 2d fighters ever and i wasnt impressed ) but it was 96 anyway , and i never liked that much cos kyo sucked too much.

I really thought the saturn was a cool machine , it had house of the dead, panzer saga , the follow-up to alissa dragoon (that come out over here ?) and loads of other games i played in the arcades, but it never advertised , it cost a bloody fortune , 399 when it came out i think. And what really did sega for me was when it was lagging in sales and it basically just pulled all support for the machine outside of japan.

That really sucked, i know ppl who had just bought one only to find out that the only way to get new games was to import.
I wouldn't put it past sega doing it again, they've lost too much money to keep it going, a company like nintendo could float a bad unprofitable machine cos they have the money , but sega don't. They have to make money soon or they will die , A third of Sega is owned by a capital firm!

I still don't agree that their online capabilities are the saviour of them , even outside of ireland i don't think theres enough bandwidth , not to suit me anyway

[This message has been edited by bugs (edited 24-05-2000).]

Noel Brady

That may be true guys but I promise that if you play 30 minutes of Chu Chu Rocket online, you'll never look back again.

Noel Brady www.game-ireland.com

Shinji

I wouldn't say the Dreamcast is dead by any means... But it's sure as hell weak. Its software catalogue is pretty damn good (and there's a fair few bits of excellent soft coming out over the next few months), however, and the new sales initiative in the USA should help things pick up somewhat.

I can see the DC becoming the preserve of the hardcore gamer, to quite a degree. It happened to the Saturn, which was beyond a doubt the machine of choice for import gamers who wanted 2D beat'em'ups or RPGs. Only SquareSoft developing for the Playstation gave Sony any kind of lead in the RPG front; Sega's machine still produced acres of excellent RPGs, however. And of course, Capcom and SNK beat'em'ups on the Playstation were pale shadows of their superior Saturn versions.

I'll be interested to see how the DC pans out. Clearly, the PS2 will stomp all over it in pure sales figures, simply because of Sony's marketing power.... But I don't think this means it will "die". Remember that this is a console with several million units sold - that kind of installed base doesn't just go away.

BTW, the thing about Irimajiri-san is true; he promised the wrong things for DreamCast, and has been demoted as a result. His demotion is less interesting than the chap who replaces him, though; the former head of the biggest online content/entertainment network in Japan. It looks like Sega could yet capitalise on Sony's failure to work out a coherent online strategy...

Ja,
Rob