E3 '99 Report
This past week E3, the Electronic Entertainment
Exposition, was held at the LA
Convention Center in Los Angeles. I was there and was
quite surprised with a
lot of what I saw. However, before I get to the details
of the show I'd like to
discuss some of the details that were revealed at the
press conferences held the
day before the show began.
I arrived in LA last Tuesday, May 11th, and settled
into my hotel room. Tuesday
evening was uneventful as my roommates and I basically
just lounged around. The
next morning we were up bright and early. Our first
destination was the LA
Theater where Nintendo was holding its pre E3 press
conference. There was a
large crowd already waiting outside when my associates
and I arrived. We made
our way into the theater, got seated, and talked
amongst ourselves while waiting
for Nintendo of America's President Howard Lincoln to
come out and address the
crowd. Mr. Lincoln eventually made his way out onto the
stage and began to
speak. For about half an hour or so he went on about
Nintendo's premiere titles
that would be at E3, namely Donkey Kong 64, Perfect
Dark, Jet Force Gemini, and
Star Wars: Episode I Racer. He also talked about the
Pokemon phenomenon that is
fueling the brisk sales of Nintendo's recently released
Gameboy Color portable
and he announced that a new, and limited, Nintendo 64
package would soon go on
sale. This package will contain a Nintendo 64 console
and the soon to be
released Episode I Racer for $149.95. The most
significant news came towards
the end of the conference. Lincoln announced, to the
surprise of everyone in
attendance, that Nintendo had signed a one
billion-dollar agreement with IBM
which will have IBM produce the CPU for Nintendo's next
console, codenamed
"Dolphin". This chip will be a 400 MHz CPU
that will utilize IBM's 0.18 micron
copper technology. The chip, currently being called the
"Gekko" processor, is
an extension of IBM's PowerPC architecture. The deal
also leaves the door open
for IBM chip technology to be used in other Nintendo
products.
Lincoln also announced a few of the other specs for
"Dolphin". First and
foremost, Dolphin will be DVD based. This announcement
brought cheers from
myself and the rest of those in attendance. Nintendo
has finally realized that
cartridge based consoles aren't the way to go. Lincoln
went on to say that the
graphics chip will be made by ArtX, Inc. of Palo Alto,
CA, that it will have a
200 MHz clock speed, and that it will have
semiconductor process 0.18 micron
embedded DRAM technology. Furthermore,
"Dolphin" will have a system memory
bandwidth of 3.2 GB/second and it will have enhanced
counterfeit protection
technology that, according to Mr. Lincoln, will make
pirating "Dolphin" software
virtually impossible. What I found a bit surprising was
the unabashed
confidence that Mr. Lincoln had regarding Nintendo's
immediate future. He made
some bold predictions such as stating that he and
Nintendo believe that Donkey
Kong 64 will end up being the best selling game of all
time and that Nintendo 64
hardware sales are going to rise. I think Mr. Lincoln
and Nintendo may be
underestimating their competition.
As if all those announcements weren't enough,
Lincoln went on to announce an
alliance with Matsushita Electric, best known for it's
Panasonic brand name, in
which Matsushita will develop and supply the DVD medium
and drive for the
"Dolphin". Finally, it was announced that the
"Dolphin" is scheduled to be
released around the 2000 holiday season, but it wasn't
made clear whether that
launch date was for Japan, the US, or both.
After the Nintendo press conference had concluded,
my associates and I headed
back to the hotel to relax and doing nothing much.
Around 4:30 that afternoon
we departed for the Sega press conference that was
being held at an LA
nightclub. The conference was set to start and six, and
it was a good thing
that we left when we did because we got lost and didn't
get there until a little
after six. Once we got past security we went inside and
enjoyed the
complimentary bar while we waited for the conference
staff to herd us all into
the area where the actual conference would be held.
Once inside we sat and
talked for about five minutes and then a video
presentation began to play. It
consisted a weatherman reporting from the middle of
what seemed to be a
hurricane talking about a storm that was heading for
the LA area. As you might
guess, he was referring to the Dreamcast, but I thought
this was clever
nonetheless. After the mock news report Sega of
America's President, Bernie
Stolar, made his way out onto stage.
Mr. Stolar began by announcing that Sega is fully
committed to making Dreamcast
a huge success and as such have instituted a marketing
campaign for North
America and Europe that will cost approximately 200
million dollars. Ads will
appear on MTV, ESPN, as well as ESPN2 and several other
networks. After those
announcements were made we were treated to a video
presentation which showed
footage from a multitude of Dreamcast games including
Sonic Adventure, NFL 2000,
NBA 2000, Soul Caliber, Trickstyle, Ready 2 Rumble, and
Powerstone. Immediately
following the presentation Bernie stated that the
Dreamcast's graphics
performance is four times better than the fastest
Pentium 2 and that Capcom's
Powerstone, Konami's Castlevania, and Namco's Soul
Caliber would be available
when the Dreamcast launches on September 9th. Mr.
Stolar said that fifteen
titles would be available when the Dreamcast launches
and that by the end of the
year thirty titles would be on store shelves. The most
significant announcement
though was that the Dreamcast will come packaged with a
56k modem and will
retail for only $199. This brought lots of cheers from
the crowd. Details of
Sega's Dreamcast website, which will interface with the
modem, were also
divulged. Sega's Dreamcast site will have chat and
conference capabilities as
well as an up to the minute sports ticker such as the
one found on Headline
News.
Mr. Stolar then introduced Sega's Senior VP of
marketing, Mr. Peter Moore.
Before Mr. Moore came out to address the crowd, Mr.
Stolar said something that I
think really summed up Sega's philosophy. He said,
"We're not a kids company,
we're not an electronics conglomerate, we're a gaming
company". I thought that
hit the nail on the head. Mr. Moore soon came out and
began to describe, in
great detail, just how Sega is going to market the
Dreamcast. I was extremely
impressed by his presentation. Mr. Moore also announced
that Sega will be the
premiere sponsor of this year's MTV Video Music Awards
and that the monetary
commitment to MTV was around six million dollars. Last,
but not least, Mr.
Moore announced that Sega had reached a deal with Pepsi
that will put Dreamcast
ads, along with Pepsi ads, on 11,870 screens in movie
theaters across the US.
The conference concluded with another video
presentation showing Dreamcast
titles. I left this conference thoroughly impressed
with Sega's marketing
campaign and their lineup of titles. In fact, I was so
impressed that yesterday
I went out to my local Electronics Boutique and
pre-purchased a Dreamcast. The
one disappointment of the conference was the fact that
neither Mr. Stolar nor
Mr. Moore addressed the Dreamcast's abysmal sales in
Japan. The most recent
sales figures I've seen have shown that the Playstation
is outselling the
Dreamcast in Japan by a nearly 4:1 margin. That has to
change and I hope that
Sega has an aggressive plan to bring that change about.
By the time my associates and I had gotten back to
our hotel it was around 10pm
and we were all tired. We played some Nintendo 64 games
for a little while and
then went to sleep. The next day began bright and early
around 6:30am. The
show wasn't going to start until 10am, but we all got
up as early as we did so
that we could attend the keynote speech that preceded
the show. The speaker was
a Mr. Don Tapscott who is the author of several books
on the Internet and
technology, the Chairman of the Alliance for Converging
Technologies, and the
President of New Paradigm Learning Company. His speech
lasted for approximately
one hour and touched on the effect of videogames and
technology on our culture,
economy, and society. He was extremely articulate and
had some very interesting
things to say. Among the highlights of his speech was
the portion where he
addressed the current assertion by much of the media
that videogames contribute
to youth violence. In a very simply presentation using
straightforward graphs
he showed that over the past ten years videogames sales
have risen dramatically
while youth crime and violence have decreased. In a
nutshell, there's a
negative correlation between videogames and youth
crime.
After the keynote had concluded the show was
officially opened and I ventured
out onto the floor to see what all the major companies
had to offer. Instead of
giving a day by day rundown of what I did, I'm going to
go over the highlights
of the show in a booth by booth breakdown.
I'll start with Nintendo's booth. Nintendo's big
titles: Perfect Dark, Donkey
Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, and Stars Wars: Episode I
Racer ranged from above
average to mediocre. Perfect Dark, the pseudo sequel to
the smash hit
Goldeneye, looked worse than it did at last year's E3
as it was extremely
pixilated and the collision detection was horrible.
Donkey Kong 64 looked no
more impressive than Nintendo's previous 3D
platformers, although it was fun to
play. Jet Force Gemini, a shooter, had bland, blocky
graphics and monotonous
gameplay. Finally, Episode I Racer looked good and it
was fun to play, but it
didn't have some gameplay elements that I felt it
should've.
Instead of being a combat racer where you could race
around a myriad of tracks
while shooting your opponents with an assortment of
cool weaponry, it was just a
pure racer. There's nothing wrong with pure racing
games, but I think a Star
Wars racing game needs some weaponry. There was also
video footage of several
upcoming N64 titles such as Kirby 2, Excitebike 64, and
Super Mario RPG 2.
Excitebike 64 and Kirby 2 looked very good, but Super
Mario RPG 2 looked worse
than Super Mario RPG 1 and in fact looked like it was a
Super Nintendo game. Not
good. The most impressive and noteworthy thing in
Nintendo's booth by far was
Capcom's Resident Evil 2. The game itself wasn't that
impressive, but what was
impressive was the Full Motion Video intro to the game.
FMV intros are standard
fare in Playstation game, but up until now no one had
really thought it was
possible to put an FMV intro onto a cartridge. The
intro doesn't look as good
as the Resident Evil 2 intro on the Playstation, but it
was still amazing
considering it was on a cartridge. There were so huge
Pokemon displays as well,
but overall Nintendo had a pitiful showing. The worst
disappointment of all
though was the absence of Metroid 64. Absolutely
inexcusable.
Next up is Sony. Like Nintendo, Sony had some big
name titles at the show that
ultimately failed to deliver. Spyro the Dragon 2, Um
Jammer Lammy (the sequel
to Parappa the Rapper), Gran Turismo 2, and Ape Escape
were all there. With the
exception of Um Jammer Lammy, which I personally don't
like but recognize that
it isn't a bad game, all of the aforementioned titles
were average at best.
Spyro 2 looked like and played just like its
predecessor. Gran Turismo 2's
graphics were extremely grainy and there were only a
scant few cars to choose
from. Ape Escape didn't look very good either and its
gameplay was boring and
repetitive. I understand that many of these titles are
still in development,
but they should've looked and played better than they
did. What was impressive
was the pyramid in the middle of Sony's booth that had
several screens on it.
Those screens were showing a few different Playstation
2 demos. When I first saw
the Gran Turismo demo that they had running my jaw
dropped. I have never, ever
seen graphics as impressive as that. Not in an arcade,
not on a PC, not
anywhere. I was absolutely floored. Aside from the Gran
Turismo demo there was
a demo of face that showed off Sony's new "Emotion
Chip" technology and a cube
demo. I do have to say that Final Fantasy 8 and the new
R-Type game looked very
good, but aside from them and the Playstation 2 demos
there was nothing in
Sony's booth that impressed me at all.
It's unfortunate that Nintendo and Sony's showings
were so pathetic, but Sega's
booth made up for it. The assortment of Dreamcast games
and their quality was
phenomenal. From Midway's quirky and extremely
entertaining boxing game Ready 2
Rumble, to Namco's weapons based fighter Soul Caliber,
to Capcom's Marvel vs.
Capcom and Powerstone the Sega booth was chock full of
quality games. Other
Dreamcast games that blew me away include Sega's
wonderful fishing simulation
Get Bass that was made even better by the special
fishing rod controller that it
utilized. The two Sega Sports titles at the show, NFL
2000 and NBA 2000, looked
marvelous and played beautifully. Sega Rally 2 was also
there and your truly
competed in a Sega Rally game with three other
individuals that was being played
via the Dreamcast Network in Japan. Sonic Adventure was
there too, of course,
and it looked great. The only problems with it were the
camera angles. They
constantly changed. I would've liked a fixed camera
that stayed right behind
Sonic at all times. There were a few stinkers there
too, like Crave
Entertainment's Aerodancing, but all in all the titles
shown were wonderful. I
also really liked Atlus' first person corridor game
Maken X and Sega's Dynamite
Cop, which was a lot like Final Fight and Streets of
Rage except with better
than arcade quality graphics. Also, Sega's arcade
shooter House of the Dead 2
was there and it looked great. The Sega gun that works
with HOTD2 wasn't there,
which hurt the experience of playing the game a bit. I
can't forget to mention
Yu Suzuki's new game Shen Mue. Shen Mue is an
action/adventure game and it was
playable, but I couldn't get a real good feel for the
game because it was so
incomplete. However, what I did see looked excellent.
Shen Mue will make use
of the Dreamcast's internal clock, which I think is
very cool. If you play Shen
Mue at night it'll be nighttime in the game, and if you
play Shen Mue during the
day it'll be daytime in the game. As for the stock
Dreamcast controller, it was
very comfortable to hold, and the VMS (Virtual Memory
System) was very cool.
The VMS plugs into the back of the Dreamcast controller
and functions a lot like
a memory card, with a few other major features. The VMS
has an LCD screen of
its own and interfaces with most Dreamcast games. A
good example of how this
interaction works is illustrated by Midway's Ready 2
Rumble. While playing
Ready 2 Rumble I was able to glance down at the VMS
screen and see how many
punches I had landed with my character's left and right
hands as well as how
accurate my punching was. Very, very cool. Sega also
has a slick flight stick
coming out as well as a microphone plug in for the
Dreamcast controller that
will work with several of their upcoming titles.
Several other peripheral
companies such as InterAct, Nyko, and Mad Catz will
have their own Dreamcast
peripherals coming out.
The long and the short of it is that Sega blew the
competition away. Their own
Dreamcast games as well as 3rd party Dreamcast games
were very impressive with
the exception of a few titles. Sony and Nintendo didn't
even come remotely
close. I think Sega has an excellent chance to make the
Dreamcast a huge
success if they can execute their excellent marketing
strategy. Also, if the
initial crop of Dreamcast software is any indication,
we're all in for some
major treats. First generation software is never very
reflective of a system's
capabilities so developers really haven't been able to
tap into the Dreamcast's
full power just yet. There's a lot to look forward to
as far as Dreamcast
software is concerned and I think that Sega has a
bright future ahead of them in
North America. The horribly low sales in Japan have to
be addressed, but I have
confidence that they will be. Prior to E3 I was a jaded
former Sega fanatic
that wasn't too optimistic about Sega or the Dreamcast.
After E3 had concluded
I was, and still am, gung-ho about the Dreamcast. If it
hadn't been for Sega
this year's E3 would've been a huge disappointment for
me, but as it is Sega was
the show and what a hell of a show it was.
IGN's Best of E3 Awards
IGN64 takes a look at E3's highlights and picks the
Nintendo 64 game of the
show.
This year's Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3)
proved to be one of Nintendo's
best. The gaming giant not only invaded the event with
a rock-solid line-up of
Nintendo 64 software, but threw a hook in Sony's
direction as well with the
announcement and initial specs of its next-generation
hardware, codenamed
Dolphin.
IGN64 was there for it all. We played the big games,
we played the small games,
and we saw a few surprises here and there that managed
to turn our heads. For
your information, we've provided an awards list of
sorts for a number of
categories related to Nintendo 64. So sit back, read
on, and enjoy.
DESIGNER
DIARY: 4PLAY -
by Scott LeGrand
In the Beginning
On September 23rd, 1993, my roommate (who I believe
Bill thinks was Doug Engel)
and I were invited by Bill Rehbock to come up to
Glendale, California to see the
very first video games running on the Atari Jaguar.
Besides playing a really
crude edition of Checkered Flag, we pitched a space
combat game called
"Singularity" which we indicated could better
be called Star Raiders 2000. Bill
told us that the name was already taken, but that he'd
get back to us. One month
later, we met Tom Harker across the Internet and he
agreed to act as our
interface to Atari and I conned - vinced my wife (then
fiancee) Stephanie to
write the soundtrack. In November, I drove and Tom flew
to Santa Cruz and we met
for the very first time. Tom was here to trade away the
8 bit line of ICD tools
for a cool 1950s monster mobile. The next day we drove
up to Sunnyvale,
navigated our way to 1190 Borregas avenue and played
Tempest 2000 and Cybermorph
for the first time. Big time! We're on our way and
making it...
We walked away that day with a very early prototype of
Aliens vs. Predator,
along with a deal for 2 development systems. By then
the game had been renamed
to "Star Battle", in honor of a game I had
written on a high school mainframe
back in 1980 about which I still get email now and
then. On December 24, we
received our first alpine board in dysfunctional
condition in a Fedex box. After
several frantic phone calls, we were sent a second,
functional alpine board and
Doug kept the first in order get medieval upon it with
a soldering iron. Within
a week, we both had working development systems and the
evolution of the game
that became BattleSphere began. The kicker is that
since there was no backing of
any sort for this game, we would have to develop it
entirely in our spare time
while maintaining full-time day jobs. Our advice: Don't
do this. Our original
estimates were that we could have the entire game coded
in 12-18 months. Bzzzzt!
Wrong! We had yet to encounter the black hole that was
Atari developer support,
as well as a myriad of inexplicable bugs and random
flaky development tools.
They like us, they really like us!
6 months later, we showed off the very first demo of
the polygon engine at SCES
'94. The demo makes an appearance in the AEO SCES '94
Video, for those of you
collecting BattleSphere Trivia and anyone there could
see we ought to have sued
the pants off of Nintendo over the N64 logo, but of
course, they must have
thought of the thing first, they're Nintendo. Things
went well, but I wish it
had been a playable demo by that time, but c'est la
vie, we were just getting
introduced to some of the many jaguar hardware bugs and
part-time development
already sucked. Six months later at WCES '95, there was
sound, the first pass at
the music engine, primitive collision detection, and a
simple game involving
rescuing animated astronauts. The game was now called
"BattleSphere". This is
really starting to take too long, isn't it? Trouble
ahead, trouble behind...
5 months after that, BattleSphere had its last trade
showing at the very first
E3. This was the first place we ever demonstrated
networked dogfighting. It was
a resounding success and numerous professional aviators
commented on the quality
of our flight engine compared to what they could play
on the PC and other
systems. This demo almost never happened, because a
insiduous bug in the
hardware forced some last minute rewriting practically
on the show floor. Of
course, the real star of E3 was the Playstation
unveiling, but we were happy
with our reception. After all, at this point, the fat
lady was clearing her
throat for her Atarian anthem. They said we were daft
to build a castle in the
swamp!
At this point, we realized we were behind schedule. I
decided to take 3 months
off and Doug took a month's worth of accumulated
vacation time off from work and
go full time on game development. From July through
September, BattleSphere
became my one and only obsession. In that time, we went
from a primitive
dogfight engine to networkable deathmatching with the
infamous subsumption
architecture AI. A fun footnote here is that but 2 days
after we got the AI
marginally running, a mysterious request came from
Atari for a demo. We sent it
off, only to find out later that they secretly put the
badly behind Battlesphere
head to head with the completed Space War 2000 in a
focus group. Guess who won
and who got cancelled? This pattern repeated itself in
October when Atari
demanded working networking code from us on a Friday,
to be provided by the
following Monday, for incorporation into Iron Soldier
II or it wouldn't have
networking. Ah, the fun final days of Atari. However,
we now had a solid demo
for showing off to potential backers of a PC or PSX
edition and the search for a
future past Atari began. Is there life after death?
Although we knew at this point that Atari was pining
for the fjords, we decided
that BattleSphere was not enough of a game to actually
release the thing (in
retrospect, this was a BIG BIG BIG mistake). So now, we
commenced development of
the play modes. Atari died in January, 1996 and the
Gauntlet play mode first
appeared in March of that year. It was soon followed by
the BattleSphere and
training play modes, and that took us into early 1997
since we still didn't have
any funding for a PC version, despite a one year search
leading to 10 or so
pitches with big publishers who just couldn't grok the
networking, the 3D, the
jaguar, or some random combination of the above (or
possibly our failure to
closely resemble the current trendy genre). In March of
1997, I quit my science
career, leaving behind 8 years of dedicated research.
It was painful and we once
again considered releasing BattleSphere at that point.
However, we faced the
concorde fallacy that we had already put too much time
into the thing so why not
make the Alone Against the Empires play mode and call
it a day. This play mode
was completed by October of 1997, and there's nothing
like it on any other
platform. And that's when the playtesting began. It's
oh so much fun to put a
game into beta when you have no money. Thankfully, a
dedicated crew of
playtesters put their own free hours into the thing and
now, 8 months later,
BattleSphere is finished.
And on day 1745, God said "Ship it
already!"
Oh, you thought this was the end of the story?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Silly you, now
we have to get the sucker encrypted and produced so it
will actually run on
other people's jaguars. But, it will happen. And when
some twit naysayer tells
you it won't, just remember how many times they said
we'd never finish the
thing.
May your urine be
fresh and frothy!
EDITOR NOTE: These
sort of comments and the ongoing arrogance is
exactly WHY its recommended this game be ignored!
Scott Le Grand
Doug Engel
Stephanie Wukovitz
Tom Harker
Team "The Mess that is BattleSphere"
Courtesy of www.atarihq.com
- Larry -
PlayStation
2 Bigger Than Star Wars?
With Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
breaking box office records, with
sold-out shows likely to last for weeks, George Lucas
is certainly the king of
all media. And with this new marvel in film making, he
stands on the forefront
of cinema technology. However, the Phantom Menace,
which makes use of digital
effects throughout 95 percent of the shots, did nothing
to prepare him for a new
technology on the horizon, the PlayStation 2. Recently
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun Times spoke with Lucas to discuss Sony's
upcoming machine.
"I just finished this movie, which is kind of
state-of-the-art, you know.
Nobody's been able to do some of these things. We've
created full 3D digital
characters and 3D environments that are
photo-realistic, and we were sitting
there being extremely proud of ourselves - boy, we're
way ahead of everybody.
And then they put this toy on the desk that is more
powerful than anything we're
using. It can re-create what we're doing in the movie.
I mean, it's like we
struggled for four years to get there, and a year from
now, it's gonna be
available to everybody. It's not quite the same quality
as what we're putting on
film, but it's high enough quality for TV. It's
astounding."
Previously Lucas had commented that he did not want
to work on the Star Wars
prequels until computers were fast enough and cheap
enough to deliver any image
he could conjure up. And now not only has this
technology become available to
him so he can create his latest masterpiece, but next
year it will become
available to the mainstream population. "I was
just as blown away as you were. I
looked at it and thought, this is going way too fast. I
can't keep up. It's
mind-boggling. What they've accomplished is just beyond
comprehension, if you
know anything about computers."
"The thing about the PlayStation 2 is that it
works in real time. We didn't make
Phantom Menace in real time. Some of the shots in the
film took 48 hours to
render. We had huge, giant computers cranking every
minute of the day. Here
they're doing it in real time as you sit there."
For the full Roger Ebert/Chicago Sun Times
interview, click on our link to the
right [http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/roger16.html].
By Sam Kennedy, videogames.com
PlayStation 2 Week
in Review
Capcom, Tecmo, and KOEI all prepare games for Sony's
PlayStation 2. Dev Kit
costs revealed.
May 19, 1999
Riding the wave of the biggest game show in the
world, IGNPSX is finding the
gentle descent back to reality still packed with
excellent PlayStation tidbits
and news. As always, we'll be back next week to fill
you in with the latest on
PlayStation 2.
While E3 had a strong showing of PlayStation games
this year, in many ways the
kinds of games shown reminded one of last year's event,
lots of sequels, loads
of franchise stuff, and all major niches taken care of
(RPGs, platformers,
action games, etc.).
How Much? The cost of development kit is rising
these days, to be sure. But it's
bound to happen when the old systems go out and newer,
more powerful ones take
their places. With PlayStation 2, a few developers have
told IGNPSX that the
cost for a single dev kit is higher than most companies
can account for. Or had
planned for. The cost for one development system is
approximately $20,000. In
retrospect, the original cost of PlayStation dev kits
totaled about $4-5,000.
It's been four years since then, and the PlayStation 2
can do a phenomenal
amount of crunching in comparison, but $20,000 per
unit? Well that doesn't sound
so bad, until you do the math. Now take into account
each company has at least
one or two teams of developers and each team may use
5-10 kits, one kit per two
people. With three teams and 20 people per team, using
one kit per two people,
that's $600,000. Wow. Is that too much? The price of
inflation? Or the right
amount for such a powerful system?
Capcom Hints at PS2 Zombies, Hellspawn, and Demon
Warriors In a conversation
with IGNPSX, Capcom's Yoshiki Okamoto, producer of
R&D, and President of
Flagship, explained that Capcom already has started
plans for bringing its
famous Resident Evil series to the new system. Okamoto
said that there will
definitely be a "zombie" game on PlayStation.
Later on the in the conversation, Okamoto stated
clearly that the exquisite
Spawn arcade game, on video only for E3, is not
exclusive to the Naomi board on
which it's been developed. Being on such an arcade
board, it's almost guaranteed
to come to Dreamcast. But it was clear that Okamoto is
as excited about
PlayStation 2 this year as he was with Dreamcast last
year.
The funny and insightful producer also explained
that Onimusha The Demon Warrior
was making a major change in hardware. He said that the
game was switching from
one piece of kit to another, adding that the game
wasn't due until the year
2000. Onimusha could arrive in the first or second
round of PlayStation 2 games
for the system, when it arrives.
Up on CG Hill While at E3, Sony showed two new PS2
tech demos at E3. One, which
we already reported on, was Konami's Silent Hill, seen
at the Sony party. The
other was Star Wars: Episode 1, according to The GIA.
Silent Hill's demo is much
like Square's re-creation of Squall's dance scene from
Final Fantasy VIII, from
a FMA to a completely realtime scene, with almost no
change in appearance.
Certainly the suggestion is that Konami is hard at work
on a Silent Hill sequel
Omega Force In recent Koei news, its in-house
development studio Omega Force,
which developed Destrega and Dynasty Fighters, is in
the works with a
PlayStation 2 action title.
Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden Tecmo of Japan is now
developing for Playstation 2. The
company's first game is believed to be the sequel to
its popular action-fighting
title, Ninja Gaiden.
Courtesy IGNPSX
Big
Dreams: Part 1 "Corporate Gaming"
By: Michael Bess
Over the years Sega has proven itself to be a
tenacious survivor. From the
disappointing start with Master System it went on to
create a gaming empire in
the Genesis. The darkest age in the company's history
has passed with Saturn and
for the last year prior to, and passed, the Dreamcast
launch, Sega has set
policies and projects in motion which may take them
further than ever before.
The Dreamcast is unlike any other system Sega has
conceived, and contains within
its grasp the potential to become the most successful
console, Sega and the
gaming industry have ever seen.
The path to become a great system begins with the
management structure and
policies of a hardware company's corporate side.
Without a well-executed plan to
propagate a console to the masses the best technology
is useless. In the Saturn
years, management attempted to play catch-up with
Playstation, which is clearly
obvious when the technicians were ordered to include a
second CPU in the 32-bit
system's final plans after Sony disclosed their own
specs. After the Summer '98
reshuffling of corporate heads, which included
Shiochiro Irimajiri's promotion
to President, Sega has cut its loses and even learned
to laugh at itself with
the popular series of Hidekazu Yukawa commercials. Sega
no longer needs to play
catch-up with a rookie in the gaming industry, but has
set forth to creating a
strong presence through-out the world and preempt the
second strike from Sony
and its Next-Generation Playstation.
This is the long-term plan for Sega: getting the
jump on the competition. On the
eve of the 128-bit console wars, Dreamcast is the only
advanced player in the
industry. While taking on the veteran Playstation will
be no small feat, Sega
has more than pretty graphics up its sleeve to
propogate its new hardware.
The D-Day Invasion
On September 9, 1999, Dreamcast Day, Sega will
return to the continent which
spurned it with Saturn and entrench itself, for a
second time, against the
Playstation warhmact. A year's head start is a
double-edged that cuts both ways,
but has its irresitable advantages. Never has the
gaming market in the United
States been more ready for a new, more powerful system.
Dreamcast will be
appearing in the fifth year of Playstation's reign,
over a year ahead of the
"threatening" Emotion Engine. Coupled with
the strong development support N64
lacked and the games Saturn desperately needed,
Dreamcast looks better prepared
than any systems before it.
Sonic Adventure and Sega Rally 2 will certainly
spotlight the console's mass
appeal, but perfect conversions of House of the Dead 2
and PowerStone will speak
volumes for its hardware. Sega needs to unload the
Dreamcast in the United
States without the snags it fell upon in Japan, but
retain the marketing muscle
of a Hidekazu Yukawa commercial or Toyota promotional
campaign. Of course,
selling Dreamcast in a Ford Motors Showroom, would
probably not be such a good
idea, which leads to two of the most important factors
for a new console: image
and mass-appeal.
The N64 may never have intended to, but with its
cartoonish line of games,
latched onto the under 12 audience with a vice grip.
It's image was never
improved and some even dubbed it the 'Coloring Book'
system, as the N64 was
embraced by the training wheels contingent of the
nation and scorned by all the
rest. It may sound shallow, but society is drawn by a
pleasing image. The same
type of superficial appeal which increased early sales
of the Playstation with a
graphically detailed, but simple Toshinden, over Saturn
and the technically
superior Virtua Fighter.
Playstation's eventual rise can be attributed to
more factors than simply image,
but it was marketing which strengthened its sales and
hardened its appeal. In
Sony's fight against the N64, Jim Whims, who has worked
with both companies,
expressed his opinion in a recent interview conducted
by Next-Generation:
"Nintendo blew it. They've now been positioned as
'the system for little
brother.' This is the absolute kiss of death."
What can Sega do then to improve its image and
create a successful launch? The
April 15 announcements from Bernie Stollar at the
recent retailers conference
has revealed parts of these preparations. One of the
singlemost promising
elements is Sega America's decision to release the
Dreamcast at just under two
hundred dollars. Ushering in a new age of high-powered,
low-cost consoles, this
move speaks volumes of the company's resolve to rebuild
themselves in America.
When a console rested deep within two and three hundred
dollar figures, many
simply took a "wait and see" position rather
than spend precious savings on an
uncertain and uncheap console. Departing from these
expensive hardware prices,
consumers may be fast to reconsider the Dreamcast after
reviewing it against the
weaker competition.
Sega of America must also take the initiative to
create their new console's
appeal in mores ways than simply price. Dreamcast is
virgin hardware to the bulk
of the American market, but old habits die hard. To
make a strong entrance into
the on-line gaming business, inclusion of the modem in
the core package is
necessary, which Sega of Amerca has confirmed at the
recently concluded E3 show.
History has demonsrated that when asked to buy
peripherals, these promising
components usually went ignored by a majority of gaming
consumers. Sega Netlink
and the Sega Channel were two debacles which hit close
to home, proving that
most hardware "extras" introduced
side-by-side the main console results in
dissmal sales. To keep the Dreamcast modem from
becoming nothing more than a
simple foot-note in gaming history and protect their
multiplayer interests when
it does become vogue in the console market, Sega
America has decided to make
this an intergral part of the basic DC package.
An economical price has been announced and inclusion
of the Dreamcast modem is a
pleasant surprise. To reinforce the fledgling hardware
against an established
Playstation, the accompanying launch software must be
executed flawlessly and
plentifully. Again, Mr. Stollar seems confident of Sega
America's position in
the April 15th announcements, "By 9.9.99 you can
expect to see the biggest
launch weekend in video game history." Which would
not be much of a stretch with
fifteen games slated to debue with Dreamcast. Including
such titles as in-house
Sonic Adventure, Virtua Fighter 3, and House of the
Dead 2; a fine blend of
third party titles will compliment the mix: PowerStone,
Ready to Rumble, Soul
Calibur, and others.
Sega of America have made big promises to gamers
across the nation. Instead of
covering the usual fare or platformers and niche
titles, the US Dremacast launch
covers nearly every gaming genre. Thus the question of
marketing and image
resurfaces admist the bustle of corporate announcements
with more words from
Bernie Stollar, "Our ad campaign will be in full
swing, with gaming magazine
ads, mainstream consumer publication, cable TV, prime
time TV, and even movie
trailers... ...consumers will not be able to go about
every day life without
seeing or hearing about the Sega Dreamcast." How
can one gauge these
announcements? Look East across to the unfolding drama
of Sega Japan and the
Nippon Dreamcast.
Protecting Their Assets
With the question of success open for debate in the
West, Sega of Japan have
worked hard to reassemble their tattered image and
promote the Dreamcast to
gamers of the East. Expansive development support has
been vital to this cause,
but the company's own renewed vigor in the industry
speaks volumes for the
console. Pressured by parent CSK to succeed and feeling
the pinch of heavy debt,
Sega knows that Dreamcast could be their last chance to
survive as a hardware
manufacturer. The main challenge ahead of Sega will be
to capture the minds of
gamers made cynical by the failures of Saturn. Led by
Shiochiro Irimajiri, the
Japanese hierarchy have made tremendous progress,
reaching the coveted
million-mark in sales, and christening rounds of
innovative, new marketing
strategies.
Promotions must be tailor-made, catering to the
needs and oddities of each
territory. Reflecting on what has come before,
advertisments that work in the
East may not always translate well in the West and vice
versa. The Japanese are
famous for their taste in the unique and an affinity
for niche-based, sometimes
bizarre products. In this breath Sega has the freedom
to expand their marketing
beyond the usual channels of entertainment and gaming
which Western gamers are
accustomed too.
A large deal inked over the winter gestation with
Toyota Motors hopes to do just
that. In showrooms all across Japan, Sega has placed
Dreamcasts, included with
special-made software, giving consumers an opportunity
to test new models before
ever leaving for an actual trial run. Inticing in
practice, but unconventional
in application to Western markets, it is one of many
schemes in Japan Sega has
created, also including convenience store campaigns, to
sell Dreamcast.
Advertising which have had their noticeable affects
in the East and jealous
results in the West, are those of the hallowed August
22nd Sonic Conference and
December Shen Mue Summt. Each of these have spawned
maddened anticipation with
product lines of consumer goodies, and healthy amounts
of yen, dollars, and
euros spent at attaining a piece of both. From
soundtracks to stuffed animals,
coffee mugs to notepads; gaming merchandise has had
differing amounts of success
amongst Americans. It is in Japan that every trinket
and bobble are welcomed
with open arms and have remained a large part of the
gaming sub-culture in Asia.
Dreamcast has banked on the frenzy created by these two
meetings, the first as
an initial boost and the latter to push it foward
through the New Year.
The young console seems to be gaining momentum from
ever direction. Whether it
be announcements of UnderCover with the involvement of
a popular Japanese author
or low-cost rentals of Dreamcast; Sega is strengthening
their position.
Playstation remains a formidable opponent, but the
pre-launch jitters in America
and Europe have long been cast aside. For Sega
Enterprises of Japan there can be
no turning back. Strong marketing, quality development
support, and renewed
vigor will determine the company's place in subsequent
years of their dream
machine's lifetime.
Dreamcast and "The Future"
A year's head start cuts like a double-edged blade.
Sega has placed itself in a
precarious position, delicately balanced between great
success and resounding
failure. Two systems, fifteen and ten times slower, are
its competition from
early launch through the six month unloading period.
Dreamcast is a powerful
system and coupled with company promises of sweeping
marketing campaigns, faced
against inferior hardware, seems poised to dominate.
The arch-rivals of the Sega super-hero, have
prepared their own rebuttals,
though. No sooner had the battle call been cried by
Dreamcast in late 1998 that
Sony came clean concearning speculation of the
Playstation 2 in early 1999.
Nintendo with nearly five billion dollars in undebted
savings, watches from the
distance as Sega advances to 9/9/99 and Sony maneuvers
to protect its holdings.
Dreamcast has without a doubt conveyed the 128-bit wars
with a positive
campaign. Almost a year to convince and convert
game-buyers, Sega has a solid
advantage against the competition. Whereas Playstation
could boast large RPGs
and FMV against the cramped storage-space on the N64,
this no longer may be a
luxury for Sony when Dreamcast arrives. What it will
have to rely on in turn is
the Playstation's popular image, vast library of
titles, and jaded gamers' own
bias against Sega. In the early months expect Dreamcast
to devour Nintendo's
market-share, before deep incursions into the
Playstation's percentage begin
appearing.
What Sony will attempt to use as Dreamcast gears to
launch are scare-tactics
through the famous demos seen last March at the
Playstation Conference. Banking
on the belief that many gamers may simply wait seven or
eight months for the
Playstation 2, Sony will unfold more details
concearning their system. Namco and
Square have already cast their hats into the
console-maker's corner, though with
only rumors to go on for games, is enough for some
hard-core consumers. Sony
will still hold the advantage even after Dreamcast's
launch, not because Sega
has failed to promote their console, but rather that
many gamers will wait in
vigil for the Playstation 2. The cynical gamer will
quickly point out that the
"Next-Generation Playstation's" hardware is
still simply on paper and with the
demos running off workstations, nothing can be
guaranteed. For an average gamer
who follows the quality of graphics and presentation
with little care on the
politics of the game industry, they, will simply
overlook this major point and
criticism, prematurely declaring Sega
"screwed".
It cannot be denied that Playstation has been a
tremendously successful system.
Sony has lured many of the old Genesis and SNES fans
away into their camp, and
some may never return from there. Sega America must
reinterate its commitment to
Dreamcast, targeting both the hardcore and mainstream
communities of gaming.
Taking their console, "to the people" as Sega
Japan have done will be the key to
building the Dreamcast's image into one synonimous with
fun and entertainment.
The Final Word
From concept to completion Dreamcast has dazzled
gamers all along the way.
Achieving sales the mark of one million consoles, it
steadily expands
marketshare in Japan. The duty to Sega America and
Europe are to prove the
Dreamcast to gamers jaded by past failures. To do this
strong development and
marketing, which strike at the very foundation of the
industry, are necessary.
Bernie Stollar has revealed apart of the plans for
Dreamcast's entrance in the
West, and to say the least, its future in this
continent looks bright. 9/9/99:
for Sega, it has already begun.
Feature Co-Written by: Michael Bess & Sajed
Ahmed
Courtesy of SegaDreamcast.net
Big
Dreams: Part 2 "Import Gaming"
Face it, if you're an owner of an import Dreamcast
system, then you are much
more than just a Sega fanatic. You're a Sega fanatic
with masochistic
tendencies. Why else would you shell out several
hundreds, sometimes nearing
thousands, of dollars for a video gaming system? An
import Sega system at that?
While most of those games are in complete Japanese?
Especially when the rest of
the world tends to think that the Dreamcast will be
nearly as successful as the
next David Spade theatrical release.
At times it seems that the only people who believe
in the Dreamcast's success
are the hardcore importers, seemingly even more than
Sega themselves. You're on
the frontlines defending Sega at every opportunity --
"...c'mon, Godzilla IS a
pretty good game, just listen to the music." No,
you're not just Sega fans,
you're remarkably loyal Sega fans. And it's your
evidently blind support and
continuous enthusiasm toward the Dreamcast that the
folks at Sega value. Not to
malign buyers who are patiently waiting for the US
release-believe me, importers
envy your resolve and patience more than anything-but
Sega can use all the
endorsement they are getting from import buyers. Your
efforts in promoting and
supporting the Dreamcast may seem insignificant at
times, but they're much more
than just hollow gestures. Following on that notion
allow us to give something
back. What ensues is a discussion of the currently
available Dreamcast games and
Sega's strategies in selecting appropriate software.
For the most part, this is
an exercise in determining what games to get and what
not to get for your import
Dreamcast, mixed in with a few thinly guised rants. The
good, the bad, and the
ugly of the DC software selection.
THE GOOD
Since the Dremcast's release in November, I have
played all of the games
released thus far for the system. Yeah, I know it's a
tough job reviewing video
games, but somebody has to do it. Although the Japanese
release has seen its
share of ups and downs, a few games stand out head and
shoulders above the
others. These are the games you should be playing for
your import Dreamcast-the
Clint Eastwood's of the import DC library.
Sonic Adventure - The most enjoyable and playable
game currently available for
the Japanese Dreamcast. Even gamers who haven't enjoyed
platformers in the past
will fall in love with this game. The only real
question is whether you have the
resolve to wait for a more polished and, more
importantly, translated US
version. With, shudder to think, very good camera
controls.
Power Stone - This is exactly the type of fighting
game that appeal more to the
Western gamers than the Japanese gaming public. It's
fast paced and entertaining
action with very little in terms of realism. Despite
the fact that it sold
modestly in Japan, much to the chagrin of the folks at
Capcom, import gamers
should own a copy of PS.
House of the Dead 2 - Non-stop, shoot-em-up action
with a plot that unfolds with
English voiceovers. What more could you ask for? For
newbie import Dreamcast
owners it should come down to this or Power Stone as
their first DC game. Pick
up HOTD2 and a DC lightgun and you won't regret the
choice for a second. The
game can be difficult, but that only gives more
incentive to spend hours on end
shooting down frightful zombies.
Blue Stinger - A very good action/adventure title
with a commendable, albeit
unexceptional, storyline, above average gameplay,
stellar graphics, and just
like HOTD 2, English voiceovers. The last reason alone
should be enough to
warrant a look at Blue Stinger. Despite the fact that
this game is headed
stateside, it's not going to look or play very much
differently from the
Japanese version.
Puyo Puyo 4 - Yes, I see the look of disbelief on
some of your faces, but pound
for pound this series has been one of the most
addictive puzzle games on any
console. I hope SOA has the foresight to bring this
game to the US market, but
if you're not into taking that risk pick up a copy of
Puyo Puyo. Plug in a
couple of DC controllers and you and a friend can play
this game for hours.
Marvel vs. Capcom - Arcade games, especially great
ones like Marvel vs. Capcom,
are always very safe bets for import buyers. Capcom has
brought their signature
2D world into this compilation fighter. If you're into
fighting games pick this
one up.
Conspicuously missing from this list are Sega Rally
2 and Virtua Fighter 3TB.
Both are great games in their own right, but there are
completely valid reasons
they're not on our list. Really! Take Sega Rally 2, as
good as the Japanese
version is, the US one will get its share of
enhancements, with possible work
being done on the frame rates and game feature
additions. However, the real
reason to ignore the import version of SR2 is the
coolness of the game's network
play option, and the unavailability of that to most
import gamers. Wait for the
US release and take on all comers on US SR2 network
play. Virtua Fighter 3TB
will also receive some major enhancements and the US
version will be worth the
wait.
Upcoming Titles to Watch: Dynamite Deka 2 (yet
another arcade translation,
always a safe bet), KOF Dream Match '99, Frame Gride
(Our money is on this From
Software title as a surprise hit on the DC), Soul
Calibur (depending on the
Japanese DC translation, we may change our mind and
advise you to wait for the
US version), Cool Boarders (will have a lot of English
content and should be
great fun), and of course Shenmue (how can you own an
import DC and not get this
game, despite the fact that playing the Japanese
version could be a complete
pain in the neck).
THE BAD
These games appeal to some, but shouldn't be
bothered with for the mass import
audience.
Psychic Force 2012 - Taito gives a valiant and
daring effort with this unique
Dreamcast fighter, but it lacks the speed and overall
gameplay features to
warrant an import buy. Skip this one and pick up Power
Stone.
Incoming - It looks like a pretty good buy, but in
this case looks are gravely
deceiving. The game moves at a snail's place, the
vehicle physics are completely
out of whack, and the graphics aren't all that stellar
to begin with. The words
'fast paced action' seems to elude this maligned 3D
shooter.
Tetris 4D - Tetris, in its original form, has been
around for what seems like
eons. Recruiting Bullet Proof software to re-create the
original version of the
game, with a four player twist, didn't work out like
Sega anticipated. Its the
same old, same old.
Super Speed Racing - This CART racing game has the
speed, but it's certainly not
super. The computer AI is hardly versatile and the
graphics are coarse. SOA's
decision to make this one a launch title is perplexing
to say the least.
THE UGLY
Seventh Cross - Evolution sims haven't worked too
well in the past, and despite
its rather unique premise, it doesn't work on Seventh
Cross. The graphics are
mediocre and bland and the gameplay is excruciatingly
tedious.
July - It's 2D action/adventure in complete
Japanese. Even an English version
would not be worth your import dollar. Forty Five is
working on their next DC
titles, hopefully it will be a stronger effort.
Since its launch in November of '98 in Japan the
Dreamcast has had its share of
quality titles and mediocre games. The hodgepodge
import lineup has been marred
by inadequate efforts like Senngoku Turb and White
Illumination. But in the
midst of all that, import owners have enjoyed the
entertainment rich titles like
Power Stone and Sonic Adventure. The upcoming months
will see the Japanese
Dreamcast game launches become much more frequent, but
that also means more
sub-par games. So, how does Sega maintain a strong mix
of quality original
titles and easily done arcade and PC ports? The answer
is a rather complicated
one.
To Port or Not To Port?
Over the last two decades Sega Enterprises has seen
their share of ups and
downs-perhaps more than any other gaming company, and
notably in the home
console market. The Master System, although at the time
a powerful piece of
hardware with a solid software library, constantly
played second banana to the
now legendary Nintendo Entertainment System. The Master
System's demise brought
about the 'Golden Ages,' otherwise known as the Genesis
years, for the folks at
Sega. Consequently, who can forget the well-documented
adversity of Sega's
Saturn console when faced with Sony's dynamic marketing
and intelligent
direction of the Playstation system.
Nevertheless, despite Sega's roller coaster ride
through the perilous business
of console gaming, one thing remained constant: the
companies' rock-solid arcade
market. Faced with stiff competition from Konami,
Midway, and of course Namco
through the years, Sega's vaunted AM teams have
continued to define new
directions in arcade gaming, and has continuously
developed entertaining and
revolutionary titles.
Given the Dreamcast's ability to match Model 2, 3
and Naomi arcade titles nearly
pixel to pixel, Sega realizes that quality ports of the
companies' most
successful arcade games are a necessity. Many of the
current top-notch titles in
the DC's Japanese software library are also some of the
most popular arcade
titles: Virtua Fighter 3TB, Sega Rally 2, HOTD2, and
third party arcade ports
like Power Stone and Psychic Force 2012. We can expect
this trend to continue
with hits like Die Hard Arcade 2 and Daytona 2 PE in
the Japanese market, and
Mortal Kombat 4DC and Hydro Thunder here in the US.
Nothing beats the delight of
playing carbon copy home versions of games like VF3TB
and HOTD2. Just thinking
of the wealth saved in quarters, while playing Sega
Rally 2 on a $200 home
console, would bring a satisfying smile to anyone's
face.
As good as arcade ports are for the Dreamcast console,
PC ports, when not
filtered properly by Sega, can become a major dilemma
for the company. As much
as Microsoft's Windows CE development environment is an
advantage for Sega, it
can become just as much of a curse on the system's
software library. Windows CE
greatly facilitates the porting of PC titles to the
Dreamcast, as such it also
intrinsically encourages a large number of mediocre PC
ports. As powerful as PCs
have become, most are still considerably behind the
type of graphical
performance the Dreamcast is capable of (This is
certainly not a knock on PCs
themselves, but a realization that the DC is made
exclusively for gaming). I
could go into the technical numbers (which most of you
are aware of anyway), but
take a look at the Japanese DC library itself for
evidence. As good a game as
Incoming was on the PC, with what was at the time
outstanding overall graphics,
it pales in comparison to Sonic Adventure or Power
Stone. Even a strong PC port
like Unreal would look relatively dull when compared to
the graphical glimmer of
Yu Suzuki's Shenmue. Ultimately, when you walk into
your local EBX or Babbages,
you only really have the screenshots on the back of the
title case, and maybe a
brief description of its gameplay features to go by. A
game could be
mind-numbing fun, although lacking exceptional graphics
and complicated gameplay
features, but in the grand scheme of things it will
usually go hopelessly
ignored. Looks do matter folks, and if Sega is not keen
in limiting the number
of PC ports on the Dreamcast, a disproportionate total
of DC games could begin
to look unprofitably mediocre. The reason the N64
continues to trail PS sales,
outside of the stigma of a paltry software library, is
because the games don't
look that much better than Sony's system. The Dreamcast
has the distinct
advantage of having games that look considerably better
than any of the current
competition. Ask a blind man and even he can tell you
that Yuji Naka's Sonic
Adventure looks eons ahead of any existing title,
graphically. Its up to Sega to
not dilute, and overshadow, games like Sonic and Power
Stone with a barrage of
sub-par (atleast graphically) PC ports.
What does it all mean?
The Japanese Dreamcast launch hasn't been exactly
what the company envisioned
when they announced their all-world next generation
console. The intelligent
marketing by Sega of Japan and top-notch titles didn't
begin to make up for the
excrutiating software delays and console shortages at
launch. In the midst of a
terrible recession the Japanese gaming public couldn't
take dearly to a $200+
console and the paltry selection of games (compared to
the PSX atleast).
However, it seems that Sega of America will not have to
deal with the
overwhelming launch setbacks that SOJ were faced with.
The US economy is at all
time highs and the gaming industry in particular is
reaping the benefits of a
bullish market. The gaming public is ready for a new
console experience, after
years of enjoying Sony's Playstation and the N64. More
importantly, they're in
good enough financial standing to go out and spend the
money on this next
generation console. Unlike the Japanese launch, which
had to be near perfect
(and consequently was far from it), there is room for
some minor mistakes by
Sega of America. If they can avoid any major setbacks,
the strong economy and
the 'hungry for change' gaming public will embrace the
Sega Dreamcast. The date
is set, on 9.9.99 we could see the Dreamcast return
Sega to
respectibility-towards a level not enjoyed by the
company since the Genesis
days.
Feature Co-Written by: Michael Bess & Sajed
Ahmed
Courtesy of SegaDreamcast.net
Will the Dreamcast Succeed?
Sega has been the talk of the show for
developers, publishers, retailers and
other attendees, but always not in the way it may have
hoped
May 14, 1999
There appears to be a crucial disconnect between the
people who make games and
the people who sell them.
On the show floor, every retailer we have spoken to
is incredibly excited about
the Dreamcast. The platforms lineup as displayed in
its booth is astonishing
most (despite a few hiccups, such as the poor demo
choices for Shenmue, which
manages to impress with its concept and graphics
nevertheless).
In sheer numbers, Dreamcast has appeared at E3 prior
to its launch with more
titles than any console in the history of games and
many, if not most of them
look like serious winners to the retailers and casual
attendees weve spoken to.
Titles like Ready to Rumble from Midway and Soul
Calibur from Namco show the
incredible possibilities the system has opened for
third-party developers both
in graphical excellence and in fluid, solid control.
From Sega itself, the companys two sports games
being displayed, its basketball
and football titles, are gorgeous, easy to control,
responsive, and are
impressing nearly everyone weve spoken to.
And yet, most of the publishing executives and
developers weve spoken to (all
on the condition of anonymity) at the show take it as a
given that the Dreamcast
will get skunked by the PlayStation 2 and will not be a
major success.
Interestingly, the notable exceptions are the people
on third-party teams
working with Sega. Neal Robison, Segas Group
Director of Third Party Licensing
told us that the company has "learned so much from
past mistakes." Sega is
supporting its developers to the hilt, Robison
promises, and from the
conversations weve had, its true.
As for retailers, they report not only enormous
early consumer excitement for
the Dreamcast, but personal excitement as well.
"Segas got it going on," one
told us. "Theyve done everything right this
time. Its not another Saturn."
With retailers excited, developers working on the
platform excited, and
apparently consumers excited (according to retailers),
why do many in the
industry assume that Sega will not succeed?
The dominant explanation from those who have little
faith in Segas prospect is
that the Dreamcast is an inferior machine to the
PlayStation 2 with a small,
indebted company trying to make it fly. Others mention
Segas past failures
which, in many cases, are remembered with serious
acrimony.
Other skeptical members of the games industry elite
we spoke to, though, feel
that this holiday will be owned by Sega. It is only
long term that Sega will
have serious trouble. "They will launch very
well," one exec predicts. "But when
Nintendo and Sony launch, theyll be left in the
dust."
Will Dreamcast succeed? It is impossible to say what
the platforms long term
prospects may be, but it would surprise us greatly
given the quality of the
titles shown this E3 and the excitement from the people
actually selling the
things if the launch is not one of the most successful
in videogame history. It
may be that Sega and those supporting it will have the
last laugh on the
platforms detractors.
After all, with companies like EA, Square, Eidos and
others choosing to support
only the PlayStation until the PlaySation 2s
release, if the Dreamcast has a
hugely successful launch, the smaller companies that
got in early will make a
lot of money.
Courtesy Next Generation Online
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