The FiringSquad guys have put together a pretty interesting article looking back at the old NVidia chipset codenamed NV2 which failed. There were pissing matches with Sega even back in the day! They have a history of NVidia while you're at it.

Despite Sega of America's and the AM2 representative's best efforts, NVIDIA remained adamant on using quadratic texture maps and refused to concentrate on triangle primitives. In the end, our sources tell us that NVIDIA may have eventually agreed to support better acceleration for triangles, but by then, Sega of Japan had already begun to distance itself from NVIDIA, and Sega's US team was quietly told "not to worry about the NVIDIA thing anymore"

There's a lenghty interview with Charles Bellfield of Sega America on Gameweek, in which VP of marketing and communications answers questions about the demise of the Dreamcast, the plans for Saturn games -> PSOne ports, support for Gamecube and the Playstation 2, and just a whole lot more. Good read.

Not so long ago the Sega folks released a broadband adapter (or so they say) for the Dreamcast system. Well EuroGamer takes a look at the whole broadband revolution and how its going to go down in the console market.

Something I've heard quite a bit from game developers is that the Playstation2 is just difficult as hell to develop for. It seems those were not isolated incidents either. According to this latest report there is an opinion among US developers that they got the shaft from Sony.

Part of the reason the Japanese electronics giant was able to break into a market dominated by Nintendo and Sega Corp., when it launched the hugely popular PlayStation in 1995, was because it lured third-party game developers to produce top games for an unproven platform.  Yet now that the PlayStation is the world's most popular console, some game developers say Sony has neglected them.

Sony's response?

[paraphrased: Playstation2 shipped with lots of games though!] ``It's clear that companies that have invested a lot of money in development understand that our business model is long term,'' Smith said.

A little while ago an EA rep was quoted as bashing Sega pretty harshly after Sega announced that they are entering into the Playstation2 games market. Here is what EA had to say originally:

"They're starting from scratch," said Riccitiello. "It's not quite as though this is GM saying we'll make BMWs, but it's the same kind of proposition. They may look like BMWs, but I doubt if they'll drive like BMWs."

Now Sega has a response, just because we love pissing matches. (Thanks Eric)

"Anybody remember Electronic Arts? Their staunch refusal to create anything at all for the DC has irked many and it seems the licence and sequel-obsessed publisher feels just a touch threatened by Sega's impending entry into direct competition with them.

Fight! fight! fight!. Hey if they try to show each other up by actually coming out with worthwhile games for Playstation2, sounds good to me.

GameCenter has an interview with Sega VP Charles Belfield, talking to him about the amount of pressings of games now that they will stop making the hardware, Virtua Fighter 4 (going Playstation 2), if retail chains will still sell the Dreamcast, if the Dreamcast will REALLY be the last hardware system and how are the Sega developers responding to working with the PlayStation 2.

Ooooh, pissing matches begin early! EA isnt all that happy about the Sega folks deciding to make software for other consoles. Specifically Playstation2. EA has some pretty choice words for Sega actualy, ouch. Thanks Eric

It's official now, Sega is indeed abandoning the Dreamcast in March, instead offering its technology to others and providing content for other systems, although Sega will continue to provide software for the console. However, while we were expecting just the announcements for Playstation 2, Gameboy Advance or Gamecube (and Xbox perhaps) titles, Sega announces Palm support as well saying they will develop game content for the Palm handhelds by the end of the year. These games can be played online, no other details were given. Here is a Reuters story on the announcement.

Looks like Sega will slash the Dreamcast console prices once again, this time to just $99. They are doing this to get rid of excess inventory. Sega had hoped to sell 7.5 million units in the US by March 31, however so far there have just 4.5 million units sold.

As was expected, Sega (or rather the company they will work with, Pace Micro Technology ) has announced a set-top box with Dreamcast technology. The box will also have a harddrive as it will be a VCR type thing too along with game support obviously, and will have broadband support. No other details are available.

Since a lot of people seem to have missed this mention from ER, Gamers.com is reporting that X-Box will be compatible with old Dreamcast games when it comes out. Microsoft and Sega of course deny it, which companies tend to do until its a done deal. Or its just false :)

Following up on the Sega stories from yesterday, Sega released a PR (Thanks Mick) which of course denied that they will be dropping the Dreamcast but confirm an anticipated "structural reformation". They also confirm that they are in negotiations with Sony and Nintendo for PS2 and Gameboy Advance titles.

UK trade website MCV is reporting that Sega will stop production of the Dreamcast consoles by the end of March already, due to continued heavy losses on the machine. Here's the word

A fourth straight year of losses, mainly caused by Dreamcast, have forced the company into a radical rethink of its strategy. The machine will continue to be marketed throughout 2001, halting sales once the inventory is exhausted.

Software will continue to be developed for the machine by Sega in the mean time.

The future for Sega lies as a software company on other formats and it already has five PlayStation 2 titles in the pipeline and two for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance machine, due out in March.

Even if Sega continues to develop software, I doubt many 3rd party developers will. Suckage. Thanks to KungFu who let me know about the story.
update: Sega of America issued the following press release regarding the news

Sega of America stated today that the company globally reaffirms its commitment to Dreamcast. In fact, Sega has more than 100 games worldwide coming out for the platform in the next year. It is not Sega's policy to comment on rumors and the company has not made any statement regarding ceasing manufacturing of Dreamcast or development for other videogame platforms

Just a little while back we heard news that Sega would be developing stuff for Nintendo, and of course those neeto PC Dreamcast cards. Well it doesnt stop there, according to a recent reuters story (Thanks Stpomed) Sega is planning to announce plans to develop for the Playstation2 now, and there is even mention of possible XBox work to boot.

Sega Corp up 10.65 percent at 1,184 yen after Jiji news agency reported the video game machine maker will unveil a reorganisation plan by the end of January that will include supplying software for rival Sony Corp's popular PlayStation 2. Shares in Sega are still down nearly 70 percent, however, from a year ago. [...] Sega, suffering from weak sales of its Dreamcast game console, will also consider supplying software to Microsoft Corp's new console system ``XBox'' scheduled to be launched this fall, the Jiji report said.

Back when this story first came out about a Dreamcast PCI card being released by Sega most people assumed it was probably fake. Well things are moving forward with the project and it looks to be on schedule for a summer release in Japan followed up in the US this fall. Speaking of Dreamcast, the broadband adapter is now available.

Nikkei reports that this card will make use of the Dreamcast on a chip design. It will be released to Japan in the Summer and will be followed in the Fall by an external device for notebook computers. While nothing seems to be set in stone as far as pricing is concerned, it's expected that both will cost around $100.

When its done! Ok here's a wrap-up one day late of all that stuff that happened over the holidays that many of you probably missed. If you were here during the holidays then this post isnt for you! Go away! Otherwise here is the rundown:

• Shack Year 2000 In Review is pretty much what you'd expect.
• Sega is hurting (and more here)and the latest rumors have them possibly selling to Nintendo, Microsoft, or EA
• We celebrated the new year in style!
• An interesting piece called The Jaded Gamer discussing game reviews on the web.
• eBay has some crazy lawsuit going that just has to make you wonder.
• The Shack Game Of The Year award was decided, Maarten will be giving lap dances to Valve.
• Online gaming continues to grow at a breakneck speed, cool huh?
• Oh yeah, and UT Bonus Pack4 was released just before Christmas

The New York Times (free registration required) is the latest with an article about Sega and the problems they are having. As hinted at before, it looks like the Dreamcast will really be Sega's last gaming console, with their focus shifting on content. Analysts expect the company to post a loss of more than $360 million this year, so the Dreamcast hardware and software sales are still too flat to make any kind of profit. Also, people close to the supposed Nintendo-Sega takeover negotiations say the two companies have been having talks despite both the companies denying. Nintendo is apparently interested because Microsoft is interested as well, and Nintendo really doesn't want MS to get their hands on Sega. The article also mentions Electronic Arts being interested, but since they don't even make games for the Dreamcast (they decided to focus on the PS2 instead) this seems less likely.

Although Dreamcast has recently been second in sales only to Sony's latest system, PlayStation 2, Sega faces new competition. Microsoft, which is planning to introduce its own system, Xbox, and a next-generation system from Nintendo, Gamecube, may pose too great a threat for Sega to continue in the hardware business and may be why it has been holding talks with its rivals.

update The Sega Japan site has posted a letter from Sega's Corporate Executive Vice President Shunichi Nakamura, responding to this article and the previous rumors, saying the NYT publishes "groundless statements" and "misinformation".

A day after the rumors of Nintendo buying Sega (and both companies denying), a a Nintendo spokesman has said Sega may provide games for the Game Boy Advance, the successor to the original Gameboy. This isn't very surprising as Sega had already said it was going to change it's business model, providing software for devices other than the Dreamcast (seen in this and this story).

Well check this out. Japanese video game systems company Nintendo is in talks to buy rival Sega for about $2 billion, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing executives close to the negotiations. The Sega chairman has reportedly been shopping Sega around for a sale and approached Microsoft about a purchase as well.

The talks had been going on for months and the terms of the deal were still being negotiated, the newspaper said. The paper said a Sega spokesman denied the speculation, calling the idea ''absolutely outrageous.''

In addition, the Nintendo president said there is 'no chance' of this happening and Sega denied it as well. which leaves it as a rumor for now of course. The same thing was said by 3dfx a few weeks before they sold to NVidia also though eh?

It's also interesting to note that Sega has recently been in some pretty bad finances and considering all kinds of alternatives to make income. From Dreamcast PC (..more) , to selling games for rival consoles to giving away Dreamcasts in hopes of more game sales.

Joystick101.org has an editorial about a "game crash" that could happen in 2002, when all the new consoles are out. Are we going to see too much quantity over quality, and can the console market really support 5 systems? According to the author, mainly the Xbox will cause people to be turned-off by videogames (comparing it with Atari in the early '80s) since there will be so many average, PC ported games he thinks.

With all these breeds of consoles, the crash won't be as simple as it was for the Atari Age. There will still be diehard Sega and Nintendo fans, mixed with dedicated Sony and Xbox supporters. And the technophiles who buy all the consoles just won't care. Here's where the system will fall. The developers are limited, and there's only so many systems each software company can develop for. This will put far too much stress on the public and we will face a crash. By segmenting the market 7 ways (if you count the PC), the talent is stretched paper thin. And, like a house of cards, without a solid base the game industry is at risk of coming down. Consoles might regress for a while and the PC is the main gaming platform once again (as it was back in the 80s). So watch carefully my friends, we could be in for a stormy ride. And when it's all over...who knows who'll be on top?

Thanks /..