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Sega Kills Off The Dreamcast 184

Posted by timothy from the but-what-about-my-beowulf? dept.
Rurik writes: "Over at MCV, a UK based site, they have a front page article about the death of the DreamCast. It seems Sega is losing too much money off the DreamCast, and are halting all production." An unnamed reader also points out this feature on cex.co.uk on same. Patrick Lewis writes of the move: "... and this time they mean it. Yahoo/Reuters says so." And of course, there's also coverage at Daily Radar, too. Update: 01/23 10:21 PM by T : Note that many of these stories prominently feature the denial by Sega representatives of the quitting-hardware reports; according to both the Nikkei news service and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, though, sales will halt once the current inventory is gone. Sure sounds like quitting to me.
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Sega Kills Off The Dreamcast More

Sega Kills Off The Dreamcast

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  • Could this happen to the PS2??

  • OTOH (Score:5)

    by theonetruekeebler ( 60888 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @12:37PM (#486717) Homepage Journal
    Sega denies it [cnn.com].

    --
  • Honestly, I believe that the Dreamcast was more popular than the PS2 in combined Japan and US sales. Why aren't consoles selling like they used too??

    --
  • What a tragedy. Really. I really like this system.

    One question: how will game development for it go. I know they plan to develop software for the PS2 and everything, but what about my other, little white box baby?

    -
    -Be a man. Insult me without using an AC.

  • This is hardly surprising givent that last November, Sega reported a 17.98 billion yen ($153 million) net loss for the April-September period, largely due to hefty cuts in overseas sale prices of the Dreamcast game console.
  • How distressing. I had just leaped into the 90's (now that its the 00's) when I won a Dreamcast at an xmas party last year. And now Sega is killing it? Great! And I thought I had a tough time finding good games for my Dreamcast before. *sigh* Why can't they just decrease funding for advertising and use the spare change to fund the conversion of some of the best-of Sega games to Dreamcast format for all of those who weren't as lucky as I was, who actually had to shell out a large chunk of change for this contraption.

  • This makes it all that much easier for MS to own the home console market. Face it, Sony is the only real competitor left. When these devices begin to become the hub for home entertainment, MS will set the rules.

    Why does the idea of paying a monthly fee to access the Microsoft Games and Entertainment network rankle my hide?
  • It just goes to show how unfair the playing field gets when large corporations are allowed to draw funds from their other divisions like TV's and walkmans to fund ailing game divisions. Sony never would have been able to buy the Saturn and Dreamcast out of Toys R Us and Kay Bee if SCEA had to rely on its own funds. It looks like the future holds a two company war: Sony and MS. Too bad.

  • I doubt that. What percentage of the mass market do you think has this ability?

    Piracy might have had a -small- impact, but the complexity of acquiring and burning the games is barrier to entry for the majority of the population.

    The real problem with the Dreamcast has always been marketing. Hardly anyone knows about how good the software for the DC really is. Right now, with the DC being 2 years old, it still offers the best console experience on the market (PS2 included), but if you go to the local arcade and ask around, the impression the kids in there have is that the DC is on par with the original Playstation.

    Nobody really knows the scoop.
  • There aren't a million Playstation2 owners. Sony hasn't made that many consoles.
  • Let's see... third time around (right?), still just a rumor, still no confirmation from Sega. I suppose the idea here is that if we float the rumor often enough and depress the stock price far enough, it might become a self-fulfilling prophecy, right?

    The press really needs some more integrity here, even if it is true, but esp. if it turns out to be false... again. These rumors hurt real people, you know, which is sad when they have no basis in reality.

    (On the other hand, if the console did go down at this point, I think it would be kinda cool in a way... I'd love to pick up all the excellent Dreamcast games at bargain bin prices! Probably still couldn't afford them all before they'd disappear, there's too many good ones.)

  • Re:OTOH (Score:3)

    by rw2 ( 17419 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @12:43PM (#486727) Homepage
    Yeah, it's too bad that no one at AP was sophisticated enough to check the 'press release' that was emailed to them for headers in the microsoft domain...

    Don't groan. It's not the first time something like that has been done by them!

    --

  • Well, as Daily Radar reports, the japanese newspaper that had the story is one of the most respected news journals there.
    --
  • http://www.mcvuk.com/ writes: "Sega denies Dreamcast death"

    "Sega of America has denied reports that the company is to pull out of the hardware market and cease production of Dreamcast." That's a pretty far strech from "Sega Kills Off The Dreamcast" I know all about that first amendment, free speech thingie that Slashdot believes in, but could we PLEASE get a little editorial accuracy?

  • If it's true... (Score:5)

    by DrQu+xum ( 218745 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @12:46PM (#486730) Homepage Journal
    ...then this marks another dead platform that NetBSD supports.

    A shame -- I would've loved seeing sendmail running on a DreamCast.
    Thus sprach DrQu+xum.
  • It will be nice to see a PS2 or Nintendo version of the next 'Sonic', etc. It would be even better if they'd get their ass in gear and start doing reasonable GL or Direct3d ports of their games.
  • To burn game:

    Download ISO from any site.
    Place CD-R in drive (The tricky part: make sure it's 80 minutes).
    Click "Start recording"

    Every console maker's profits are nearly all in software sales. Hardware has traditionally been a loss of money.

    I don't mind emultation for old games. It gives you a chance to relive some old favorites (particularly when the hardware is old and sometimes prone to failure) but enough is enough.

    I don't think Sega lost the battle entirely due to pirate games, but I'm sure it created a good dent.

    -
    -Be a man. Insult me without using an AC.

  • Article is here [cnet.com]

    &nbsp

  • Re:OTOH (Score:1)

    by torpor ( 458 )
    You have evidence of this 'press release' coming from Microsoft?

  • This makes it all that much easier for MS to own the home console market. Face it, Sony is the only real competitor left. When these devices begin to become the hub for home entertainment, MS will set the rules.

    Why exactly are we ruling out Nintendo as a serious competitor? Even if the Game Cube isn't as whiz-bang fast as other consoles (I really don't the specs, maybe it is) you can bet 3rd party developers will jump behind the GC,just like they have every other Nintendo console (except the VB), and there is an incredibly large, incredibly loyal fan base in place.

    Why does the idea of paying a monthly fee to access the Microsoft Games and Entertainment network rankle my hide?

    Honestly, I don't know. No one if forcing you to pay the fee. Get your games elsewhere, no one is stopping you.
  • they promised the world and delivered Bogna regis. One good thing to come out of this will be a lot of cheap Dc's for sale. Serious gamers are not going to buy into a dying platform, but hackers might be very interested.

  • Read a couple of the articles, and you'll notice that the 'experts' seem to belive that it's the console it's self and the marketing efforts that go with it that are producing the drain on Sega's resources. Thus, Sega kills the console, and continues to produce what is profitable for them: Games. As for 1000's of people burning games and never paying for them, I think you don't realize exactly how little money each title ends up resulting in when all is said and done. 1000 games worth of lost revenue would be piddly compaired to Sega's cash flow (for me, however, 1000 units would be a big deal! It's all a matter of scale and what precise market you are in...)

    I'm guessing I'm just feeding a troll here, but, I replied just in case it was someone who honestly believed what they were saying ;-)

  • It's not the first time that a technologically superior console has lost out. All the hype of the PS2 killed the DC. So far, the PS2 games haven't delivered. Heck, Sony hasn't even delivered all that many consoles. DreamCast has more and, with a couple exceptions, better games than the PS2. But PS2 had the hype. Everyone was excited about it. A lot of media recommended against buying a DreamCast until the PS2 came out. They said it was a question mark whether Sega could deliver, and Sony might crush them and drive them out of business and there would be no games for the DC.

    Well, it has become a self-fullfilling prophecy. Nobody buys the DreamCast because they are worried that the console won't make it, and since nobody buys it, it doesn't make it.

  • It's just rumour, but (Score:5)

    by phaze3000 ( 204500 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @12:51PM (#486739) Homepage
    Even if Sega *were* to halt Dreamcast production - which they've denied, the Dreamcast is getting a position as *the* console for hackers, so isn't about to die completely just yet. I just got my serial cable and have been playing about, and there's a lot of scope for doing some really kool stuff. The fact that GCC can compile SH-4 well is a big help. If you want to get into it, check out sites like boob [boob.co.uk].

    Anyway, remember that it's all just a rumour at the moment, although we all know Sega's been having serious problems.

    It would seem rather odd for this to come on a day when Sega's share price has increased by 200 Yen a share [theregister.co.uk] though.. dirty tactics perhaps?

    --

  • welcome to capitalism... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is how the market should work... the weaker companies die or get bought-out. The stronger ones survive. Works for me.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • If that is the case the the PS2 should have the same problem

    The first day of release I saw PS2 games ripped and ready for downloading...

    Repeat?

  • Re:OTOH (Score:3)

    by interiot ( 50685 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @12:53PM (#486743) Homepage
    It's too bad the Slashdot summary makes it sound as if the news is 100% certain, even though nearly all of the articles linked take time to mention that Sega has denied the news as rumor.

    It's almost as if the Slashdot crew was just trying to generate page hits. Oh wait...
    --

  • Daily Radar Sucks (Score:4)

    by drivers ( 45076 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @12:53PM (#486744)
    Don't even go off of what Daily Radar says...
    Sega rumors which have already been shown to be false...
    And then, last time it was the "Nintendo is suing us for screenshots" story which as it turns out, they were actually suing the media conglomerate Imagine that owns their site because they were apparently publishing books with trademarked and copyrighted Pokemon drawings all over it.

    There is a really funny
    Penny-Arcade comic strip [penny-arcade.com] that covers the issue pretty well in my mind. :)
  • Is it just me, or is anyone else getting an error message from the first link (the MCV link) saying you are not premitted to visit in a javascript window? *looks dazed and confused*

  • Re:Something's rotten in Slashdot... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    truth and accuracy don't drum up the ad impressions like false rumors though.

    The golden days of losing tons of money are over for .coms. You do know that slashdot is a .com now, despite their misleading domain name?
  • feature on cex.co.uk

    That is waaay too close to goatse.cx for me! Ick!

  • And I just walked upstairs to the Dreamcast division and they say that it's not true. In fact, they said that they had just had a meeting last week about rumors being spread that Micros-ft or Nintendo was buying them out.

    So there that is.

  • It's a catch-22 situation. The more money you have, the easier it is to generate more. Marketting is one thing that isn't 100% critical to getting the product out there, so it's one thing that can be dropped in an already bad situation.
    --

  • NOT -- already denied (Score:4)

    by catseye_95051 ( 102231 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @12:56PM (#486750)
    If youa ctually read the Yahoo article-- its a third hand report. They are reporting that someone else reported....

    very sloppy, bad jounralism.

    And SEGA has already denied it. This link

    http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20010123/tc/sega _d enies_rumor_of_dreamcast_s_demise_1.html

    is useful for the denial though the rest of the article is filled with similar sloppy/bad reporting as Yahoo tries to cover their first error...
  • Are /. ops stupid? The article that the story links to discusses how Sega is denying the death-of-Dreamcast stories.

    Real quality reporting here.
  • First it was that Sega would be bought out by Nintendo. It screws with Sega's stock price. Thank you NYTimes.

    Then a Japanese newspaper places Sega, fiscal-wise, ahead of a company that sold tainted milk to children which was in last place.

    Then Sega "announces" that they would stop manufacturing Dreamcasts; this is denied.

    Is this FUD generated by Sony or what?
  • I think this goes to show you that you never know where the trends are going. The Dreamcast was a hot item and in my humble, yet most likely uneducated opinion, the Dreamcast was a great piece of hardware. I don't think I want to invest $300 (if you're lucky) on a Play Station 2 when the dreamcast was out in 18 months. PS2 will probably do the same when the X box comes out (if the X Box comes out)
  • a month after i finally buy one!
  • So the only company from the 16-bit era (the Golden Age) that still produces consoles, is.... Nintendo. I'm not sure what large, uncreative, soul sucking, paranoid corporation to root for in the new system wars.
  • ... yet another example of the incredible lack of basic journalistic skills here at slashdot.

    or

    ... yet again watching all the people jump and post from reading the subject line of the "news" item who agree with it without even bothering to read the link. God bless you slashdot for giving the truly stupid a place to call home.

  • After the Saturn fiasco, Sega should have called it quits and gone into software development.

    Hardware is hardly profitable, given the competitiveness of the market. The Dreamcast is a great machine (hey, it's hackable and it can run Linux), but it was released by a non-player in the market.

    If it weren't for the p*ssing matches between the major players in the industry (it's a major bruise to a company's ego if it gets killed by an industry newcomer, like Sony), Sega would have waken up and smelled the profits in being a pure software company. Sega is responsible some of the greatest arcade games ever created. Think of the money they could make if they sold their wares on N64, Playstation, Playstation 2 and PC. That's a whole lot of cash.

    Piracy had nothing to do with it. Public apathy had more to do with it. Sega should take Capcom's approach and write game emulators for each of the platform they want to sell on.

    If this story is for real, expect to see Sega in the black within 18 months. This is great news for Sega, not-so-great news for Dreamcast fans.

  • Not. (Score:3)

    by jelwell ( 2152 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @01:00PM (#486759)
    Sega says Nope! [cnet.com]

    Not that I wouldn't mind seeing the Dreamcast die. I bought one of those worthless Playstation 2's in October the day they came out, and there still hasn't been a good game released for the system yet. All my friends have Dreamcast systems with a large library of impressive and fun games. I can totally see why Sega would want to kill their machine - they've got too many good games - and online support that lets 4 people play a First Person Shooter through one console, ONLINE!! Someday the PS2 will be that cool, but not yet.

    Joseph Elwell.

  • I am glad that Slashdot got ALL possible related news items for this post so that it didn't look TOO one sided against the DC. (Please note that the CNN link where the Head of Sega of America denies that the DC is dead and says that there are 100 games in the pipe for 2001 is not included in the post).
  • but, let's assume just for a moment that this story is true (apparently that's not a stretch for most readers, despite several reports otherwise) that Sega is stopping production of the Dreamcast.

    The Yahoo link also states that they are focusing on software development. I already have a Dreamcast and I don't give a crap if they keep producing the boxes. It would thrill me to death that they realize their investment would be better spent making some more games.

    But, looking at the Nintendo GameBoy, Color GameBoy, Pocket GameBoy, Bassackwards GameBoy, Mint-Flavored GameBoy, and Limited Edition Anti-Matter GameBoy, it hardly seems that ceasing production of the clunky, gray, original GameBoy was a sign that the company was giving up on their line. Anyone see the new, smaller Playstation 1? They stopped production of the original, right?

  • Yeah, thats why the Sony Playstation was the miserable failure it is.

    Come on, install a mod-chip, or have one installed, then rent game from video shop, copy to CD, add to personal library.

    No lengthy downloads, no dependence on broadband connection, cheaper console, easier copying process.

    There is the necessity to modify the hardware, but the proliferation of people offering to do this is quite amazing.

    Just look at how badly piracy has hit Sony's bottom line.

  • Yeah, well, Jerry Lewis is big in France. That and US$.99 will get you a McDonald's burger for a limited time.
  • This is because we can run Linux on it, isn't it?? What a shame, great hardware and fabulous games, but no more...
  • Clearly stated at CNN [cnn.com] Sega denies rumors "that it will be ceasing production of its Dreamcast video game console, adding that suggestions the company would produce software for its competitors were also misleading." Leave it to the brits to make something up..

  • Friend showed me this article [fgnonline.com] which quotes Sega insiders as denying a link to the PS2 or development of PS2 games, but won't deny there are big changes coming.

    Ben^3
  • Hardly. Finding a DC ISO on the web is just short of impossible. These things tend to be between 200 and 400mb and if you put one up, expect your webhost to take it down when they realize your $20/month account is pulling $20,000/month in bandwidth.

    There are two places that you can get DC ISO's from with any kind of reliability: Usenet and IRC.

    So, DC piracy is done by:
    People on broadband with the know how to use IRC and/or Usenet, and the time to spend hunting down the ISOs (not negligible).

    Furthermore, DC ISO's are the -most- difficult to burn of any of the ISO types that are commonly released in the piracy scene. About 1 in 5 burners can't even do it, and about 1/3 of the users that can burn the ISO's that have to do so by tearing the ISO apart and changing some offset values (has to do with some Burners burning 2 extra sectors to the end of audio tracks) and rebuilding it.

    I'm pretty sure that of all the warzing that goes on in all of the other scenes, DC warzing has the SMALLEST impact on it's market.

  • Sega -Of America- denied the report (Score:5)

    by MarcoAtWork ( 28889 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @01:13PM (#486768)
    As the subject says, it's Sega of America that denied the report, which is really interesting, considering that it is no secret that while the dreamcast has done fairly well over here, it did pretty badly in Japan.

    I wonder if the story should be read as 'Sega of Japan is going to stop producing Dreamcasts, Sega of America instead will keep producing consoles and software'.

    OT: personally I bought a dreamcast for basically three games: House of the dead, Crazy taxi and Dance dance revolution. At work instead we mostly played Virtua Tennis (*awesome* game) and Ultimate Fighting Championship.
  • http://www.segaweb.com/news/0101/061.html [segaweb.com]
    • In an effort to confirm this story, SegaWeb immediately contacted Sega of America's Heather Hawkins. Her response to the news was, and I quote, "Yeah, I'll have more for you on the story as soon as Microsoft buys us out and we begin distributing GameCube games to small Scandinavian countries." When pressed for clarification, she responded, "Well, the story was just like all the other ones out there. OK?," and terminated the conversation.
    http://boards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=2267626&re plies=0 [ign.com]
    • Hi gang, We'll be putting out a stuffy official statement later today, but I knew things would be going crazy on here about all the rumors, so I wanted to hop on really quick and let you guys know that we have absolutley in no way made any announcement to support all the rumors that are flying around. The statement we'll be putting out later today reinforces our total dedication to Dreamcast and Dreamcast technology moving forward, and our commitment to you- the Dreamcast community. This a case of rumor after rumor piling up into a big snowball.com that's been rolling along for over a year now. Anyhow, look for a statement later today...

    --
  • Fomr the posts here I get the feeling some folks don't udnerstadn the economics of the platform market.

    SEGA loses money on the Dreamcast
    SONY loses monry on the PS/2
    MS will certainly lsoe money on the X-Box.

    The console is what is referredto in busiens sas a "loss leader". They sell it at a loss to gain incremental revenue. What is this revenue you ask?

    Game liscensing. For every copy of every game sold for one of these boxes, the console manufacturer gets a license fee from the game publisher.

    THATS why you want the market and give awya your hardware to get it. The revenues from license fees for the most successful game console are enormous.
  • So, how much LNUX stock does Sony own these days?
  • It's a rule I live by, and it works nicely.

    "I'll believe it when I see it."

    I'd love to freak out and panic and go postal and all sorts of things just because I won't be able to get a console and play CHU CHU ROCKET or stare at Ulala's butt or whatever. But y'know, panic like that does no one any good.

    Hell, for all it's worth, this could be little more than a marketing ploy. Create a little synthentic supply shortage, and watch demand go flying.

    Worked nicely for the PS2.
  • What's that smell? Ah, the refreshing aroma of a rerun thread...and this one's only a few days old...
  • Bzzzt. Serious gamers buy it because

    1) It's the only next-gen console out with a library of good games

    2) the games are new and different, not yet-another-FPS
    --

  • Link from Wired denying this story:

    http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,41370, 00 .html

  • Damn! (Score:3)

    by Xerithane ( 13482 ) <xerithane AT nerdfarm DOT org> on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @01:49PM (#486776) Homepage Journal
    I just got excited, I thought I'd be able to sell a limited edition DreamCast on e-bay.

    Then I had to find out it was just slashdot being slashdot and posting rumors.

    Damn.. there goes my 500% return.

  • but it was released by a non-player in the market

    That's a stretch. And when you consider that Sega is a player in the arcade machine market, and several of those machines used the same chip as the Dreamcast, it makes it a long stretch.
    --

  • Official denials mean absolutely nothing.

    Usually a denial just means that they're not ready to talk about it. They don't have an official press release ready, they haven't notified all the key people, legal isn't prepared for the media onslaught, etc. etc.

    My bet is that within 5-7 days this news will be confirmed. I don't know anything, of course, but that's usually the case with these sorts of news items.

  • They really didn't deny it did they.... (Score:3)

    by Vermifax ( 3687 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @01:51PM (#486779)
    First off it was Sega of America, and there official statement was "We will continue to support the Dreamcast and we have 100 games coming out..blah blah blah."

    Nothing denying that Sega of Japan is stopping unit production.

    Vermifax

  • The console killed by FUD (Score:5)

    by bran880 ( 84112 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @01:52PM (#486780)
    This is tragic, considering the fact that the Dreamcast is at least as good, if not a better system than the Playstation 2. I hope Slashdot readers will take a serious look at what's happened here: Sony has effectively killed the Dreamcast through FUD. At every point of production with the Dreamcast, Sega has executed perfectly, providing a well-stocked system with lots of innovative, great games (even good launch ones).

    If you've never spent a fair amount of time with this system, ignore these so-called game magazines FUD for a moment, and spend a weekend with one playing Shenmue, Soul Calibur, Jet Grind Radio or Samba De Amigo (friends & maracas are a necessity). These are easily some of the most fun, innovative games I've ever played, and marginally better than anything Sony or Nintendo or anyone else is offering at the moment.

    Now try to contrast your Dreamcast experiences with the PS2: even if you can get your hands on a PS2 (months after the ps2 "launch", most people still can't buy them through regular retail channels due to Sony's "parts shortages"), you'll find that the PS2 is nothing more than a upgraded PS1 with a crappy dvd player. Sony has beaten Sega not through producing a solid product, but through press releases and media control (something with which Slashdot readers are familiar).

    If Sega really is leaving the console business, I would strongly recommend buying one of these Dreamcast systems while they're still in stores. It is an extremely quality product with some of the greatest games on the planet.

    Did I mention it boots linux?

    Brandon

  • Great -- now don't I feel guilty. I was all set to buy a Dreamcast after hearing about the fantastic Shmoo [timewarptoys.com] game that was flying off the shelves.

    Then a friend had to ruin it for me by saying I'd misheard the title the whole time; it was "Shenmue" or some such nonsense. Now where's the fun in that...?

    ----------

  • I am an ardent Sega-Backer. I own every Sega System sold in the US, an assload of games, and tout the virtues of Sega over the hype machine that is Sony.

    But as usual, another week goes by, another "Sega is going under" story. Not just on Slashdot, but everywhere. Us real DieHards know to just sit back ,smile, and let the good stuff keep rolling in. Viv la Sega!
  • Now that the hardware platform is dead, why not open it up for broader development?

    They could still require their licensing for games that are sold/distributed.. But, release all the hardware/software specs and development tools so that maybe an Open Source type community could grow around the DC.

    Also, they could license the technology to other vendors (as has been rumored in the past). I'm sure they could find some manufacturer of DVD players that would like to include DC functionality as a feature of their product. Or, license it to MS or Nintendo to kick start their new consoles.

  • I couldn't agree more with this. Even though I've never personally owned a dreamcast, playing some of the games (Soul Calibur especially) has been a great experience. It's a real shame that the console lost ground to an inferior system like the PS2. Are people buying a console now because it is fun and looks good, or are they buying them because adds tell them they're fun and will make them look good? A shame.
  • SOA is the one denying it. They aren't even denying it really. They are saying we will continue to develop for the dreamcast, hardly the same as "We are not stopping hardware production".

    I'll wait till Sega of Japan has something to say. I mean I can't remember the last time SOJ said something then SOA denied it only to have SOJ re-affirm it later...

    Oh yah, they did that with the demise of the saturn didn't they.

    Vermifax

  • What part of "plans for the dreamcast are huge and long term [cnet.com]" indicates that they'll confirm the rumors any day now?
    --
  • Hmm, let's see. Sega was the first to enable CE powered games. Sega has "franchise" games, like Sonic. Sega denies that it'll be making PS2 games.

    I wonder if one can buy Sega ADRs? I wonder what'll happen to Sega's share prices when this is finally announced.

  • What do I care? (Score:4)

    by catseye_95051 ( 102231 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2001 @01:56PM (#486788)
    I live in California where there's no power anyway.

    I think I'll take up reading by candelight for recreation....
  • Nope. I'm getting it too. It looks like, once again, the Slashdot editors posted a link without bothering to follow it themselves.
  • http://www.segadojo.com/in-focus/index.shtml [segadojo.com] (Heather Hawkins of SoA)
    • Blah, blah, blah, more of the same thing. Our official stance is not to comment on rumors, but I will point out that these same rumors (we're getting bought by Nintendo, we're getting out of the hardware business, we're going multiplatform) have been floating around for AGES. I think it's all a cover-up to hide our real plans- it's all about NUON. I look forward to talking to you again next time the sky is falling =)

    --
  • The first story says that Sega will stop making the Dreamcast console.

    The second says that they will still continue to develop games for it.

    Vermifax

  • BAHAHAHA, allwell, at least we know the Playstation 2 is already out of date. Remember Unreal Tourny? That's all you get. Unreal 2 will *never* be on Playstation 2.

    News item here: http://www.fgnonline.com/pc/news/17176.html
    and here:
    http://www.fgnonline.com/pc/news/17147.html

    Plus the clipping off of BluesNews
    No PS2 Unreal 2
    A post called Unreal 2 Dated on FGN tries to clarify some Unreal-related release dates as well as they can based on available info, while quoting Epic's Mark Rein refuting Unreal 2 PS2 rumors, saying "Unreal 2 could not run on PlayStation 2."

    Release date for Unreal2? Sometime in first quarter 2002.. next year.

    Most advanced video game machine? Run along now kiddies, be good and you can have your Barney candy.
    -since when did 'MTV' stand for Real World Television instead of MUSIC television?
  • God dammit, I am so fucking sick of this!

    Sega ain't going anywhere, this all has to do with media newshounds looking for any rumour to post as a killer story in order to get attention in an oversaturated market.

    How many times in the past 10 years have we heard that Apple was going on sale? It's the exact same thing... The media WANTS Sega to fail. Any little rumour that leaks out of somewhere is going to get blown way out of proportion.

    ...and you know what? If Sega does fail, it will be partially BECAUSE of the media. All these constant stories on Sega's failure scare people away. Life imitating the news.
  • The article denies that they've officially anounced such, it doesn't deny the rumor. Still, I'd be surprised if it were true.
  • With the exception of the launch, Dreamcast sales have never been much more than sluggish in the US. In other countries, especially Japan, sales for the console were horrible. Even this holdiday season, more of the rather ancient Nintendo 64 were sold than Dreamcasts.

    Topping it off, Sega had a large spike in Dreamcast sales this year, coinciding with the release of pirated Dreamcast games. Not surprisingly, game sales did not reflect the rise in console sales.

    At the end of 2000, Sega was reported to be the least profitable company in Japan. The Dreamcast itself is still likely to be entirely unprofitable (As most game consoles are early on.) due to the cost of manufacturing the extremely proprietary hardware.

    With game companies throwing fits over the GD-ROM copy protection method having been broken, Sega had no choice but to release new Dreamcasts incapable of playing anything on a CD-ROM, rendering the newer machines useless to pirates.

    This really isn't a surprising move, given the facts. My only surprise was that it didn't come sooner, which it most likely would have had it not come from a country where corporation do not like admitting failure, especially in an area so hard to save face.
  • Even though it is possible that the news stories could be interpreted in that fashion, I really don't think that it is a likely ocurence. As we all should know, the American branches of Japanese video game companies are not independent enough to continue production of a console that the "mother branch" sees as a lost cause. Because of the recent slide of Japan's economy, it would be much more expensive to produce Dreamcast units here in the States than in Japan. It would be stupid for Sega to develop a game here for the same reason, yet producing a game in Japan and then being forced to translate it to American to be able to sell it at all is ineficcient. Overall, this thought is just the desperate grabbing-at-strings of a desperate mind.

    Why Sega of America denied the rumors is a much simpler question to answer (fortunately). Sega of Japan is not in America, so why would Americans care what they think? Much better to have the Americans spoken to by their local mouthpiece, SoA.

    -EOF-

  • Of course if SEGA denies it then it must be false.

    Sega's PR people are very special you know, they always tell the truth

  • I doubt it...
    But...Maybe they'll buy the "Dreamcast" division.

    Makes me wonder if the XBox will play Dreamcast games (either natively or perhaps after you buy a $100 add-on...)

    (As an aside - does anybody else wonder about that "XBox" name? Until Microsoft trademarked it, an "X Box", to me, was a terminal machine for X-windows...)
    ---
    "They have strategic air commands, nuclear submarines, and John Wayne. We have this"
  • But the last word that I heard is the Sega is not stopping production of the dreamcast, but only in its current incarnation. If I can find the link, I'll post it, but the word was that sega has just recently put all(or most, or enough ;)) of the dreamcast hardware on a chip, so that it will be avaliable as an add in card, for pc's, and for integration into home theatre devices. Like TV's, and DVD players, etc. If anyone remebers where this link is, post it ;) I probably won't be able to find it. I believe that this was the unofficial followup to Sega official statement that it will start producing stuff for "other" platforms. Sega of America, I believe, clarifed it, and indicated that the "other" platforms were not other consoles, but were other incarncations of the dreamcast, which would be pretty cool.
  • If you think about it, it's not much of a stretch at all.

    Being in the coin-op market doesn't legitimize your presence in the consumer market. Both of the consumer market leaders aren't in the coin-op market. The nature of competition is different between both markets. Presence in both markets allows you to take advantage of some economies of scale, but that's about it.

    From a consumer hardware perspective, Sega is rapidly becoming a non-player. It's been on the decline since the Saturn was released. Dreamcast is a worthy last hurrah, but I think Sega's days are numbered as a consumer gaming hardware provider.

    Sega's core business strength isn't in their ability to develop hardware. Even XBox has proven that it can compete on that level using what are basically commodity parts. Sega is a kick-ass software company, and if they develop on multiple platforms, they'll do a bang up job and restore the glory of their past.

  • No, I think you're wrong

    The console market is a mass market, only a fraction of console owners have access to broadband, only a fraction of these are able to burn a Dreamcast ISO...

    I think that Sony's PS2 hype has done more harm to the Dreamcast than piracy. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Dreamcast piracy only 6-8 months old?

  • The media outlet that is the source of all this furor is here [nikkei.co.jp]. The actual article is here [nikkei.co.jp]. Looks like a non-free WSJ style login is required, though you can read the summary on the front page of the paper if it is still there when you check it out. Maybe somebody could post the whole article as a reply to this post???

    shellac.

  • No, all indictations are that it's for real this time. This rumor has been floating around on the net for longer than the Dreamcast has been around, but it appears to be true this time.

    Yes, Sega did issue a press release reinstating their support of the Dreamcast. This doesn't change the fact that they will be supporting the system solely through software sales, and won't make anymore systems after some time this March.

    On the bright side, Sega makes some very cool games (Shenmue, PSO, etc), and I would just love to see them on other console systems.

  • you'll find that the PS2 is nothing more than a upgraded PS1 with a crappy dvd player

    Oh, puh-leeze. The graphics of the PS2 are so far ahead of the PS1 that there's no comparison. Take a peek at the opening video for Tekken Tag Team. Then look at it twice more, and look at the detail... hair, lips, water, lens flare, etc.

    Does the Dreamcast have component video out? I don't think so. My PS2 is hooked up to my 36" XBR Wega via the component inputs, and the DVDs and games look absolutely stunning. I have a Sony DVP-S7000 reference-grade ($1,500) DVD player, and it's nearly as good as that.

    Speak not from whence you know not. Look at the unit on quality equipment, and there's no going back.

    --
  • Update as of a few minutes ago, on Daily Radar [dailyradar.com]:
    • A source inside Sega has categorically confirmed the continuing manufacture of Dreamcast-enabled products, although it is unlikely that they will take the form of the current white Dreamcast box. This ties in neatly with rumors that Dreamcast-enabled set-top boxes, DVD players and even a PC add-in card are in the works. So it seems that for the moment, the fate of the Dreamcast format is far from sealed.
    Bizarre. It's hard for me to imagine that a low-volume PC-Dreamcast card could be more profitable than the dreamcast console. Especially because the console is already designed and has ramped up its production.
    --
  • 19 in monitor looks better than any tv set

    Riiiiight. Take a peek at a 36" XBR Wega with a decent signal going into it (like one of the Sony demonstration DVDs with super-low compression to really show off what the TV can do). As far as I'm concerned, with the right stuff going into it, it's a 36" monitor. Obviously, no TV will make standard cable TV look any better than it already is...

    --
  • I'm sorry but you're wrong.

    The only modern platform machine claiming to make a protfit at retail is the upcoming Nintendo box.

    Don't believe me, read the trades.
  • The "Japanese magazine" as you refer to it is basically the wall street journal of Japan. Its the key daily business newspaper.
    They usually report things first. If they report it, its because Sega Japan told them so.
    I expect Sega America (run by Americans) are in denial. Sega in Japan is nowhere with the dreamcast. They're turning themselves into a software/games company.

  • Sega still makes Arcade games, dummy!
  • games I've ever played, and marginally better than anything Sony or Nintendo or anyone else is offering at the moment.

    I think your using the word "marginally" incorrectly here. I belive you mean to say that the games are greatly better then what's available on the n64 and psx, but "marginally better" means only slightly better.

    Amber Yuan 2k A.D
  • Does the Dreamcast have component video out? I don't think so. My PS2 is hooked up to my 36" XBR Wega

    It's "Vega" not "Wega"

    Amber Yuan 2k A.D
  • Oh, puh-leeze. The graphics of the PS2 are so far ahead of the PS1 that there's no comparison. Take a peek at the opening video for Tekken Tag Team. Then look at it twice more, and look at the detail... hair, lips, water, lens flare, etc.

    Yeah, looks great ... pity the game only features 2D backgrounds and doesn't look a patch on Soul Calibor. Plays well though that's not what we're talking about here.

    Does the Dreamcast have component video out? I don't think so. My PS2 is hooked up to my 36" XBR Wega via the component inputs, and the DVDs and games look absolutely stunning. I have a Sony DVP-S7000 reference-grade ($1,500) DVD player, and it's nearly as good as that

    Yes it has component out. Mine is hooked up to the tv using S-video connectors, and in work my monitor.

    If your PS2 looks as good playing DVDs as your *ahem* Sony "reference-grade" model then either your Sony is a stinking pile of crap, or your DVDs have been burned from their VHS equivalents. If you can't see the difference in quality then you sir are a fool for buying high-end equipment when your eyesight/perception is too low to use it. Not that I would ever class sony kit as high-end".

    Speak not from whence you know not. Look at the unit on quality equipment, and there's no going back You sound like an spoiled 5 year old. *sigh*

  • The story is here [yahoo.com].

    "Sega's continual commitment to Dreamcast involves incorporating the Dreamcast technology with set-top boxes," Sega of America spokesman Charles Bellfield told CNET News.com. Bellfield said Sega would probably look to partner with other companies that would make the set-top boxes and that announcements would be coming shortly. . . . "Both dedicated game consoles and convergence devices play a part in the future of digital entertainment," Bellfield said. "The console is not going away and the Dreamcast technology is not going away."

    Nothing specific on whether such a device would enable high-speed connection to the Internet, but I can't see building a new device that didn't.

  • I never have figured out what American's refer to as Component Video (is it RGB, or S-Video?), but according to this the Dreamcast has RGB, S-Video and Composite outs, which covers both of those.

    Argh. RGB is not the same. Over there, I think the SCART cable has RGB pins on it which the TV can use. SCART totally doesn't exist in North America or Japan. On higher-end TVs, there are the normal composite (single RCA connector) input, S-video (single mini-DIN connector) input, and component (three RCA connectors) input which supply Y (luminance), Cb (Blue chrominance), and Cr (Red chrominance) signals completely separate for better colour purity and reproduction.

    I'm not familiar with the PS2, but the quality of output from my DC on RF is pretty impressive - not got a scart cable yet. I have a normal 25" TV, and a cheap DVD player, which obviously makes my opinion worthless, but there you go.

    Eww, RF. Just wait until you pick up the SCART cable. You think it looks good now? You're in for a VERY pleasant surprise...

    --
  • My question isn't, "What will happen to Sega?" but, "Why is Slashdot a hype machine for a non-console like Sony?"

    For people who like "multimedia boxes" with limited game playing ability, I'm sure that Sony's box is just fine. Of course, in buying it and its games you are giving money to the MPAA directly, stifling Linux and helping to buy new laws like the DMCA. This is not true with Sega, though they aren't saintly they have never had that kind of influence.

    Sega basically has decided to allow Sega Dreamcast clones. Think about this, why does x86 own the PC market? Clones. This is a huge advantage for Dreamcast owners, which has skillfully been turned into FUD by the hype machine at Sony (yes, maybe Micros~1 too, I wouldn't put it past them.)

    Sega decides to try something innovative and open up their hardware, and Slashdot slams them in favor of Sony, one of the nastiest companies in the entertainment business.

    But then, Slashdot's editorial bias against Sega has shown in the past, I can remember a snide little comment from one of the editors, "They've sold like what, 3 of them," referring to Dreamcasts in a previous story hyping the PS2.

    This level of bias makes me wonder if Slashdot, which used to give short shrift to software tyrants like Sony (or is it only bad when Micros~1 does it), is recieving money from Sony.

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