I was at the SegaNet launch event, coinciding with the MTV Video Music Awards, to give you an idea of how long ago this was. I was talking to a developer who told me this with a wink and two nudges, or was that two winks. Anyway, this is great, and probably not that much of a stretch from the recently proposed scheme, but it doesn't go far enough.
Sony killed the Dreamcast, plain and simple. Video game sales were down in a year when one of the best and most imaginative consoles (the dreamcast) was released. Why? Because Sony strategically leaked bogus news stories to not only keep the public interested, but also to keep themselves ahead in public perception. Remember the story about ps2's not being exported from Japan? How about the rumors about the modem and hard drive, Sony's "see your five dollars and raise you a hundred" bet that turned out to be "unsubstantiated". Sony has been playing the press against dreamcast, and it won. If anything killed the dreamcast, it was timing, and believing that the N64 was a milestone that needed to be passed. It wasn't the lack of a crappy DVD, it certainly isn't the lack of great software. Timing.
And Sony needs to be punished. I'm no Microsoft fan. I've sort of come to accept my fate as a Mac user / console gamer necessarily. I should hate M$, but they certainly know how to buy companies. Sega is a great name brand, and they can produce a great product. Becoming an exclusive X-Box developer, at least for consoles, would be a brilliant move, and would effectively lock the PS2 into their own developing stable. When all the consoles are evenly balanced, that is the PS2, the GameCube, the X-Box, and (god-willing) the Indrema, it won't be the third-party games that will sell the systems. It will be the 'second-party' games, the exclusives, and if Sega wants to identify itself as a strong software developer, it needs to be more exclusive. It certainly hasn't hurt Square.
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I was at the SegaNet launch event, coinciding with the MTV Video Music Awards, to give you an idea of how long ago this was. I was talking to a developer who told me this with a wink and two nudges, or was that two winks. Anyway, this is great, and probably not that much of a stretch from the recently proposed scheme, but it doesn't go far enough. Sony killed the Dreamcast, plain and simple. Video game sales were down in a year when one of the best and most imaginative consoles (the dreamcast) was released. Why? Because Sony strategically leaked bogus news stories to not only keep the public interested, but also to keep themselves ahead in public perception. Remember the story about ps2's not being exported from Japan? How about the rumors about the modem and hard drive, Sony's "see your five dollars and raise you a hundred" bet that turned out to be "unsubstantiated". Sony has been playing the press against dreamcast, and it won. If anything killed the dreamcast, it was timing, and believing that the N64 was a milestone that needed to be passed. It wasn't the lack of a crappy DVD, it certainly isn't the lack of great software. Timing. And Sony needs to be punished. I'm no Microsoft fan. I've sort of come to accept my fate as a Mac user / console gamer necessarily. I should hate M$, but they certainly know how to buy companies. Sega is a great name brand, and they can produce a great product. Becoming an exclusive X-Box developer, at least for consoles, would be a brilliant move, and would effectively lock the PS2 into their own developing stable. When all the consoles are evenly balanced, that is the PS2, the GameCube, the X-Box, and (god-willing) the Indrema, it won't be the third-party games that will sell the systems. It will be the 'second-party' games, the exclusives, and if Sega wants to identify itself as a strong software developer, it needs to be more exclusive. It certainly hasn't hurt Square.