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Games Entertainment

Sega Announces Dreamcast Successor 142

Posted by timothy from the oooh-a-hard-drive dept.
aardwolf64 writes: "msnbc.com has a story (taken from Inside.com) about the successor to Sega's DreamCast. Aparently it won't play actual DreamCast discs, but will instead download them to an internal hard drive through a digital cable connection. According to the article: 'Wallace said that the box, called the Games Gateway, can store up to 60 games at a time, and will play any and all of the 350 or so games developed for the Dreamcast platform. The box will ship next year, though Wallace declined to speculate whether it would ship in the U.S. or U.K. first. The deal is mutually non-exclusive; the box itself has been a year in development'"
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Sega Anounces Dreamcast Successor More

Sega Anounces Dreamcast Successor

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  • I can't help but think that this is just going to piss off more people than it will excite. I don't know about most people, but why would I buy another Dreamcast-like system for however-many-dollars it is when I already have one that came out LESS THAN 2 YEARS AGO.

    This is just very disappointing that since they couldn't penetrate the market with the original hardware (which, IMHO, is one of the better systems around), so now they're going to milk another $200 bucks from gamers to play games that otherwise would have come out for the Dreamcast...

    I know that I sure as all hell won't buy one.

  • This sounds like a step back for sega, instead of doing some marketing, which they sorely need (I have many casual gamer friends who when I brought out my Dreamcast, had no idea that sega still made a console.) they are going to a segment in which even less people will be able to use their machine. Obviously this thing is broadband only, which is a very small portion of the US and UK. They had better keep the original model around, cause this machine is a niche player if I've ever seen one. Sega missed a golden opportunity, a media blitz right after the PS2 launch could have catapulted the system. Sony got ya down, cant get a PS2? Take a look at us, we got better games, the same level of graphics, and we can actually ship enough out to meet demand, at half the price too.
  • Ok... MORON... Did you read the article? Sega did not confirm NOR deny it...

    RTFA

  • I can see it now:

    Due to the technical difficulties we have been having with our Sega Channel® getting the data feed mixed in with local public-access programs, Sega Inc. would like to go on the record saying that the popular hacked game "Sonic® vs. Chronic" is NOT endorsed by Sega. The character "Chronic the Hedgehog" is not an offical Sega Inc. character or endorsed by Sega Inc.

  • This is really not the brightest idea i've heard in a while, half of the dreamcast owners already do almost the same thing. They downoad the game off the internet, burn it to cd, bam, all the games ya want. Sega should just say, forget it, drop their stuff like they said, and open up the whole system, YAY!
  • For those who don't know what Sega Channel was (like me until yesterday), there is a good piece about it at SegaDojo here [segadojo.com]. They put this on their site yesterday - do they have inside information? Today they have an article [segadojo.com] with reasonable depth about this new Dreamcast, which they are describing as a set-top box.
  • Er, that cd distro is more expensive I meant. So sue me.

  • O look, its another idiot who doesn't know how to post a link in HTML! (i'm lazy, i hate using a mouse.) one more thing, it is not slick to say anyone is a fucking idiot, mostly because its really uncreative.

  • Surely when combined with DoCoMo & Sony's Mobile Phone Game System [slashdot.org] and The GAWD wireless access point database [slashdot.org], this would be something of a killer App?

    rr

  • Probably doesn't matter but you can't play pokemon on a sega system anyway cuz that's all nintendo
  • I`m sure Sega know what they are doing. I mean..er...um...

    I can see the ads now.

    Remember the Megadrive........oh, come on, you must do...you know, from the early 90`s....
    Rememeber the Saturn....
    Rememeber the Saturn 2.....

    THIS IS THE SATURN 3!!!!
  • Sounds to me like they are trying to thwart the DC pirates. I have no idea what percentage of DCs are used with pirated games, but I know that pretty much anything that's come out is available reformatted on to standard CDRs. Is this there way of bypassing the pirates? Seems nuts to me, but if you are loosing money on the hardware, you HAVE to recover it in software.

    WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?

  • More info about IE here [geekissues.org].

    --

  • "Sega Announces Dreamcast Successor: The X-Box"

    Note: I'm not saying that X-Box/DC compatiblity would be a bad thing. Only that Sega denied the rumors before, and it would be delightfully ironic if they embraced it now.

  • I am sick of people assuming that the dreamcast automatically runs WinCE. Only certain games use it. Very few in fact, sega rally, and some vegas gambling game are the only two I know of. If you look on the dreamcast it says COMPATIBLE with WinCE. Not powered by. Most of the games use sega's proprietary OS, like jet grind radio, NFL2k1, Crazy Taxi, pretty much all of the major games out. So, to run dreamcast games, you'd have to emulate 2 different OS's. I think it would be just cheaper to put a SH-4 and a Power VR chip in it, use them as your display and main processor and be done with it. The cost of just slapping them on the side, or having hardware fast enough for emulation would be ridiculous, especially for a low cost set top box. Hell, with a 40gig hd, your gonna have to cut costs somewhere, so just use the same chips.

    Since WinCE is a kernel remotely related to win2k and designed to be customizable for non-intel processors, and since it basicly just runs MZ code, i think any MS OS will lend itself quite quickly to be patcheable for running Dreamcast games that required WinCE, without much cost. Emulating sega`s own OS would ofcourse mean speed penalties, so that`s not an option, unless stuff like the X-Box is really going to be packed with Sega hardware so it can boot DreamCast games. But yeah I have my doubts on that one too..
  • And how long will this one last? They have prematurely dropped support on the Mega-CD (Sega-CD), 32X, Saturn, GameGear, Nomad, and now Dreamcast. I'm sure they will thank Sony for single handedly expanding the console market so that there are plenty suckers left to prey on. That is, of course, if the rumours are true.

    Sega make great games, but it's been a long time since they have had a successful (in terms of long-lived) console.

  • That this got a score three is apalling. Let's see, as the article says a game will take three minutes to be received. I'm presuming that's a single disk, so Shenmue would take nine minutes, though actually less if the media-less version is recoded to not need three sets of textures and sounds.

    If you can't wait five minutes every time you feel like playing a game you playe once every two months I pity you. Go make a sandwich while it loads.

    I'll assume there will be parental controls to keep your kid safe from pedophiles. I doubt your kid will have to talk to any strangers in order to load Railroad Tycoon 2.

    Monopolistic behavior huh? I suppose you think Sega is going to stop selling GD-ROMs of newer games? Why the fuck would they do that? They would lose their existing fan base. They're going to stop selling Dreamcasts as we know it, and release a set top box. If someone wants a Dreamcast, they'll have to buy the new box. Personally I'd prefer Sega continue to make DCs available at least over the web if not in EB and Babbages.

  • There are still a lot of places in the county that all you can get is an (expensive) ISDN. I know, I live in one. They don't have DSL available ANYWHERE in the county I live in (no DSLAMs in the C.O.) and the ISDN services cost about $200 a month. Add that to the fact that AT&T won't be rolling out broadband for another 3-5 years and you can see that Sega won't be doing ANY business here I live. I can see a lot of pissed off rednecks buying this thing at the loal WalMart taking it home and trying to figure out how to put a CD/Cartridge in it....it's going to be great...

    Jaysyn
  • I think that it's a box waiting to be hacked!
  • Yours is a good idea but they would have to rewrite their software to be compatable with PC's hardware/software. Their box allows them to have hardware and software they know which allows them to write games they know will play on it. I'm of course assuming that they will write more software after releasing this thing. Another point about the PC thingie. Many people still dont have a broadband connection. This means that those people won't buy the service. It makes perfect sense from a (ewww) marketing point of view. Also, many people wouldnt have fast and powerful pc's that are capable of things such as quake 3. Thats why they bought the dreamcast/playstation/whatever. So, again, providing their own box is a cheaper alternative to a PC and it means more people will sign up, hence more money for sega which is good.
  • Wasn't Sega the same company that announced that Dreamcast sales are sluggish? Weren't they also the same company to announce that they will halt dreamcast manufacturing? I don't get it? Am I missing something here?
  • Perhaps you didn't understand me. The content of his/yours post was childish as is your attitude. And I'm not even going to bother with you anymore. You're too low a form of life for me to waste time on.
  • Hopefully their idea will be a one-time purshase. You buy it, download it, and keep it as long as you want, playing it as much as you want.
  • 1) I wonder when someone could hack this to have the games available via the LAN in their house?

    2)I wonder also about the copy protection stuff, based on the news we have seen recently. Could they say "Sorry, Game Over?"

    3)It has a 40 gig HD, so what OS are they running? (again looking at upgrading the drive, or copying the drive content someplace else.

    [sigh] so many possibilities.

  • Dammit, already Sega is having such a hard time!

    Such an irresponsible write-up leads to even more misinformation and bad rumors.

    This is a set-top box. It is not a console.

    Click here [dailyradar.com] for a Daily Radar article on Sega's plans, and here [dailyradar.com] for an article about their set-top plans specifically.

  • I think this idea sucks as a replacement for genuine media game releases. I don't want to have to have a broadband connection to play games, I just want to stick the cart/disc in and hit the power button. Consoles are toys (very fun ones), and should be quick n easy to plug in, play, and put away again.

    It seems to me that game companies in general are trying _really_ hard to push the concept on online gaming, with some bizarre assumption that the holy grail of inexpensive broadband in every home is going to become a reality. It isn't. Until there is some commercial incentive for companies to offer broadband services cheaply in remote areas (and I don't see that happening) they're just restricting their own market.
    Even if it does become a reality, it won't be within the product lifetime of any current or in development consoles. Many countries don't have any broadband services for the home at all, and in others what's there is too expensive, or people aren't that interested.
    Added to that, the number of casual/console gamers I know who care about online gaming is pretty small, all the O/L game addicts I know are just geeky Quake players, who aren't going to want to ditch their PC gaming in favour of a console.

    This is _all_ about trying to move consoles to pay-per-view or limited ownership of software, and I sincerely hope any company trying to push it as the way forward gets burned. They're trying to get more money out of the consumer, and destroy the thriving used videogame market. There's probably an anti piracy thing here too - but someone will just crack whatever system they use - they always do. Media people cannot create (carts, wierd CD types, etc) was always the most secure way.

    james

  • yeah well, too bad the Arcade market is drowning then...
  • um best case scenario if it's sent down to you liek that would be a bit over 5 minutes for a Gigadisc type game... (based on 1024 MB/27 Mbps, don't forget to change to bits either)... That's a hefty wait for most people... That would make one strange 'channel guide' to make... half hour blocks of this game, followed by half hour blocks of that game... I don't think people would want to wait all day for the game they want to be streamed to them at 10:30 PM... but that's jsut my opinion...

  • That's planned.

    One of the uses of the 'dreamcast on a chip' concept that this story is an example of is the idea of a 'dreamcast on a PCI card'.


    --
  • Good. It seems like most companies just wither away and die when the switch to being software only...
  • Yes, StarBand is available. And for you $399 and $69/month , you get a Windows-only, high-latency, somewhat-faster-than-dialup connection.

    Wow. I'm underwhelmed.

    Well, hey...we'll have those snazzy LEO Internet services [skybridgesatellite.com] any time now. 2005? 2008?

    By then, the phone companies will have DSL out to me.

    --

  • price (Score:1)

    by aznin ( 309986 )
    Are there any reports that the price of the Dreamcast + accessories will go down now its successor has been announced? May also be likely because they seem to be in overproduction. Any news?
  • but i would much rather actually own a physical copy of a game rather than a digital copy.

    What you seem to forget is that every single physical copy of a console game, from the carts for the original nintendo to the CDs for the Saturn and PlayStation, is a digital copy. The only difference between those copies of games and ones on a hard drive is the media. And if you ask me, putting it on a hard drive greatly improves the media. For one it is more reliable, two you can make backup copies a lot easier than with carts or CDs, and three, no more dust on the cart or laser.

  • I didn't say it was the perfect solution, but it is a viable solution for the original poster who stated he lived 15+km from the CO (so unlike you, DSL will not be an option for him anytime soon).

    The thing is that the creators of these devices have no desire to mess with an OS like linux simply because the numbers don't make it worth their while. So until something better comes along, or they decide to support linux, you will continue to be "undewhelmed" Wow.

    Is Linux a better OS than Windows. The answer is it depends on what you want to do (yes & no). Is Linux more stable than Windows? By far it is, but a linux box that has been running for ten years non-stop is worthless if it can't work with the software or hardware to support what I want to do with the computer.
  • I don't believe that. It's really stupid and I really wish you would quit posting rumors. (not even rumors but more propaganda than anything else) If I were to set up a poll my guess is about 1/200 of the people would believe that. Sega is out of the 128 bit race and they aren't coming back for a while. Help me Phantasy Star online! You're my only hope!
  • Don't think of this as a DC.

    This is a cable set top box with a games console and PTV built in. It will do all of the things that the 3 boxes you have under your tv will do currently in one box (for less than £500!)

    What about if it was a satellite box with all of the above? I think it's in the pipeline already (the guys who are developing this sit opposite my desk!).

    This is really just a technology preview...it's what we will all have in a few years.

  • I see what they're doing... They'll license this "DreamCast on a chip" to the cable companies. It'll be something like this:

    Me: Hi, I'd like to sign up for cable service.
    Cable Company: Okay, would you like the movie channels too?
    Me: I guess.
    CC: Do you have a computer? We also have high speed internet access.
    Me: sure.
    CC:Do you like video games? You can download and play Sega DreamCast games on your cable box for only an extra $10 a month.
    Me: Ten dollars a month!?! That's cheaper than HBO! Sign me up!

  • This is being developed by British set-top box manufacturer Pace Micro Technology in a joint venture with Sega.

    Sega getting out of the hardware market just means that THEY won't produce the units - someone else will for them while they provide the chipset.
  • Seeing as how the OS is stored on the disc, and many of the games use Windows CE, I can kind of see this - except that it's Windows CE running on different hardware.

    I'd guess the rumor was created by yet another game nerd (different than "real" nerd) who compares Mhz of different processors and thinks higher numbers always means better. He probably put two and two together (Xbox runs Windows CE? I don't know, and Dreamcast games were developed using Windows CE) and concluded that they must be compatible.

    I'm just doubting it.
    ----------

  • Lol, what a troll! This is something Sega should've done after 32X...sticking to what they do best, making great games.
  • Am I the only reader who does not understand what "mutually non-exclusive" means? Is it the same as "not mutually exclusive". Or a redundant sentence? Or what?
  • Does anyone remember sega channel?! this sounds like the same damn thing. man, sega channel rocked except that the games were not the best and the rotation brought the same games back around too often. but man, some games just kicked ass! Wow - much time spent on sega channel...

  • With all these SEGA rumours lately, you'd think people would learn?!? And you'd also think its about time a REAL announcment came out of SEGA's mouth.
  • . . . before, and failed. Badly. Even over cable networks. There were systems, back in the day, that allowed one to download games to a cartridge over what could now loosely be called a "cable modem" for such venerable systems as the Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision, and Sega Genesis.

    I think the fact that most people are reluctant to provide a revenue stream (think on the order of $9.95-$19.95/month) combined with the other fact that lots of games that would have been a $30-$50 sale will lose their appeal after two plays will result in a quick death for this system.

  • That would make this particular incarnation bareable but it does set a dangerous precedent for the furture of entertainment.

    -*-*-*-*-*-*-*

  • Sega's been in the pay-per-play industry for a LONG time...you'd be surprised to find out how many casino games they've successfully put into place.
    'Nuff said.

  • Next Generation Sega Channel is more like it... (Score:5)

    by Thag ( 8436 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @07:40PM (#471479) Homepage
    This doesn't seem to be the next generation of Dreamcast, but rather just a way for Sega to repackage Dreamcast into a new product that they can get some more money out of.

    If it's the next generation anything, it's the next generation Sega Channel.

    Jon
  • Some guy only identified as 'Wallace' says some stuff and you believe it? If you knew someone named Wallace would you believe anything he said? Just what kind of name is that? Who names their kid 'Wallace' anyway.
  • Sega is licensing the DC tech, so there'll likely be more than this one unit. Rumours still float around saying that X-Box will be able to play DC games; of course Sega seems to attract rumours, and DC games on X-Box is such a good idea that lots of people are hoping it's true.
  • Make a game platform based on Java or Linux. Update the platform every 1-2 years to alow for newer technologies.
    If they were to take the lead on the JCP(Java Community Process) and develope the API for the game profile then they can get out of the hardware business and focus on making great games that will run on things from cellphones to TVs to PCs.
    If they would make a GPLed openGL based gaming api for linux they would be able to run all of there games on practicaly any machine.

    wake up
  • The Dreamcast uses both a native API & Windows CE, developers have a choice of which one they develop the game to work with.
  • Um not sure if you read the article, but it says specifically that all games will be downloaded to the harddrive from the original media (giga-CD discs)...

    In fact it will have some cable features, but the only connectivity upstream was on it is a modem... Though I got the impression that was more for the Tivo-like functions & online gaming...
  • It sounds like just another PC emulator. Just like X-Box it might have a big drive, a processor and a big ass graphics chip. But since its coming after X-Box's release it better have something new or else it'll add another chapter in the sad sad story of Sega demise.
  • Every time I point my dish at birds, it tends to build up sticky white gunk. Apparently, it makes a convenient bullseye.
  • Why not pay per play? Arcades get away with it and no one complains (except me; $1 to play a fucking flight simulator? come on!). Why not bring the arcade home? I'm not saying I like the idea; I'd rather buy my games and play them at my leisure, but what if I simply wanted to try out a game before buying it?
    --
  • The article states this about digital satellite lines:

    "Though the box will work with cable, direct broadcast satellite, and digital television, it will have a dialup modem return path, rather than a broadband connection. "

    I was mistaken that digital satellite lines would not be supported. However, it sounds even worse - it also requires the use of a traditional phone line as well! The requirements are just adding up - might as well just play PC games IMO.

  • ETA? (Score:1)

    by Mongoose ( 8480 )
    "...said that the box had a potential market of 50 percent of the homes in the U.S. He said that was the number of homes that, according to industry estimates, would not already have online-enabled games consoles by 2003."

    -- from the article

    2003? So the market in terms of time for this is sometime between now and 2003? Am I missing something?

    Btw, the DC is a kick ass little platform. I'm going to buy a used one and Marvel vs Capcom 2. That way I can pretend I'm in an aracde all day on my days off. If only it had a cool DBZ fighting game like and updated DBZ:SB3. =)

    Ultra Mega Turbo Alpha 200 hit combo!
  • That was just to get your attention. When a business changes its marketing strategy, it wants to be heard. Don't underestimate the effect on sales of getting one's name in the news.

  • THIS BRINGS "CONSOLE-QUALITY gaming to the digital TV industry," said Andrew Wallace, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Pace, in a conference call this morning. It "addresses the casual gaming market," he noted, while providing lower costs than actually going out and buying a game.

    Wallace said that the box, called the Games Gateway, can store up to 60 games at a time, and will play any and all of the 350 or so games developed for the Dreamcast platform. The box will ship next year, though Wallace declined to speculate whether it would ship in the U.S. or U.K. first. The deal is mutually non-exclusive; the box itself has been a year in development.

    God. I don't want forced interactivity on my game console. What's more, I do not want to have to subject my child to a .NET model to play games, even if it is a proprietary net, there will definitely be chat and dcc functions. I buy my child a game console so they don't have to go online to play video games. They might be punching people on the video game, but they are safe from pedophiles, etc.

    Furthermore, what the hell is the casual gaming market? I have over 200 games for various platforms, many of which run on emulators on my PC, and this thing only will allow 60 games to be stored? Where can I store the rest? Is it pirating if I store the rest on my hard drive?

    Maybe we should sue Sega for monopoly behavior. If it wants to separate the deck from the games, fine! We will treat it like two different products. It's bullshit to force ten million parents to go out and buy the new console just so their children can get the new Pokemon for their game, and then to sit there for the hours on end while they play video games just to make sure they aren't talking to anyone unsavory!

  • Why not just sell a service that lets users download Dreamcast games onto their PCs?

    That's called Usenet [news].

    Oh, you mean to play on the PC :)--that'll have to wait for the emulator.

  • Sega will continue to manufacture the Dreamcast - GG will be a sibling to the already established Dreamcast platform and will contain the brains and mechanics to actually run the games. For those who have Dreamcasts, this does not signify the end of Dreamcast. It just merely adds to the chaos of gaming system announcements.
  • Yeah, there are a few dishes out there that can do two-in-one (I think the Hughes DirecPC dish can receive TV too). But then you are stuck getting everything from one provider (ok, so that's the entire argument _against_ cable TV -- hey, it's a free country, I'll contradict myself if I want).

    >but the problem with satellite is not quite as dire as you make it out to be

    I was really half joking about the situation being as bad as needing three satellite receivers... But I am serious that there are too many satellite dishes out in the country. :-)
  • Maybe it'll work better this time around.. anybody remember the Sega Channel? With a special cartridge (and a participating cable provider) you could play games that were effectively "streamed" to you over the cable.. this was before cable modems ever existed in the consumer world.. and as I recall.. it didn't last more than a month...
  • "I'm sorry. I'll never do it again."

    How many times do you have to hear that before you disbelieve anything they say?

    The good news is that they plan to support this box for a whole six months before they stop marketing it.

    KFC's Kentucy Fried Court Battle [ridiculopathy.com]

  • The problem with the Sega Channel is that it didn't catch on, not that it had any games. It was released late enough in a console's life that it revitalized interest for me. I mean, there were hundreds of games available, and dozens of them I could get within a minute! It was only about $9.95, which is pretty fair if you compare that to rental prices. No, it didn't succeed in the long run, but I liked it.

    Why make the headline 'Sega Announces Dreamcast Successor'?

    Is that a successor for the Dreamcast? I was expecting a next-gen console, not this, which I can only best describe as a "stand-alone" add-on.

  • Just a curious notion. If the games are stored in the Dreamcast on an internal hard drive, how long will it take someone to crack the technology and feed DreamCast roms directly from their computer to the DreamCast over a set-up cable connection? Without the need to burn anything to disk and worry about the physical failings of the media... once the info is on the machine, it's there to use forever, unless there is some sort of subscription service for games that has to refresh itself with a server every couple of days).

    Just my 4 pfennig.

    -----
  • The article says that games are downloaded from some sort of network rather than from CD. (The wording makes it sound as though it doesn't have any CD-ROM inputs at all.) Presumably this means they're downloaded direct from Sega. That sounds like a pretty good copy-protection measure. There may be some limited communication between other users, but that will again go through Sega servers, allowing for traffic monitoring. Who's to say your console won't report to Sega what games you're playing? (Of course, the stats will only be used "in aggregate," ;) but if all games are licenced from some central location, it would be very easy to do a quick licence verification, as is done in certain other online games.)
  • Being able to store games sounds cool. I hope that more technologies get memory storage in the future. Tivo, mp3 players are all cool signs of the future...

    -Moondog


  • So now they download games to a disk to play them.

    So what this means is you will end up spending more money buying more disks in the future.

    How promising
  • Broadband is the way of the future, if you can not afford it or get it then do not buy the new console. The console will not be playing new games and it will have the option to delete them to make room (no back ups). This sounds like a rip off to me.
  • It looks like these video game consoles are maybe gonna take off afterall... hmm... well, if they're still around in 6 months I'll think about getting a Nintendo or a Sega or something. Is that Mario still popular? He was in a milk add. Mario's cool.
  • Well, the original DC used a modified version of Windows CE, so for it to be compatible I would assume It would use the same OS, but with some different hardware
  • Yes, what i'm about to say has been stated by others in previous posts. But when is slashdot going to get their head out of their asses? I believe that the past 3 sega stories have all been interpreted WRONG (or just outright bad rumors). Everyone should respond to this topic to express their outrage of slashdot's incompetence. does slashdot have a problem against sega? well, fine, i have a problem with linux! damn hippies!

    =)
  • I don't know why you're buying all these dishes, but every one I've seen can do all of these things in one smallish dish (even local channels, which AFAIK are a no-cost option if you are outside a certain radius from the transmission tower).

    So yes, it would be nice to get y'all out in the sticks wired (then I could move there! Yay!) but the problem with satellite is not quite as dire as you make it out to be.

    (Cept for the latency, and that really sucks. Damn Einstein...)
  • Let me get these "facts" straight.

    -Sega has huge losses over 4 straight quarters, including the very successful Dreamcast US launch.
    -They still build a user base of several million rather devoted users.
    -Sega says that over 100 new titles will hit the Dreamcast library this year. This I believe.
    -Sega decides to release a new box that is an even more dangerous money hole than the previous one? What will stop Johnny user from downloading instructions off the internet to copy a game to his friend's? Or, more importantly, download an M rated game while Mommy isn't looking?

    Furthermore, why wouldn't they learn from the relatively great decision of Sony to release a system that can play last generation's games, therefore increasing the previous generation's game base as well as the current (driving up license profits)?

    This whole thing doesn't make sense, particularly since the Dreamcast has been out only 1 and a quarter years in America.

    I love the Dreamcast (I like it more than my PS2), but this doesn't seem like a correct decision at all (or a credible rumor, for that matter).

  • Living in the "country", I can tell ya, it has become a veritable sea of satellite dishes. And with no reasonable internet access cabled in; With 15+ km runs to the telco, it's gonna become even uglier (and eventually, more "urban" than downtown):

    - 1 satellite dish for TV
    - 1 satellite dish for your game system
    - 1 satellite dish for your high-speed/latency internet
    - 1 big TV tower to pull in the locals

    We're up to four big warts on each fully-wired house in the country. Isn't this where all you city slickers come to take all them nice lookin' photies and sunday drives? Not for long. And it seems a bit much to take up all that nice spectrum and space that could be used for so much more just for us few rural folk.

    You people in the city: It's time you got back your satellite space. Get us wired with a TV cable and we won't need it. We really aren't asking for the world, ya know. Just to stop being treated like second class citizens in the digital age. I really hoped that by 2001 phones lines wouldn't be for just voice again.

    Most people don't want to move out of the country just for more services. When you have $100,000's (often in the country $millions -- farmland ain't free!) tied up in a place it makes moving a huge event. I'm glad. If everyone did we'd all be living in Arcologies. I'm sure you'd agree; That would suck. Don't let your city end up with 1,000 people/sq mile! Get me cable TV! ;-)
  • Sigh. The rumor mill has been working overtime on us recently, and because Sega (and every other technology company for that matter) doesn't comment on rumors, the rumors have gotten worse and not better. Everyone wants to seem like they're the first one "in the know" about the videogame industry and about Sega specifically, even at the expense of being wrong if necessary.

    Dear 7334 kIdZ: we are not giving up on the Dreamcast. We are going to make a whole bunch of Dreamcast games this year. We are not going to stop selling the Dreamcast for the foreseeable future. We are thinking up a bunch of new hardware designs around the SH-4 and PVR2 chipset. We have a prototype set-top box that looks pretty cool.

    My specific advice: unless you've heard it directly from us -- meaning from www.sega.com -- take it with a small salt shaker.

    John Byrd
    Sega of America Dreamcast

    ^^ As seen on port-dreamcast@netbsd.org ^^

  • I am sick of people assuming that the dreamcast automatically runs WinCE. Only certain games use it. Very few in fact, sega rally, and some vegas gambling game are the only two I know of. If you look on the dreamcast it says COMPATIBLE with WinCE. Not powered by. Most of the games use sega's proprietary OS, like jet grind radio, NFL2k1, Crazy Taxi, pretty much all of the major games out. So, to run dreamcast games, you'd have to emulate 2 different OS's. I think it would be just cheaper to put a SH-4 and a Power VR chip in it, use them as your display and main processor and be done with it. The cost of just slapping them on the side, or having hardware fast enough for emulation would be ridiculous, especially for a low cost set top box. Hell, with a 40gig hd, your gonna have to cut costs somewhere, so just use the same chips.
  • I'm glad that Sega is planning a successor to DC; I was just talking about this with a co-worker the other night. I was sad that Sega didn't seem to be making plans to succeed the DC, even though I don't have a Sega system and haven't since the Genesis--I still like to see them in there fighting and making quality hardware and games, because competition is what keeps console gaming fun.

    On a blatantly OT note, I've been having problems with my karma dropping lately for no good reason. I submitted the problem as an "ask /." question and naturally, it was rejected:

    2001-01-30 02:14:14 What's the deal with karma? (askslashdot,news) (rejected)

    And only minutes after I'd sent it, to boot. Here's the gist of it: I've watched my karma plummet from 19 to 10 in about a month, with only a few losses from downward moderation (unfairly, as in the case of "redundant" to my ontopic post to a thread where the only other post at the time was a troll), and one upward mod. I stopped moderating because I didn't want some yahoo meta-moderating *my* moderation as unfair and dropping my karma more, but I've still been losing points for no discernable reason. As I said in the "ask /." submission, I don't really care one way or another about my karma, but when it drops so low so I lose my "logged in" bonus, for absolutely no reason other than /.'s broken code (see also the broken "you can't submit more than one post per minute: -2703 seconds left" bit of fun), then I suppose I won't be posting anymore. Rob doesn't seem to care, as he hasn't responded to my polite email on the matter. I'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else.

    -Legion (hoping the first part will get me modded up enough to counter the modding down I'll get from moderators who don't pay attention)

  • The box will be manufactured in conjunction with Pace [pace.co.uk] (Europe's largest digital TV set-top box manufacturer). It will include digital TV as well as the games system, it will also work with digital satellite, cable and terrestrial. The POTS return path is only necessary for the digital satellite and terrestrial systems (cable already has a fast return path), and will only be used for outgoing requests so you pick, load this game and the request will go out on the POTS line, the game itself will download on the high speed digital TV link (whatever that happens to be). Pace also manufacture TV-over-xDSL set-top boxes which also have a high speed return path.

    Think about it, you will have digital TV and an online games system that plays Dreamcast games in one box.

  • Not if you get everything from the same provider, which is certainly possible with several of the services available today.
  • To me it seems like this is awesome for freelance game developers. How much easier does this make it to distribute any games that you write?

    Probably not Sega's intention, but wonderful nonetheless.

  • Hopefully this doesn't turn into Nintendo's game system / doorstop called Satellaview.
  • I for one am very excited about this product. I see most of the comments here are pissed because it may not work for them so it must suck.

    Sega is doing the right thing by picking a distribution method that is reasonable and has a reasonably large market share (or will have...)

    If they made it over broadband you'd all complain; if it was over standard cable you'd complain it was too slow; if it was dialup you'd complain.

    I had the Sega Channel as a child and I for one cannot wait to have this in my area!
  • I have an idea. Maybe if you dont want to havethings forced on you, dont plop your child down in front of a console. Talk to him/her.
  • You're right, and single sourcing my link to the world scares me. However, I think it's going to be difficult to open up any given satellite network to competition. Unlike cable, launching more satellites doesn't entail tearing up city streets, it's just obscenely expensive, so it's not really open to the argument that there's a public resource being used here. (Yes, frequency spectrum is limited, but it's not THAT limited, especially for directional narrowcasts like this).

    So, basically, you're hosed. : )
  • Parents of Irish warriors-princes, and book store owners, I might guess.

    http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/wallace/index.htm l
    Ok, so it's a surname..whatever
  • And the smell even has a resemblence to the rank odour of DIVX.

    *cynic on*
    What they're really doing is trying to kill the rental market.

    No more going to your local video store and renting the disk before you buy it. Plus, no more renting games with no replay value that you would want to play once.

    Have fun borrowing one of your pals games too.
    *cynic off*
  • >>Furthermore, why wouldn't they learn from the relatively great decision of Sony...

    Technical folk think, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Marketing gurus, on the other hand, always seem to want to be the *first* to think of something. "First console system to successfully implement a subscription service" sounds fashionably profitable to me. Too bad the technical folk so rarely occupy the decision-making positions.
  • I own a DC, I love it, but it's pretty clear where Sega is going with this. They are looking to get out of the business. Who will this sort of Set-top-box device appeal to? Hotel owners. A closed box with no GD-ROM drive (which is supposedly backwards compatible?) and the games are an afterthought, which will be set-up on a Pay-per-play basis, with a built in cable-modem for web-surfing on the side.

    What software developer is going to develop for a box like this? None of them. Old games will be downloaded to the HD and stored there. The hotel crowd will probably get a kick out of Chu-Chu Rocket and Tetris.

    Is Sega that strapped for cash that they have to start selling off the DC technology to anyone who wants it? Rumors are flying about a soon to be $99 Dreamcast. If true this would only confirm my suspicion that Sega is looking to clear out old inventory and get out.
  • Furthermore, what the hell is the casual gaming market? I have over 200 games for various platforms, many of which run on emulators on my PC, and this thing only will allow 60 games to be stored?

    The casual gaming market is the people who don't own 200 video games. Obviously you're not part of that market.

    What they're tageting is the people who would otherwise drive to a store and rent a video game to play for an evening or two and then return. All they're doing is trying to expand the pay per view model to video games and it seems to make sense to me. There are lots of people who pay $4-5 to play a video game for a couple of hours before returning it to the store. They would probably also be willing to pay $5-6 to have the game delivered to their home in a matter of minutes and its use enabled for the next 48 hours. I'm sure the Sega will still allow games to be purchased on a permanent basis for $40-50 (or whatever games cost these days) especially when they already got the $6 you spent when you tested out the game from their pay per view service.
    _____________

  • Which makes it bastardized version of a bastardized version of Sun's Jini and "The Dot-Com Home."

    Microsoft has had a lot of things to admire them for... but new original ideas has never been one of them.

    Kinda justice really since Windows is bastardized version of the Mac Finder which is a bastardized version of the Xerox Star....
  • Um.. Like EverQuest???? Phantasy Star Online???

    These types of games, obvously, already exist and are very popular. But its not "pay per play" rather its like a magazine subscription, where you pay to keep playign because they keep adding things to the game. When they stop adding things, these games quickly die. (UOL anyone?)

  • Slashdot, please get the story right... (Score:5)

    by Jayde Stargunner ( 207280 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @09:03PM (#471545)
    For the sake of accuracy, this set-top box is, and never was a successor to the Dreamcast. It is stupid to assume that it is.

    Sega made a statement last week that they would be packaging DC technology and licencing it to third-parties. This is not a replacement, nor a replacement to the DC. In fact Sega also stated that they were looking into making a DC PCI-card for PC's... May as well say that Taco's PC is the DC successor as well.

    -Jayde
  • ...which is the bastardized version of the mechanical adding machine, which is the bastardized version of the abacus, which is the bastardized version of two sticks rubbed together to make fire...

  • Marketing (dept.) strikes again (Score:5)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @10:06PM (#471549) Homepage Journal
    Since I live in Perth, Australia where cable (as in pay TV) -based internet connections are non-existent and (A)DSL is only available in the CBD an a couple of select suburbs, I have to add a big "whatever" to this discussion. This product is impossible for me to use. Anyway, I don't care -- I'm having fun buying secondhand SNES carts from swapmeets and pawnbrokers. There are enough games out there already that I've never tried such that if all game production were to cease today I'd be dead before I ran out of fun.
  • "First console system to successfully implement a subscription service"
    Sorry, been done [nintendoland.com].

    And now I've read the article I have two specific comments

    • Anything this dependant on digital TV is doomed -- HDTV/DigitalTV is DOA. We have it running in Australia and there are no sets or set-top boxes available
    • It's too hard. Take MP3s for example. Joe average can wander into a store, buy a CD and play it, but ask him to download to a hard drive, manage files, make playlists and upload to his player and he's lost.
    Most people think their documents are stored "in Word". A CD is like a key -- you put it in the box and it works. It's magic to most people, they don't know or care about the tech side. This product will be too hard for people to use.

  • Hmm...a good idea? (Score:5)

    by proxima ( 165692 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @07:19PM (#471554)
    Sounds like Sega is limiting its market share by requiring people:

    1. Have cable in their residence

    2. Care to pay money for a digital cable connection

    This restricts both the tech-less (antenna, analog cable), and the tech-savvy (digital satellite reciever). To me, it sounds like a great feature and option, but even with a digital cable line myself I'm not sure I'd want to be restricted to loading new games only at home..especially if it restricted me from taking it to another place (i.e. college dorm, apartment, etc.) without a cable connection.

    But it's still a year away from release, so perhaps they'll change their minds and find more reasonable distribution methods.

  • Why not just sell a service that lets users download Dreamcast games onto their PCs? Most PCs are vastly more powerful than the Dreamcast, most everyone has one, and there is already a large base of users with broadband connections.

    Not saying this isnt a good idea, just wondering why.

  • PACE MICRO NOT SEGA MS-NBC RUMOUR? (Score:3)

    by Kyusaku Natsume ( 1098 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @11:37PM (#471570)
    Looks like Timothy don't even bottered to read the story. And from a imparcial news source like MS-NBC, with a misleading header... go figure.

    What have the slashdot crew against Sega, it's that difficult to check first the story, then post? /. is beccoming "rumours for nerds, rumours that matters" (driving a company out of bussines by rumours is not a small thing, and matters to all their workers, who would buy a product that is already "discontinued" and "unsupported" by the manufacturer? WHO?)

    Still, I expect (wish) that Sega will be on the HW market more time than the people think.

    On a side note, IIRC in Japan Pioneer built Saturn comptible hardware in 1997 or 1998 so this isn't a new move for Sega.

    sigh.

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