Sega: life of the third party
By John Gaudiosi -- Video Business, 5/17/2001
MAY 17 | A year after Sega of America president and COO Peter Moore talked at E3 about Sega Dreamcast's bright future and leadership in online gaming, Moore took the stage at Microsoft's Xbox news conference and professed Sega's support for "adversary-turned-friend Microsoft" and its online gaming system.
"We'll take all that we learned about online gaming to Xbox," said Moore, who wore an orange tie in honor of the now-defunct Dreamcast system. "We either use the Internet or the Internet will use us. In the long run, we at Sega believe that Microsoft will be able to make online console gaming a success."
Sega will bring its online sports games like NFL 2K3, NBA 2K3, NCAA Football 2K3 and World Series Baseball 2K3 to Xbox for the summer 2002 online gaming launch. As part of its commitment to premiere 11 games on Xbox, Sega's Crazy Taxi Next and House of the Dead 3 will be Xbox launch titles. Additional 2001 Xbox releases include Jet Set Radio Future, Sega GT 2002, Panzer Dragoon, GUNVALKYRIE, Sega Sports NFL 2K2 and Sega Sports NBA 2K2.
"We'll bring the right content to the right platform," said Charles Bellfield, VP of corporate and marketing communications for Sega of America. "Sega's philosophy is to look at the installed base and see how titles skew to different demographics. We'll take advantage of a platform's strengths, like Xbox and Jet Set Radio Future. Since Nintendo skews younger, we'll bring Sonic to Game Boy Advance and Super Monkey Ball to GameCube. PlayStation 2 has an excellent customer base for Virtua Fighter 4."
In another contrast to last year, Sega unveiled its lineup of third-party games at E3 in a downsized booth. Going head-to-head with Electronic Arts, Sega will bring its strong sports franchises to all game platforms with its "all sports, all platforms" strategy.
Sega's NFL 2K2, NBA 2K2, Space Channel 5 and Virtua Fighter 4 are all heading to PlayStation 2. The 2K3 sports game for PS2 are expected to include online gameplay.
Sega will support GameCube with 10 initial titles, including some of its sports franchises, the role-playing game Final Fantasy Online Version 2, the arcade game Super Monkey Ball and the soccer game Virtua Striker 3 Version 2002. Sega will bring Sonic the Hedgehog Advance, Advanced Columns and Chu Chu Rocket to Game Boy Advance.
But most of the games on display were for its Dreamcast system.
"We're glad we're out of the manufacturing business and focusing on what we do best--games," said Bellfield, who said he is confident that the remaining 1 million Dreamcast machines will be sold within the next 12 months. "We'll continue to support Dreamcast as long as it's a viable business model."
In what is likely the system's last major E3 presence, Sega had more than 20 Dreamcast games on display at its booth, including new titles Propeller Arena, Shenmue II, Crazy Taxi 2, Sega Sports Tennis 2 (working title), Alien Front Online, Bass Fishing 2, Sonic Adventure 2, Phantasy Star Online Version 2, Bomberman, Sega Sports NCAA College Football, Floigan Brothers, Sega Sports World Series Baseball 2K2, Sega Sports NFL 2K2, Sega Sports NBA 2K2, Sega Sports NHL 2K2, Over the Top Soccer (working title), Ooga Booga, Confidential Mission, 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker and Outtrigger.
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