Dreamcast: The Death Throes
"Dreamcast: The Death Throes"
by Sam Pettus (aka "the Scribe")
(C) 2002 Eidolon's Inn, all rights reserved
As I prepared the final section of my online history of Sega (SERVICE GAMES: THE RISE AND FALL OF SEGA), it hit me that I might do well to share my notes with the millions of Dreamcast gamers worldwide. Many of you kept up to speed with my irregular newsletter, D2 (Dreamcast Database), and it ended when Sega officially decided to kill the system back in March. There is almost another full year to tell about Sega's last console, but I was not available to share it at the time for various and sundry reasons. Well, here I am once again, looking back as I prepare to wrap things up. I missed out on a lot, it turns out, but hindsight is better than no sight at all. So, without further adieu, I present to you this rather lenghty postscript to my series of Dreamcast newsletters. Hope it proves useful in some way.
Be seeing you.
03/01/2001
Surf Rocket Racers for Dreamcast is released in the U.S.
03/02/2001
Sega music composer Yuzo Koshiro publically endorses Microsoft's XBox as his nextgen platform of choice. Also, in a related story, Koshiro reports that it was Sega of America who rejected a Dreamcast remake of the classic Genesis sidescroll brawler Streets of Rage because the new people at the company were unfamiliar with this vintage Sega franchise.
03/05/2001
The Learning Company announcess that it is selling its videogame division to UbiSoft. It is of note because a number of former top Sega personnel, including former SoA COO Tom Kalinske and SoA project manager Joe Miller, work for The Learning Company.
As of this week, Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast falls out of the NPD TRST U.S. all-format videogame sales charts.
Namco offically annouces that Soul Calibur 2 will not be released on Dreamcast. It is headed for the Sony PlayStation 2 instead. 03/06/2001 - Crave announces Ultimate Fighting Championship: Tapout, an enhanced sequel to the hit Dreamcast game, slated for release on the same platform in June.
Empire Interactive announces Pro Pinball Trilogy for Dreamcast, slated for a 03/30/2001 European (UK) release.
Midway cuts 60 jobs from its arcade division in a cost-cutting measure as a direct result of its heavy fiscal year 2000 losses. 03/07/2001 - Red Storm Entertainment cancels Roswel Conspiracies for Dreamcast.
According to Famitsu Weekly, the sudden surge in Dreamcast sales in Japan (due to reduced prices and the impending death of the console) cause the doomed system's market share to spike to 35.6% - thus finally managing to outsell the PS2, if only for a brief time. "It's just too bad Sega is losing money on every single one of them..." quips SegaWeb's Scott Twining. 03/09/2001 - Eidos cancels Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 for Dreamcast. The game was reportedly almost complete
As of today, over 8 million Dreamcasts have been sold worldwide.
None other than franchise creator Yu Suzuki himself raises the possibility that Virtual Fighter 4, the latest installment in his ground-breaking arcade fighter for Sega, may be eventually released for Dreamcast.
Pacific Century Cyberworks, a Chinese-based software conglomerate, tends a buyout offer to Activision for US$25 per stock share. Activision was expected to turn down the deal.
System Shock 2 for Dreamcast is confirmed as cancelled. 03/12/2001 - Sega announces that Crazy Taxi 2 for Dreamcast will see simultaneous worldwide release on 05/29/2001.
Daytona USA 2001 for Dreamcast is released in the U.S. It is an updated port of the classic arcade racer which first saw home release for the ill-fated Saturn and later in two different Win9x incarnations for PCs.
K-Project (aka Rez), the latest game by Space Channel 5 creator Tetsuya Mizuguichi, is announced for a 2002 release on PS2. It is "some type of wacky musical shooter with a firm emphasis on action."
One of Sega' most popular titles at the annual AOU arcade game show in Japan, Super Monkey Ball, is rumored to be prepping for a home console release. While Sega will neither confirm nor deny that a console port is underway, most rumors point to Dreamcast as the intended platform.
Capcom announces that it is bringing a premature end to its El Dorado Gate serial RPG for Dreamcast due to the impending death of the console. Originally planned for 24 installments, the series will stop with the 7th one on 10/10/2001. There are currently no plans to release the series outside of Japan.
03/13/2001
Unreal Tournament for Dreamcast is released in the U.S. after one of the longest development and delay cycles in the doomed console's third-party software history.
Sega of Japan announces that it is porting the popular Dreamcast racer Sega GT to PCs in the Win9x/DirectX environment.
Kalisto, the French software development firm best known for the Nightmare Creatures videogame series, is revealed to be facing imminent bankruptcy due to the slower-than-expected growth of the nextgen console market. 03/14/2001 - Sega of Europe announces that the Euro release of Daytona USA 2001 will not have the online head-to-head gameplay mode found in the Japanese and U.S. releases. The stated reason is "a heavy scheduling commitment and Sega's continued software focus plan."
The Independent, a leading British newspaper, reports on the poor market performance of the videogame industry in Europe during the 128/256-bit nextgen transition, with many Euro software developers either going belly-up or getting pummelled with huge losses due to slow sales.
03/15/2001
Pelican Accessories releases a CD-based MP3 player for Dreamcast.
03/16/2001
Sega CEO Isao Okawa dies of a heart attack at age 74.
The PC version of Peter Molyneux's Black and White "goes gold." No word is given regarding the fate of the in-development Dreamcast port or even if it is still being worked on.
03/19/2001
Rumors abound that Sierra has cancelled the multiplayer add-on for the Dreamcast port of Half-Life and may in fact cancel the game altogether.
Capcom refuses to either confirm or deny rumors that it is pulling out of the arcade business altogether in order to focus solely on the more lucrative console market.
Capcome announces a sequel to the popular cross-franchise fighter Capcom vs. SNK, slated for release on Dreamcast "later this year" in Japan.
Sega of Japan announces plans to license some of its Shenmue 2 development tools as plug-ins for the two different versions of SoftImage - at a bargain price of ¥650,000 and ¥900,000 respectively.
Eon Digital announces that it has picked up Team 17's Stunt GP and will be releasing it in Europe later in the year. No word on a potential U.S. release.
Videogames.com reveals that Metro3D is planning to cancel the Dreamcast versions of both Armada 2: Exodous and Dark Angel: Vampire Apocalypse due to the impending death of the console.
The Nippon Keizai Shinbun reports that Tetsu Kayama will be named as interim Sega CEO in the wake of the death of Isao Okawa.
03/20/2001
Red Lemon reveals that it has no plans to release its Dreamcast shooter Take The Bullet in the U.S.; instead, it will make another planned Dreamcast title, God Save The Queen, a U.S. exclusive. (NOTE: Somebody at Red Lemon is probably messing with the press. Take The Bullet is about a Secret Service agent protecting the U.S. president, while God Save The Queen is about a Buckingham Palace gate guard protecting the British monarch. This is too funny to be true ...)
Sega of America announces the Sega Smash Pack Dreamcast Bundle for US$120 to be released in April. This new bundle will include one title that was previously exclusive to Japan: the Dreamcast port of Virtua Cop 2.
03/21/2001
Sega officially announces that longtime Sega executive (and current Sega of Japan COO) Hideki Sato, the "father of the MegaDrive (Genesis)," will be the company's new president in the wake of the death of Isao Okawa. Filling Okawa-san's shoes in the role of Sega CEO will be Yoshiji Fukushima.
Metro3D confirms that both Armada 2 and Dark Angel for Dreamcast have been cancelled. They will be released for PS2 instead. "With Sega's recent shift from hardware to software, it's no longer profitable for Metro3D, with all the R&D and other development costs, to continue development of our Dreamcast projects."
Fox Interactive officially cancels the planned Dreamcast ports of Alien: Resurrection and World's Scariest Police Chases. Although two other Fox Dreamcast titles remain in production (Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Planet of the Apes), it is believed that they too will get the axe before they ever see the light of day.
03/27/2001
Two Dreamcast titles make their way into the NPD TRST cross-platform Top 10 videogame chart for the week ending 03/17/2001: Daytona USA 2001 (#5) and Unreal Tournament (#9).
Activision reports that it expects a US$600 million profit for fiscal year 2001, based largely on the success of its Tony Hawk and Spider-Man gaming franchises.
03/28/2001
Capcom announces Bounty Hunter Sara: Lord of the Holy Mountain for Dreamcast, slated for a 05/24/2001 release in Japan. It is doubted that the game will ever see the light of day overseas due to the impending death of the console.
03/29/2001
Sakura Taisen 3: Is Paris Burning for Dreamcast, a limited edition port of the popular Saturn franchise videogame, is released exclusively in Japan. Over 200,000 copies sell in its first week on the market, making it the #2 best-selling game in Japan for the week. Dominating the #1 slot is Super Mario Advance for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance.
03/30/2001
Microsoft chairman and founder Bill Gates delivers the keynote address at the 2001 Spring Tokyo Game Show. The real shocker in his speech is that Sega will openly commit to supporting XBox with at least 11 titles. These include Jet Grind Radio Future, a new Panzer Dragoon release (!), Gun Valkyrie, and an enhanced port of the Dreamcast's Sega GT. "We believe that Microsoft will be very successful with Xbox, which is why we have such a close, strategic relationship with them," said Peter Moore, president and COO, Sega of America.
Also at TGS, Capcom officially announces 4 more Dreamcast titles for release in Japan: Capcom vs. SNK 2, Capcom vs. SNK Pro, Gaia Master, and Net Gimic Mahjong. It also announces a 5th title licensed from the U.S. for release, the run-and-gun shooter Heavy Metal: Geomatrix.
Also at TGS, Aruze announces that it will be releasing the Dreamcast port of SNK's classic NeoGeo 2D fighter Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
Sega of Japan announces that it will stop taking orders for the Dreamcast broadband adapter effective 04/30/2001, after which "the device will no longer be produced." It is the first Dreamcast peripheral to be officially discontinued by Sega.
03/31/2001
As of today, only 940,000 Dreamcast consoles remain in Sega's inventory. Some 120,000 are in Japan; the bulk of the rest are in the U.S., and a few are still kicking around in Europe.
04/02/2001
Staples, the nationwide office supply retail outlet chain, begins requiring its employees to check the IDs of anybody appearing to be younger than the age of 25 who attempts to purchase a ESRB M-rated videogame. The practice commences in the state of Michigan and is applauded by the state attorney general.
04/03/2001
Videogames.com reports that the planned Dreamcast port of EA's Black and White is still slated for a Q4/2001 release.
According to IGN, the planned Panzer Dragoon title for XBox will include elements from all three of the classic Saturn titles and will be developed by Smilebit (as Team Andromadea, the game's original developers, is no longer together).
Sega of America confirms that its Sega Sports division is busily porting its entire lineup of sports games to XBox, starting with NFK 2K2 and with NBA 2K2 not far behind in the wings.
K-Project (aka Rez) creator Tetsuya Mizuguichi hints that his new shooter may be headed for XBox and not PS2 as originally reported.
The Manichi Shinbun reports on twelve disgruntled Sega of Japan employees who have refused to "to make the move to Sega subsidiaries and, as a result, were moved into a room they're not allowed to leave without special permission, told they would remain in the room for the entire work day, and were given absolutely nothing to do .... According to labor union officials, the behavior is 'outright bullying,' but a Sega spokesman explained, '...we just can't find any work for these people to do.' (SegaWeb)
According to CESA, the sponsors of the bi-annual Tokyo Game Show, attendance was down from projections. Only 118,000 people attended the event, well below the 150,000 that were expected. Part of the reason appears to be the absense of several key industry players, including both Nintendo and Sega.
04/04/2001
Capcom announces a 04/30/2001 date for the U.S. release of its intense Dreamcast arcade shooter GigaWing 2.
Capcom announces a custom cell phone videogame installment of the popular Resident Evil franchise.
04/05/2001
According to Reuters, Sega of Europe is arranging a deal with Bigben Interactive, a French company, to sell off its remaining inventories of Dreamcast hardware and accessories.
According to action movie star Sammo Hung's official website, a full-length live-action movie based on Namco's Soul Calibur is in the works. The film will be shot in Hong Kong with a reported budged of some US$50 million.
04/09/2001
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft attacks violence in videogames during a 30-minute speech at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention in Washington, DC. The report is by the Associated Press, courtesy of SegaWeb.
"What does it do to children, who see thousands of acts of violence on television, who are conditioned in videogames to do things that are abhorrent to the human spirit" Ashcroft asked rhetorically during his speech. "I'm not here to say we shouldn't have videogames, I'm here to say we are poorly situated to deny that these kinds of setting have an impact on what we do." He also noted that, if he believed that the only solutions were governmental, he "might be willing to trade First Amendment rights to improve the culture."
According to the AP story, he linked school shootings in Kentucky and Colorado by saying the gunmen in those incidents had played violent videogames, and perpetuated the myth-which was initiated in Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's book, Stop Teaching our Kids to Kill. This myth, that Michael Carneal, the Kentucky shooter, learned to aim better than most policemen as a result of playing videogames, has since been refuted by other experts.
Two weeks before, Attorney General Ashcroft had made the rounds of the TV talk shows spewing forth the same unfounded bilge.
Sega announces that Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast will see simultaneous worldwide release on 06/23/2001, commemorating the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog for MegaDrive (Genesis). Also given firm Japanese release dates are two more Dreamcast titles: Confidential Mission and Magic: The Gathering.
Sega of America confirms that the U.S. version of 18-Wheeler: American Pro Trucker will not have the online multiplayer mode of the Japanese original "in order to meet the launch date of May 2001."
Sega announces that over 35,000 new subscribers joing the ranks of Phantasy Star Online players, bringing the total registration up to over 235,000. An average of 26,000 players are playing PSO at any given time as of this date. Of the total registration, 130,000 are in Japan, 70,000 are in the U.S., and 30,000 are in Europe.
Acclaim officially announces that it has acquired the distribution rights to Sega's Crazy Taxi for PS2, which is to ship to retailers in April.
04/10/2001
The Magic Box reports that Sammo Hung is in fact directing the planned live-action movie based on Namco's Soul Calibur.
04/11/2001
The Dreamcast broadband adapter sells out in Japan two weeks ahead of its scheduled cancellation date.
04/12/2001
Gathering of Developers cancels the planned Dreamcast port of Tropico.
Crave puts the planned Dreamcast sequel UFC: Tapout "on hold" (i.e. it's going to be cancelled).
04/14/2001
Start of Sega's two-day GameJam event, held in lieu of its appearance at the Spring TGS, at Zepp Tokyo. Most of its remaining Dreamcast lineup and some of its new arcade and cross-platform titles were on display for the general public.
05/17/2001
SegaGaGa for Dreamcast is released in Japan.
05/19/2001
Sega announces that it is laying off some 28% of its employees, mostly at its Tokyo headquarters, leaving only some 700 to work its corporate headquarters. In addition, it plans on selling about half of its 58 subsidiaries in a desperate move to return to profitability by the end of fiscal year 2001.
After months of speculation, Sega officialy announces its support for Nintendo's new 256-bit GameCube console. Rumor has it that several Sega titles are already in the works for Nintendo's new system, including a port of Sonic Adventure 2.
04/20/2001
Sega reports that it has sold over 1 million Dreamcast consoles worldwide since it announced the impending death of the platform back in January. It is widely believed that Sega's remaining worldwide console inventory has been depleted to as low as 800,000 units.
Sega announces that it will be porting Phantasy Star Online to "other platforms."
04/23/2001
A heavily scaled back version of bleemDC is finally (and firmly) scheduled for a 05/01/2001 release. The retail version will only support one game, Grand Turismo 2 for PSX, and will sell for US$6. Subsequent releases are to follow, each supporting individual PSX titles.
04/24/2001
Sega receives no less than nine 2001 Edge Awards for its Dreamcast efforts:
Winner, Publisher of the Year
Winner, Game of the Year (Phantasy Star Online)
Winner, Graphical Achievement Award (Jet Set Radio)
Winner, Technical Achievement Award (Phantasy Star Online)
Winner, Hardware Innovation (Samba de Amigo)
Winner, Developer of the Year (Sonic Team)
Runner-up, Gameplay Innovation (Dream Dorobo)
Runner-up, Graphical Achievement (Metropolis Street Racer)
Runner-up, Audio Achievement (Jet Set Radio)
Sega officially announces that there will be no more new Dreamcast games either developed or produced after 31 March 2002. The 65 titles currently in the production pipeline by Sega and its third-party supporters will be the last ones for the console. As SegaWeb's Simon Foster notes, "It's the end of an era."
04/25/2001
Bee1 of Japan releases the MegaDrive 21. It is little more than a scaled- down 16-bit MegaDrive inside a PS-style green controller housing with 21 built-in games.
Sega.com begins making "significant reductions" in its staff "effective immediately" as part of Sega's overall cost-cutting strategy.
Infogrames UK announces that it will not be providing support for the online gameplay feature of Unreal Tournament for Dreamcast in Europe. No reason is given.
The second iteration of Phantasy Star Online is given the nod for a U.S. release.
04/26/2001
Bethesda Softworks puts IHRA Drag Racing for Dreamcast "on indefinite hold" (i.e. it's been cancelled).
04/27/2001
Sega of Europe reduces the price tag of all remaining new Dreamcast titles to £30 effective immediately. The first such affected title is Skies of Arcadia, which saw its Euro release today.
More than 4,000 people attend joint services in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka to pay tribute to recently deceased Sega CEO and CSK founder/chairman Isao Okawa. Among the notables sending condolences is newly elected Japanese prime minister Junichirou Koizumi and many influential members of Japan's electronics and computer industries.
04/30/2001
Both Mitsubishi Securities of Japan and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter of the U.S. reaffirm their confidence in Sega's new multiplatform strategy as the key to bringing the financially ailing company back into the black.
The Daily Radar website closes its doors, another victim of growth too fast to financially support by its backers.
Most industry sources reaffirm the impending 05/03/2001 release of Sierra's Half-Life for Dreamcast. The game is hotly anticipated, as the graphics of the Dreamcast port (already completed save for late-stage beta testing) are miles and away above the Win9x/DirectX PC original.
On behalf of the Bush Administration, the USTR office releases its annual "Section 301" report concerning worldwide intellectual property piracy. Among the countries noted as pirate havens are Korea, Egypt, Malaysia, the Phillipines, India, Russia, Taiwan, China, Paraguay, and the Ukraine.
05/01/2001
The ISDA applauds the release of the USTR Section 301 report, noting that its own research indicates that "worldwide piracy was responsible for at least $3 billion in losses to the entertainment software industry in 2000 alone." It also notes that revenues from retail sales within the videogame industry rose some 15% to US$7.8 billion from 1997 to 2000, directly responsible for the employment of some 219,000 people in the U.S. who earned US$7.2 billion in wages along the way. Another strong spurt is expected by the ISDA with the arrival of the last entries in the current nextgen console wave, Microsoft's XBox and Nintendo's GameCube, before the end of 2001. (SegaWeb)
Konami officially cancels the Dreamcast port of The Mummy.
SegaWeb predicts that the final worldwide sell-through of Dreamcast consoles "will be over 8 million units."
Quoteable quotes, Ben Caton, SegaWeb: "Sega has already seen what happens when they release too many games on a new platform, where there are not enough buyers; they discovered this during the past holiday season ... Now that the yoke of hardware losses is lifted from Sega's shoulders, it is good to remember that despite a few disappointing games, Sega MADE money on their software sales on the DC last year; they simply lost too much money on hardware. They can turn a profit selling games to us DC owners now that they are not losing money on hardware ... The Sega Dreamcast is set to go out as the brightest falling star the industry has ever seen."
05/02/2001
Half-Life for Dreamcast is officially delayed until 06/05/2001. No reason is given, although port developer Gearbox announced that it is spinning off the once-exclusive Blue Shift secondary game for PC release sometime during Q2/2001.
05/03/2001
Rumors from the usual sources indicate that Sega will finally release an NCAA football game in the U.S. based on its NFL 2K game engine. No word yet on which platform NCAA 2K2 will make its debut.
Sega's Peter Moore inadvertently confirms in an interview during the Game Developers Conference that a GameCube port of a Sonic game is already in the works - and by no less a person than franchise creator Yuji Naka himself!
The retail release of SegaGaGa in Japan is delayed until 05/31/2001 due to "the discovery of an inappropriate character name in the title. Apparently, one of the in-game characters is known as "Adult Children." This term is used by the Japanese to describe a child whose parents or family members abuse alcohol or drugs." Sega of Japan issues a formal apology and plans to rename the offensive character before the game's retail release.
05/04/2001
Quoteable quotes, Smilebit president Shun Arai: ""One of the main problems with the PlayStation 2 is the cost of development, especially Sony's kits which are ¥2 million (US$16,500) each. As a result, many companies have 5-10 people using the same kit for their games. That's why there are so many B-class games on the PlayStation 2 - it's terribly inefficient." (Newsweek)
05/07/2001
As of today, Sega stock hits a 14-month high on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, rising to ¥2760 (US$5.80) a share. Customer confidence in Sega's plans for restructuring itself as a software development house appear to be driving the growth surge. Sega stock also earns the unique distinction of rising in value more than any other this year in the depressed Japanese markets per percentage value. Inside word is that Sega's 05/22/2001 forecast of its fiscal year 2001 earnings will show the company back in the black for the first time in five years.
05/08/2001
In one of the last such announcements of its kind, Crave announces a new title for Dreamcast. Razor: Freestyle Scooter is set for a Q2/2001 release for a mere US$20.
Sega confrms that Super Monkey Ball will be released for Nintendo's new GameCube console.
05/10/2001
In an exclusive interview conducted with NextGen magazine, Sega's Peter Moore confirms that the full Sega Sports lineup, complete with online gaming capability, is coming to XBox. 05/11/2001 - Konami posts the largest net profit figures in the company's long history. Total net income was ¥21.78 billion (US$177.6 million), representing an 18.7% increse over the previous fiscal year. Part of the credit for such large profit is attributed to its decision to ditch Dreamcast support as early as it did.
Sonic Team issues an ultimatum to the thousands of cheaters playing Phantasy Star Online with doctored or fake characters, items, etc.: stop or be thrown off the system ASAP.
Electronics Boutique reveals Sega of America's plans to release a new Dreamcast console bundle. The US$120 Dreamcast Sonic Bundle will go on sale in June to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Sega's mascot and will include Sonic Adventure, Sonic Shuffle, and the Sonic Adventure 2 Demo.
Sega of Japan announces that full hands-on live testing of the arcade release of Virtua Fighter 4 will take place for eight days starting 05/12/2001 at the Ikebukuro GIGO complex.
05/14/2001
A new report by the NDP Group reveals that total videogame related software sales increased during Q1/2001. Console sales saw the largest increase, driven largely by "by strong performance of the newly discounted Dreamcast and the popular (and more expensive) Playstation2." They predict that the back half of 2001 will be the place to be as handhelds make the transition to 32-bit (Nintendo's GameBoy Advance) and the last of the new nextgen systems (Microsoft's XBox, Nintendo's GameCube) are released. All in all, the only categories to show a net percentage drop from the same time last year were handhelds and console software.
NCAA 2K2 for Dreamcast by Sega is given an 08/22/2001 U.S. release date.
05/16/2001
Start of E3 2001 (ends 05/21/2001)
Sega officially confirms plans to support both XBox and GameCube at E3, and previews their entire multiplatform lineup.
05/22/2001
Sega predicts a net lost of ¥51.7 billion (US$427 million) for fiscal year 2001. While up from the previous year's ¥42.9 billion (US$349.4 million), it is still well below the estimate of most industry analysts, ¥61.4 billion (US$500 million). Sega attributes this to "better than expected sales of the newly discounted Dreamcast and software, and aggressive cost- cutting measures for helping to restrain the size of the loss." It sold 3.39 million Dreamcast consoles worldwide in 2000, thus bringing the total to date to some 8.2 million units. This is 1.5 million less than Sega had originally anticipated to sell by this time. "Less than one million units are now in inventory, which the company expects to sell through by September. Over one million units have sold since the price drop in early February." Despite the numbers, Sega still expects to turn a profit by the end of its fiscal year (03/31/2002), projecting a modest net profit of some ¥2.1 billion (US$17.1 million). Overall, the news is about what the industry expected and is welcomed by all.
On the side, Sega predicts that it can sell out its full Dreamcast inventory, both hardware and software, before the end of 2001. can sell out its full
05/23/2001
bleem LLC files a new suit against Sony, alleging that the corporate giant has been using strong-arm tactics to intimidate retailers to stop selling its Bleemcast PSX emulator for Win9x based PC systems. Most retailers who were "contacted" by Sony about Bleemcast have either not filed new orders or have returned their remaining stocks to bleem LLC.
05/24/2001
All remaining retailers drop Half-Life for Dreamcast from their upcoming releases lists.
Sega announces extensive plans to develop games specifically targed at India and Indian culture, which represents the largest as-yet-untapped software market in the world.
Sega of Japan annouces that all of its basic Dreamcast console sets have sold out, save "a few thousand" that it is holding back for the planned Sonic commemorative bundle to be released in June. All that remain in Sega's Japanese warehouses are specialty and commemorative Dreamcast console bundles.
05/25/2001
Quoteable quotes, Sega of America COO Peter Moore:
...It is our belief is that innovation is where we will go and will be key to our success in this brave new world, quite frankly, of being a third-party publisher.
When we look to the future, we also need to focus upon where WE believe the future is going to be, and that’s online .... Who can forget the implications from September 7th of the year 2000, when SegaNet went live with NFL 2K1 I think forever we changed the face of gaming, that our new successors will now be able to take on, and we’ll certainly be there to support them.
2001 is a building year for us. I think we’re more focused, and now in a position to be able to dictate where we go as a company in relation to the other platforms. We have never been afraid, as I say, to innovate, and you’re gonna see more and more as the year goes on from SEGA as to how we’re going to make an impact in the third-party world with the new generation of consoles that are coming through.
It’s very strange to walk into a Sega booth and every time I take a look round I can see a Nintendo platform playing in our booth. It’s a very different experience for us as a company. We need to segregate the emotional element with the departure of our beloved Dreamcast, and the business focus on where we need to go to make an impact on our business model going forward.
"Content is king." It’s an often-used phrase, in our industry but when we look at what we can bring even in this first year as a third-party ... we are already making a difference to the next- generation platforms with our content.
It is our intent, that come holiday 2003, that we will be a legitimate competitor for the number one spot as the top videogame publisher in the world. Certainly I think we have all of the recipe there that’s necessary to bake that cake. When we look at the content, the franchises, our commitment to SEGA Sports, we have I think, a very powerful recipe to be in the number one position ....
We’ve gotten rid of, I guess, the shackles if you will, of being focused on a singular platform. If one considers the amount of business we’ve done against an installed base of only 3.5 million at this current time of Dreamcast, and then multiply that out over the next fiscal year of an installed base over five times that size, of potentially 21 million units, when you count in what we believe are the projections for PlayStation2, GBA, Gamecube, as well as for XBox, you can see the potential that this great company has to make an immediate impact.
Is it going to be profitable and easy right out of the pot Absolutely not. But as I said, will it be worth it in the long run You bet your ass it will. I believe that this industry needs to be able to embrace the Internet and to use it, otherwise it will take its place in an alternative medium of entertainment, and take our consumers away. We either use it, or it will use us.
Gaming is entering a new age .... There has been a common theme about the specifications of platforms in this 128-bit era. That is that graphics, cinematic quality, is sic no longer enough for the consumer. That is expected nowadays, that a game looks cinematically realistic, that feels like a movie and like television. We now as platform holders, as publishers and developer have to take this industry to the next level, and that’s in pushing AI, innovative gameplay, insane competition, this is going to make all the difference. It’s not about graphics, it’s not about polygons, it’s no longer about bits and bytes. That is now expected by the consumer. It’s going to be about franchises, it’s going to be about online, episodic content, AI that takes over the immersive feeling so that you can no longer predict what’s going to happen in that game.
Quoteable quotes, Sega CEO Hideki Sato: "Sega can become the good number one software publisher!"
UFC: Tapout for Dreamcast is officially cancelled by Crave due to the impending death of the console. It promises to release the title on XBox instead.
05/28/2001
Virtual Tennis 2K2 for Dreamcast is officially announced. The most notable change over the previous incarnation is the (requested) addition of female players to the game.
Toejam and Earl 3 for Dreamcast was previewed at Sega's E3 2001 booth. 05/29/2001 - Acclaim's PS2 port of Sega's Crazy Taxi becomes the #1 best-selling PS2 game in the U.S. Oddly enough, nowhere in the PS2 port does Sega's name or corporate logo appear.
Crazy Taxi 2 for Dreamcast ships to retailers.
As part of its long-term cost-cutting strategy, Sega of Japan begins selling ¥50 billion (US$413.9 million) of its convertible bonds in an effort to raise capital and reduce company debt. Half of the proceeds will go into repurchasing existing interest-paying bonds, some ¥13.4 billion (US$115 million) to fund multiplatform software development, and the remainder is to go towards "unspecified operating expenses." Sega's long-term goal is to reduce the company's massive debt burden by some ¥65 billion (US$540.7 million) by March 2004. It is widely believed that the bonds Sega will be selling are from the assets donated by the late Isao Okawa, thus representing minimal processing costs to Sega. Sega's stock posts a modest 1.1% gain at the news, but it does little to offset the 20% downward pounding it took as a result of its 05/22/2001 financial forecast.
05/30/2001
bleem LLC announces its Metal Gear Solid bleem DC pack, set for release shortly, but the company may not survive long enough to see it out the door. It is now down to three employees and buried under US$1 million in legal fees due to its long-running legal battle with Sony. 06/04/2001 - Sega of Europe COO Kazutoshi Miyake resigns and leaves the Sega fold for greener pastures. No reason is given, although Sega's current financial situation is believed to be the prime motivating factor.
The worst fears of Euro DC gamers are confirmed when it is revealed that many key DC titles (Bomberman Online, Sega Bass Fishing, Alien Front Online, the Sega Sports 2K2 series) will not make it across the Atlantic. One game still set for a Euro release, surprisingly enough, is Shenmue 2: Mainland China.
"Sonic Adventure 2 commercials are set to begin airing in Japan on June 16th, reports Core Magazine. The commercial features none other than Sonic Team President Yuji Naka and a group of others waiting at a downtown crosswalk. The light changes from red, to green, to Sonic. At the Sonic symbol the pack takes off running, and goes through a loop just as the blue wonder himself is prone to do." (SegaWeb)
Sega achieves the dubious honor of taking the #9 slot on Bloomberg's Top 10 Least Profitable Companies list for 2000. The position is actually an improvement over 1999, when Sega held the #1 position. 06/05/2001 - Sega corporate sends in Yoshio Sakai to fill the vacant Sega of Europe COO slot. It is also revealed by Sakai that former SoE COO Katsutoshi Miyake will remain on board as a "consultant" until Sakai comes up to speed.
Shenmue 2: Mainland China by Yu Suzuki (Sega AM2) is scheduled by Sega for its Japanese debut on 09/06/2001.
Both Sega and Sony announce plans to develop a joint online gaming network. The move is seen as a big boost for Sony's online plans, since it would give them access to Sega's existing Internet setup. As of today, Sega has almost 1.2 million online Dreamcast users worldwide, and both Sega's experience and expertise in pioneering Internet console game would be sorely appreciated by Sony.
Sega of Japan strikes a deal with Merix Interactive Entertainment of China to distribut Sega products in Asia's largest marketplace. Almost all of the intended product will be PC videogames and software, with a sales goal of 1.5 million units by June 2002 - representing a modest 10% share of China's rapidly growing retail PC software market.
06/06/2001
Sega announces that Yuji Naka and Sonic Team will be attending this year's Nintendo Spaceworld event to promote Sega's GameCube software. Also present will be another Sega development team - Amusement Vision, creators of Super Monkey Ball for GameCube. It is anticipated by almost everyone with half a brain that Naka will take the opportunity to officially announce a Sonic game for Nintendo's newest platform.
Sega UK managing director Mike Sherlock abruptly jumps ship for the same job over at Andromadea, a major British DVD and videogames distributor.
At a company-wide strategy meeting in Japan, Sega sets a goal to sell some 12.7 million pieces of software for fiscal year 2001, up from 9.9 million the previous year. By 2004 it hopes to be pushing 30 million units per year, making it the #1 third-party software house in the world. Sega expects 70% of its software to be sold outside of Japan, with its strengths being sports and franchise titles.
06/07/2001
Lionhead indefintely halts continued development on the Dreamcast port of Peter Molyneux's new god game Black and White. The decision is largely motivated by Sega's decision not to publish the game, leaving it without a distributor. "We regret Sega's decision to reassess the future of its Dreamcast console," commented Lionhead director Mark Webley. 06/08/2001 - Sega's "In The Box" Dreamcast advertising campaign wins the EFFIE Silver Award for Entertainment. The award is for the 1999/2000 campaign better known to DC gamers as the "It's Thinking" campaign and was developed by Foote, Cone, and Belding.
06/11/2001
Sega announces plans to attend the Fall 2001 Tokyo Game Show. Their appearance causes a stir due the fact that they have deliberately skipped TGS the past few outings for their own in-house shows. Sega plans to use their appearance to spotlight their new multiplatform software lineup, and Smilebit president Takayuki Kawagoe states for the record that the eagerly anticipated Panzer Dragoon title for XBox will be present at the show.
06/13/2001
Sierra releases Half-Life: Blue Shift for Wintel-based PC systems. The once-exclusive Dreamcast special edition includes a patch to upgrade the PC version's graphics to the same quality as the Dreamcast port. All but a handful of retailers subsequently remove Half-Life for Dreamcast from their official release lists, sensing that the port has been cancelled. No official indication of any kind regarding the fate of Half-Life for Dreamcast is made available by either Sierra or Gearbox, the port's developer.
06/18/2001
Sierra officially cancels Half-Life for Dreamcast "due to changing market conditions." The port was reportedly complete and awaiting "gold" status.
06/19/2001
Sonic Adventuer 2 for Dreamcast ships worldwide.
06/20/2001
This year Sega only gets one award out of E3: Runner-up, Best Puzzle Game (Chu-Chu Rocket for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance).
Game developer No Cliche closes its doors, a victim of Sega of Europe's frenzied reorganization efforts. Among its casualties is Agartha, its ambitious Dreamcast first-person RPG, now officially cancelled.
Sony and Sega make yet another joint agreement - this time, for Sony to distribute Sega's PS2 games in Europe.
06/21/2001
Quotable quotes, Amusement Vision software director Toshihiro Nagoshi:
"Hardware performance has evolved to the point where the same things can be developed on any platform. So when talking about platforms these days, it's pointless to talk about performance. So our decision making process was simple; what hardware provider don't we hate For that reason, I settled on Nintendo."
06/22/2001
Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare for Dreamcast is released in the U.S.
Infogrames acquires the rights from Sega to distribute its XBox and GameCube releases in Europe.
06/23/2001
The 10th birthday of Sonic the Hedgehog, commemorated by a massive party in Japan headed by none other than Sonic creator Yuji Naka himself.
06/25/2001
Sega's Super Monkey Ball is confirmed as a Nintendo GameCube launch title.
Overworks, authors of the Sakura Taisen franchise, announces plans to continue Dreamcast support though then end of the year and into 2002, bucking the current trend by other vendors to abandon the system. Two more Sakura Taisen games (ST4 and STOnline) are set for release excuslively in Japan during this time.
Nintendo Power magazine announces that the entire Sega Sports lineup will be ported to GameCube. Sega neither confirms nor denys the story.
Sega announces ports of two more MegaDrive (Genesis) classis for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance: Golden Axe and Streets of Rage.
06/26/2001
Enterbrain of Japan announces that it is ceasing publication of FamitsuDC, its dedicated Dreamcast gaming magazine.
06/27/2001
Speculation arising from E3 is that the Sony PlayStation 2 will emerge as the undisputed winner of the 128/256-bit nextgen console war, with the Nintendo GameCube coming in a strong second. Microsoft and its XBox will be the weak third, with Microsoft's deep pockets allowing it to remain in the race for far longer than anybody would want them to. XBox wil have its strongest showing in the West where it will be the strong #2 or close #3, while GameCube will dominate the #2 slot in the East. The most significant realization is that the console market has finally grown large enough (some 110 million systems) to support three major players simultaneously. As for Sega, it was and remains the early starter and first casualty of this latest round of the great console wars.
UGA's quirky shooter K-Project is renamed Rez.
06/30/2001
As of today, less than 700,000 Dreamcast consoles remain in Sega's worldwide inventories.
07/02/2001
Infogrames signs a deal with Sega to become its exclusive European distributor for its GameCube and XBox titles for the next two years.
Sega of Japan axes five Dreamcast titles from its lineup today: Alien Front Online, Dynamic Golf, Far Nation, Bikkuriman 2000, and Aqua Panic.
Rumors begin to spread that Shenmue 3 will be an XBox exclusive.
Goodman/Rosen Productions, a well-known feature film company, purchases the film rights to Sega's Crazy Taxi and signs Richard Donner (the Lethal Weapon series) as the director for a live-action movie based on the game.
07/03/2001
The Japanese debut of Sonic Adventure 2 lands at #2 on the Dengeki Weekly Top 30 charts, with some 84,508 copies sold.
07/06/2001
In a joing announcement, Sega of Japan and its online subsidary ISAO announe that support for a number of Internet-capable Dreamcast titles will be discontinued effective 08/01/2001. The affected titles include Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram, Hanagumi Taisen Columns 2, Let's Play Pro Baseball Team Net, and Power Smash (aka Virtua Tennis). This represents a phasing out of older, less popular titles in order to provide more bandwith for newer, more popular ones such as Phantasy Star Online and other entries in the Sega Sports lineup.
07/10/2001
Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast falls all the way to #13 on the Japanese videogame charts, having pushed only 11,289 more copies. Current market predictions are that it will sell only 125,000 units, but it is still enough to make it one of the best-selling Dreamcast titles in Japan in the past year. Gundam Battle Online for Dreamcast debuts at #7 with some 19,928 units sold.
Dreamcast console sales in Japan are now averaging over 5,000 units per week, far better than it ever did in the time before the system was canned. In comparison, Nintendo is selling over 93,000 GameBoy Advances and Sony over 75,000 PS2s per week.
07/16/2001
Capcom vs SNK 2 becomes the last Dreamcast title to provide link support for the long-dead NeoGeo Pocket Color handheld console.
According to Famitsu Weekly, as of today Sega has sold 213,260 Dreamcast consoles in Japan, most of which were sold after the discontinuation price drop near the beginning of the year. In comparison, the top-selling gaming system in Japan as of this date is Nintendo's GameBoy Advance, with some 2,137,064 units sold. Sony's PS2 comes in second with about half as many units at 1,071,296.
07/17/2001
A new study released by two Iowa State psychologists attempts to link violent tendencies in youth to playing videogames. The report is called into question once it is learned that no original observations were conducted; rather, Drs. Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman merely culled the data from 35 other past studies on the subject.
07/18/2001
NFK 2K2 for Dreamcast is scheduled for a 09/09/2001 release date in the U.S. to commemorate the system's (and franchise's) second anniversary.
07/20/2001
"Sega of Europe was hit particularly hard by the failure of the Dreamcast. Unlike Sega of America, they are scaling back operations rather than ramping them up. In recent months they have gotten a new president, have stopped all game development, laid off large numbers of staff, cancelled most Dreamcast games, and have just signed publishing deals with Inforgames and Sony for their PS2 and GCN titles. When the company successfully restructures they will take over their full publishing, and possibly developing, duties once again. In other words, don't expect a whole lot of news from these guys for a while." (SegaWeb)
The NDP Group releases sales data for the month of June showing that Sega's Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast managed to claw its way to the #7 position on the weekly U.S. videogame charts - this despite the impresse launch of Nintendo's handheld GameBoy Advance.
Sega of Japan announces that it is developing driving simulators for schools derived from its highly successful and realistic 128-bit videogame library.
SegaNet signs a deal with EarthLink to provide Dreamcast gaming content in the U.S., thus effectively making EarthLink Sega's preferred ISP. All SegaNet accounts are to be converted to EarthLink accounts for a new rate of US$20 per month. The move is a humbling one for Sega, and is driven by significantly lower than expected subscriber numbers for SegaNet.
07/24/2001
Outrigger for Dreamcast is released in the U.S.
07/25/2001
Rumors begin to circulate that Sega of America is planning yet another drop in the price of the Dreamcast console.
As of this date, just over 200,000 Dreamcast consoles are left in Sega's worldwide inventory.
07/26/2001
Federated Investors names Sega as one of only three Japanese companies worth potential investment given the poor state of the Japanese economy. The company is cited as being in a strong position to pull a quick turnaround from loss to profitability. In comparison, Sony stock has dropped 50% of its value over the past year.
According to figures released by the NPD Group, the U.S. videogame industry has seen a "whopping 30% spike" increase in sales, in comparison to 2000's $0.4 million decline. Much of the $0.7 million boost over the 2000 figures at this time last year is largely credited to increasing sales of Sony's PS2 and the successful launch of Nintendo's GameBoy Advance. The amount of videogame hardware being sold at retail rose some 11%, confirming prior analysis that the sales slump of 2000 marked a transition period in the market as gamers switched over to nextgen consoles.
As of this date, the Sony PlayStation 2 holds a 14% market share with just over 15 million units sold, up from 10 million back in March.
Babbage's, the computer retail chain, announces that Sega intends a second price drop sometime "around Christmas," reducing the price of the system still further from US$80 to a mere US$50. Some 83,500 Dreamcast sold this month, an 83% increase in sales compared to July 2000, largely due to the recent price drop. It is believed by most industry analysts that the US$50 price drop will be a last-ditch move by Sega to clear its warehouses of everything Dreamcast by the end of the year.
Quoteable quotes, Anton Bruehl, International Development Group: "Dreamcast was an excellent but ill-fated gaming console."
07/27/2001
Soldier of Fortune for Dreamcast is released in the U.S.
07/30/2001
Sega's Peter Moore declines to deny rumors that Sonic might put in a guest appearance alongside franchise Nintendo characters in Super Smash Brothers Melee for GameCube.
07/31/2001
Floigan Brothers for Dreamcast is released in the U.S.
08/01/2001
Quotable quotes, Sega of America's Peter Moore:
Nintendo gets that young demographic that Peter Main [Nintendo of America's Marketing Director] has talked about for a decade. He'll tell you that there are four million five year olds every year and they continue to have Miyamoto churn out just kick-ass content for that system ....
Who's going to bet against PlayStation 2?
08/02/2001
CSK, Sega's parent company, announces plans to reorganize itself at the end of its current financial year, 03/31/2002. This announcement immediately provokes rumors that CSK will sell off Sega at that time and that Microsoft is waiting in the wings to buy it, eager to secure the rights to Sega's titles and programmers for its own videogame efforts. Both CSK and Microsoft deny the rumors.
New Millennium Entertainment, a new gaming ISP put togeter by former SegaNet executives Brad Huang and Lynn MacConnell, goes online. Not surprisingly, the new venture offers full Dreamcast support in addition to software for other gaming systems and personal computers.
08/03/2001
Sega recalls some US$450 million in interest-paying bonds and exchanges it for company stock. It is believed that this new stock issue is of shares formerly owned by the late Sega CEO Isao Okawa which he donated back to] his company prior to his death in an effort to cover Sega's massive debts. The move effectively eliminates all interest payments on what remains of Sega's outstanding debts. (Ben Caton, SegaWeb)
08/06/2001
Sega's Phantasy Star Online wins Best Network Media award at the Sixth Annual Kobe Animation Festival in Japan
The marketing research firm DFC Intelligence predicts that Sony's PS2 will be the winner in the 128/256-bit nextgen console market by 2004, with Nintendo's GameCube a strong second and Microsoft's XBox a tenacious third.
08/07/2001
Sega of Japan sells the last 3 million PowerVR DC processors in its inventories to Sammy for use in its own electronics projects. This unexpected bit of news comes as something of a shock, as it indicates just how far behind Sega fell in meeting its own internal Dreamcast sales goals (i.e. having THAT much left over unused parts inventory).
Commandos 2 for Dreamcast is cancelled by Eidos
Word begins to spread that ToeJam and Earl for Dreamcast is being canned.
Alien Front Online for Dreamcast is released in the U.S.
08/08/2001
A new Ziff-Davis survey finds that 42% of U.S. gamers plan to buy a new or nextgen console before the end of 2001. Of those, 62% plan to buy a PS2, 33% a GameCube, and 32% a XBox. The discrepancy in percentages is due to the fact that many of those surveyed planned on buying more than one console.
08/09/2001
Acclaim announces that they will be porting Sega's Crazy Taxy to GameCube.
Sega of Japan sets a 12/09/2001 release date for Sakura Taisen GB2: Thunderbolt Operation for Nintendo's GameBoy Color. The announcement is well received by Japanese gamers, since Sega's Sakura Taisen franchise is one of its most popular (and profitable) on the market.
Razor Freestyle Scooter for Dreamcast is released in the U.S.
Japanese retailers begin taking preorders for Shenmue 2: Mainland China for Dreamcast.
08/10/2001
It is learned why Sega bailed on Dreamcast console production as fast as it did earlier in the year. Despite the late Isao Okawa's massive gift of financing, the company "was losing money so fast that had they continued to manufacture the system without any new funding ... it would have run out of cash in six short months. That would mean last month [July 2001 - ed.]." (SegaWeb)
Quoteable quotes, Ben Caton, SegaWeb:
Had the Dreamcast been more successful, Sega would either still be in the hole or have posted a modest profit, both of which would not have put them in a position to compete with the massive attention that the big three are currently receiving, nor would they be able to compete with the billions being spent on development and marketing. Switching gears then would mean losing a year of development time on the new systems, failing to capitalize on the launch attention, and falling behind competitively. It would have been a disaster for the company the likes of which even the Saturn could not compete with.
Numbers don't lie, so just how badly did Sega miss its Dreamcast sales goals? According to official Sega sources, it still had 2 million consoles in inventory and had plans to make at least 3 million more. 08/13/2001 - The last of Sega of America's "Sega Sports Pack" bundles is announced. Priced at a "modest" $100, it will include NBA 2K1, NFL 2K1, and WSB 2K1 as pack-in titles. The bundle is scheduled to go on sale 08/16/2001. The surprisingly low price is expect to help SoA clear its inventory of excess Dreamcast product.
