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Sega Dreamcast: $0
According to
this CNN article,
Sega will announce today a $200 rebate on its $200 Dreamcast
console. They'll even throw in a free keyboard. Game consoles have
always played "lose money on the razor, make it on the blades,"
but now, the blades have changed: the catch is a mandatory two
years of their online service at $22/mo. So, exactly how much
ass
do the Dreamcast's
online games
kick?
I guess it depends whether someone ports Napster to the Dreamcast :)
troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
In my knowledge, a contract binding consumers to corporations for extended periods of time are illegal in Finland. For example, mobile phone companies cannot create contracts that bind people for two years - legally we have to be able to opt out at any time. This has proven out to be very good for competition, with costs for using mobile phones going down all the time and new interesting services being launched continually.
:(
I wonder how Sega will arrange contracts like this in here. Looking at how many foreign companies handle situations like this, we probably just won't get the online option here at all.
sulka
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
This is not necessarily such a bad deal for the potential customers. If the customer is a newbie who doesn't already have an internet account, and he wants one that he can be confident will work with his DC with the minimum of hassle, this deal is not so bad. When you assume that the average newbie would consider getting an ISP such as AOL, RCN, or what have you, you're probably talking about 20 dollars a month anyways. Assuming the user does get ISP service
... 24
So to make a fair comparison without taking into consideration the timing of cash flows, it would be approximately 680 (for an outright purcahse + ISP service) compared to 528 (for sega's ISP deal). Furthermore, when you consider the timing of cash flows (which is more realistic), sega's deal is even more favorable. Assuming that DC owner could make do about 1% interest a month on the following cash flows:
0 --- 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5
200 - 20 - 20 - 20 - 20 - 20 - 20
0 ---- 22 - 22 - 22 - 22 - 22 - 22
This gives us a net present value of about: 625 on the dreamcast had you purchased it and bought service from a third party provider, and 467 had you just bought sega's ISP deal. Of course, changing the ISPs rate and the interest rate will give you different results. None the less, the computation is not exactly clearly against sega's deal. If the user is already subscribed to something like AOL, choosing this deal may, in fact, be beneficial to them...
The bottom line is that you can't just punch in these numbers and get "the answer" for everyone. The value this deal proposes is highly dependant on where the user is coming from.
Sega, the company that brought us ToeJam and Earl -- forever the best game ever made, though only in two-player mode.
Sega got into the market before PSII or Dolphin, but at the cost of technological inferiority. Given that PSII is highly likely to kick Dreamcast's ass, Sega needs to do something -- anything -- to lock in gamers before the PSII is released in the US.
I doubt the plan is good anyway. A lot of people will get the Dreamcast and then get PSII when it comes out. Then they'll be left with $22/mo bills for a year and a half for the priviledge of connecting their unused hardware. That ought to generate a lot of bad feelings towards Sega.
Of course, as Sega is exiting the console business, it's not like it would care a great deal...
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
My father got a Dreamcast last Channukah. We spent many hours trying to get that box 'o tripe connected to the internet through our local ISP, something they repeatedly trumpeted as perfectly possible. When it began connecting, only to spit out repetitive strings of gibberish and then discoonect, I called tech support. The first time, they plead ignorance. On my second try...
...and then it disconnects.
Laborit:
TS: Yeah, it does that sometimes.
Laborit: So what should I do about it?
TS: Just keep trying to connect.
Laborit: I've tried ten times in a row without success.
TS (perky): Yes, you said that. Just keep trying!
Laborit: This can't be right.
TS: Yes, we have a model right here in the office. It does the same thing.
Laborit: You're telling me I should be satisfied with a product that only works as advertised one time in eleven, at most?
TS (perkier): Just keep trying!
Laborit: I find this unacceptable.
TS (threateningly perky): Keep trying!
Laborit: Are you saying...
TS:PERK PERK PERK!!!
My reaction to the offer: maybe if they paid me twenty-two bucks a month...
****
-----
Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
Well, lets see.
I can pay $200 for a Dreamcast.
OR
I can pay $22/month for 24 months.
$200 vs $520... and if you decide that the online gaming isn't worth it, you're pretty much screwed.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
If someone with a PC signs up for the $22/month for 2 years contract($528) they will receive a $200 rebate which, Sega hope, can be put towards a Dreamcast. Or if you prefer, you can pocket it and essentially pay $14/month.
Why should a PC gamer sign up? According to MCV.COM, Sega has been working with PowerPlay to build the network with better access and lower latencies for games.
There are other feature which mainly apply towards DC users such as certain sports titles along with other games featuring online play. As well, for DC owners, Sega is releasing a MP3 player(similar in d esignto Sega's VMU Memory card) with 64MB of ram for less then $100. Of course it's useable only with a DC...While Sega's offering may not be something PC players will take notice of, it's a strong shot off the bow for Sega against their competitors.
-Dean
Any chance, after the addition of a ribbon cable, it will run linux? ;) That seems to be the trend lately.
No sig is worth reading.
... yeah i have a sega saturn and a sega genesis (the last "real" winner they had though i didn't fall for the equally ill-fated 32x and cd products ...) ... i swore i would never buy a sega product ever again after the saturn debacle ... but then again, i don't buy sony products either as every single sony item i have ever bought broke within a year (though the 5th walkman i bought a little over a year ago is still working ... hmm ...) ...
anyway, i'm not sure if this manuever by them is too little too late ... they needed to have the online gaming up at christmas, not this fall sometime which translates into winter or maybe early next year ... there is big market for those gamers who while quite adept at video games are real clueless about PC setup and plus the cost of putting together a high end gaming setup ...
the internet access they provide works - and you don't need them as a provider - i hooked it up to freei.net - so i can surf on the tv for free though it is an exercise in primitivity (heh, that ain't a word ...) ... most of the time you can only see a fraction of the page on the tv screen and i don't have a keyboard so typing urls in is a pain - then, add that fact to the fact that you need to store the bookmarks on a memory cartridge that plugs in to one of the controllers ... even with a keyboard i can't imagine smooth surfing ...
but like i said, they missed the boat - though the games i have purchased are very good, it would be cool to play online and the ease (or perceived ease) of setting up and getting on would be a boon for many gamers - i.e. no worry about machine differences, sound cards, 3d cards, etc ... just log in and play ... but the success of these gaming consoles is not predicated on the power of the box, but the quantity and quality of the games ... probally quantity being more important ... (witness the sony playstation success ...)
anyway, i wish it would work for sega, but i don't see it happening ... sega will end up being sony's bitch just like ms ate up netscape ... l8
AZspot
I really hope Sega can pull this off. Regardless of what's coming around the bend, Dreamcast is a great system.
It's fun to take apart too. Here's some pictures of my DC with a blue power LED that I soldered in to commemerate its compatibility with a Microsoft product (WinCE).
One of the best features of Dreamcast online gaming is the way you communicate. ChuChu Rocket, and other future games, give you a standardized set of phrases and messages you can activate from the controller. The cool part is that these messages appear to other users in whatever language they're playing in. In other words, if I'm playing against someone in Japan, I can select English phrases on my screen and they'll appear in Japanese to the person on the other end. CCR just offers a few taunts and gripes, but the multiplayer online RPG Phantasy Star Online (coming out worldwide this summer) lets you construct entire translatable sentences out of stock words.
The biggest problem right now, of course, is game selection ;). Right now, there's only one game supported, ChuChu Rocket, which is basically Hungry Hungry Hippos on speed and is entertaining beyond belief. (If you haven't seen the infamous CCR commercial, you must download it now :P). Unfortunately, it gets old pretty quickly, and even in the month since it came out it's losing its appeal. There's a slew of online games coming up, though, including big names like Quake III and Half-Life.
As a diehard console gamer, I'm psyched that we're finally getting all the online features that our PC counterparts have been enjoying for years ;). If you've been playing Quake for years, DC netplay is nothing special, but IMO it's a big step in the right direction for console gaming.
Green Monkey