Countdown To 9.9.09

[Bob Dobbs]

Ringedge2010,

Welcome to our world. Yes I know about the market, heck everything but McDonalds is dying. I'm on the inside fridge in the video world, so I do get some "tidbets" not in the trades.

This has all been fun watching this drama unfold. If it gets released, great; if not...oh well. At least I'll still have my Dreamcast and Smith to keep it real (also The Coolinator to kick my butt in gear).

Thanx for all the info and great research you have done. It would be great if the Dreamcast could make a comeback as an RingEdge/RingWide home version under whatever name it gets. I do hope we get one last gasp.

[TheCoolinator]

I really want a new console to come out but since I have my DC, PS2, and Genesis and soon to have the new Firecore Genesis and Retrogen Nomad clone handheld I'm really not going to lose any sleep if it takes a bit longer for Sega to get on its feet.

[DR TEAMCAST]

maybe we will have better luck on 12/12/12 . if you thing about it it would be a bad move for sega to put out a new console in the middle of the ps3/360wii era maybe next generation. but if sega made a system on 9/9/09 i will buy it. besides 12/12/12 will be in time for x-mas. it just makes more sense.

[Jaseman]

Wow. Great idea there! Xbox360/PS3 juuuust starting to finish and since Sony will be done with game consoles THAT would give SEGA a opening. And Christmas .

[TheCoolinator]

^ You bring up a good question. How long can Sony last? Its amazing how one wrong move in the hardware business can sink your sales. I wonder if Sony is going to erase its gaming department if thinks get real bad. This would leave a spot open for Sega if they have the cash on hand.

[TheCoolinator]

9/9/09 will not produce any major Sega events commemorating the Dreamcast launch of 9/9/99, but the company is thinking about the future of its last gaming console in one key way.

The head of Sega West, Mike Hayes, told me Wednesday that, despite the pride Sega has in the Dreamcast, it has no formal celebration to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its launch in September.

"Generally we won't be doing anything that's official," he said. The main reason is that Sega has reinvented itself as a software company. And it's important for us to focus on the other platforms that are alive and current."

"Informally, because there are people in the company who were involved in the Dreamcast launch, there will be celebrations," he said, "But as a company, publicly, that's going to be something we're going to be pretty low key about for obvious reasons. We're effectively a different company."

Hayes said that Sega has reinvented itself as a software company, which makes it more fitting to focus on other company's hardware. "It's not to disrespect the excellent system the Dreamcast was," he said, "Or the innovations that were done on it, which I think were probably a few years ahead of time in terms of the online application. I just think we as a company are multi-format and we want to talk about our first-party platform partners rather than when we were a first-party."

Dreamcast hardware may not the focus of any official Sega efforts, but Dreamcast software still has a future. Sega has aggressively distributed much of its older back catalog of games as digital downloads on home consoles, PC and portable machines. The Dreamcast line-up, comprised of bigger games, less easily brought to current platforms, is not going to be neglected, Hayes said. "I can't give you any details. Suffice to say, there's a lot of technical issues, a lot of licensing issues. But we are very keen to bring [them] to players in the way we've done with Genesis games. We want to do it, but it's hard work to get there. Hopefully we can build on that quite soon."

http://kotaku.com/5336532/sega-will-cel ... ry-quietly

Sega disappoints yet again......

[TheCoolinator]

Very true,

Even though I'm still somewhat disappointed that there won't be an official tip of the hat to the DC I am pleased with how Mike Hayes explained it.
Now if someone would have asked Simon Jeffery's about it he probably would have started foaming at the mouth while calling everyone DC fanatics.

[Jaseman]

This is all fine and dandy but just because one of their consoles is having a tenth birthday doesn't automatically mean it needs to be for a announcement of a new console. Then again the Dreamcast DID come out 10 years after the Genesis but still...

And it won't be all that bad for Sony if they discontinue their line of game consoles. Think about all else they have. Blu-Ray, TV's, Sound systems, Ect. I don't think Sony would be all too unhappy to end their line of hardware.

[Dreamcast4ever]

I can't see this happening to be honest, i would love it, but i doubt it. Maybe they'll release some sort of Sega Dreamcast Ultimate Collection or something lol.

[Jaseman]

Good idea ^^

Issue is that since each Dreamcast game takes up about a gig (sometimes more sometimes less) and so the best thing they could do is re-encode the audio and video to say, OGG vorbis and AVI.