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Games Entertainment

Sega To Form Joint Company With Nintendo? 124

Posted by timothy from the strange-beeping-bedfellows dept.
JayBonci writes: "Sega has had a lot of competition lately, and while the Dreamcast is very cool, it has had some hard times lately. IGN brings up this piece of news from out of the blue that Sega is mysteriously teaming up with Nintendo. Why would such long time rivals team up all of a sudden? The IGN article does not give much in the way of details, except to mention that Sega is going to fall short of its earnings. How would this change the gaming industry with two major players working together?"
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Sega To Form Joint Company With Nintendo? More

Sega To Form Joint Company With Nintendo?

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  • hate to point this out but aibos are sony products
  • Now that we are in the age of mergers, I think that this would be a wonderful time to get out the defibulators and jolt Atari back into existance. Sony would be the best canidate for this. In fact, the Playstation had a game that was ported from the Atari 7800: Ballblazer.

    If you don't know what ballblazer is, allow me to explain. The game had better graphics than most NES games. If you haven't played it, go download the ROM.

    I know I'm probably going to be moderated down for being offtopic, I just wanted to start an Atari revolution.

  • Can anyone see the day when we have one company to entertain us?

    We've already been there - in the dark ages, the only entertainment people had was church. We saw how well THAT worked.
  • ...GI Joe and Cobra would team up, eh? And we all know how those episodes ended...

    On the topic of Best Platform 2000, my vote is for the PS2. Why? Gran Trouserismo. I know of several people who will be buying the PS2 just to play GT!

    Jeff

  • Re:Arcades? (Score:3)

    by g_mcbay ( 201099 ) on Saturday October 28, 2000 @07:30PM (#667614)
    I think you have this backwards. Arcades are a dying business. Each year less and less money is brought in and more and more pure arcades go out of business. Why would Nintendo be rushing to get into this market? Console game sales are where the money is.

    This is more about Sega's admitting that it is much better at creating gaming software than it is at developing and properly support hardware... Expect to see more Sega games on future Nintendo systems, and perhaps on X-Box too.

  • thegeek.org [slashdot.org]has an article with a link that talks about how the PS2 may not be such a good deal. The PS2 has fewer games now, programing games to take advantage of the capabilities is difficult, the games currently available aren't much better than those from other console makers, also the PS2 does not come with a modem. The article rates the Dreamcast a better value. They actually compare the PS2 to the rather disappointing Saturn platform. But with Sony's PR machine in hyperdrive, who knows!?

  • Sonic the Hedgehog actually has a surprisingly strong fan following in the US. Archie Comics produces a Sonic the Hedgehog comicbook (which I liked a good deal but let my subscription run out) and some years ago DiC produced a Saturday morning cartoon (which was some of THE BEST animation and scripting I have EVER seen, even better than a lot of Disney flicks I've seen.)

    In a different light, fans of Sonic comics wish he would be a more developed character with more insight, weaknesses, and strengths, but Sega apparently wants to keep him cool and vague, and kill off the other characters.

    Fools. You cannot restrict art.

    On a completely off topic strange twisted note, I do indeed wonder what this will do to the Sega reps who tell Archie comics what they can and cannot do with their hero.

    I bet Nintendo's just as tough about character portrayal.

  • Mortal Kombat was done by Midway not Sega.
  • If you look at the article, you'll see Sega, Nintendo AND famed Japanese music producer Tetsuya Komuro making up the JOINT company.

    Sega DOES have a new console in development. While the Dreamcast has not been performing well in the Japan market neither has Sony. Sony has a terrible software ratio(1:1.8) which makes the $188 hit on each PS2 more difficult.And as you know, the $$$ come from software sales.

    Why is Sony losing on the PS2? Easy, the PS2 happens to be one of the cheap(est) DVD player on the market.

    The DC in North America (and Europe to an extent)is doing pretty good. There are no PS2 for sale making the DC the only console available for sales. And let me tell you, the managers of Electronic Boutiques and other retailers need to meet sale projections. They can't rely on Sony with no PS2s so the push goes to Sega. Just check your local retailer and see what's being pushed.

    Same thing occured when the "Big Thing" was the N64. It was sold out and retailers pushed the little known Playstation( which was at that point doing pretty good.)

    Anyway, it'll be tough to stop the DC when it has a strong established userbase, a superb software lineup, and a price point lower of the competitors.

    A final thing, if you visit a retailer, see the difference between the DC and a PS2. It's not that great. You may find the DC has better graphics for most titles and Dead or Alive 2, which is on both platforms, looks much better on the DC.

  • That URL is down. Anyone else got any mirrors, or anything else of his worth listening too?

    The small amount of jpop stuff on the Evangelion soundtracks I have brough has been good, so it would be nice to hear some 'real' stuff....

    Any links or suggestions?

  • Hmm, remember back in the good old days, when it was just sega and nintendo? You had your NES, SMS, Genesis, and SNES. You wouldn't be caught dead without one of these.

    Us kids would be lining up at the stores playing the latest games set up on demo. Sure, there were other systems around, TG16, Jaguar, 3D0, etc, but none of these were much of a threat.

    Now , out of nowhere, comes these two giant companies, Sony, and Microsoft, both of which are slowly consuming every market out there.

    Sega and Nintendo had their battles. Both lost and won a few. But here comes Sony and MS onto the battlefield that once belonged to Sega and Nintendo.

    Its only natural that they become allies, for they have one common cause... "These fuckers are invading our turf! Something must be done! Something MUST be done!

  • Excuse me, but the Xbox hasn't shown a damn thing yet.
  • Rare. Nintendo has Rare. Likewise Microsoft has their 20 or so internal develpoment teams.

  • Joint company? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Cool. I was high most of the time I played Sega and Nintendo in college anyway.

    :-)

  • "If you haven't heard Tetsuya Komuro's work..."

    ...then you are not a japanabee.

    He did the music for Speed 2! He is better than all the boy bands! Wow he must be absolutly godamned amazing! But then I am drunk. What do I know.

  • Specialized consoles WILL go away. Thats it.
    I would have to disagree. A lot of companies have tried to make monolithic do-everything machines and they have historically done extremely poorly with the specialized componentized systems selling much better. While it's true that consoles will probably evolve to do something more than just games, I have my doubts that any future console will replace DVD players or PCs.
  • The Dreamcast was Sega's last console; I believe they are going to concentrate on software from now on. And, as a software development house, they no longer compete directly with Nintendo.

    These days Nintendo is strong among younger kids with the Mario/Pokemon type stuff, whereas Sega commands a (somewhat) older audience because it has a more 'extreme', less family safe image (going all the way back to those "sega!" attitude commercials). Also, Sega has a lot of experience in simulator rides and location-based entertaiment, which is stuff that Nintendo is not strong in. So the companies seem to complement one another very nicely, actually, if you factor out the console war.

  • I find it kinda hard to belive. Anyway, a merge that big could take a while to complete.. in the mean time, PS2 shortages will give the dreamcast a good kick this holiday season. With that merge many things can happen. Lets not go that far as to think they will build a new console, or how are they going to compete with the XBox. We should worry about what they plan to do with our actual consoles. I own a dreamcast... bought it 5 months ago and really kicks ass... supposing the merger already took place,are they going to drop it in favor of the more advanced GameCube?.. sure they'll say "We will still support the Dreamcast", but being history an example, i certainly doubt it.
  • oops.. you're right, well, i sorta knew what i meant. :) thanks..
  • At the Playdium in Toronto (A Sega owned arcade) there are advertisements for the new Zelda games.. I thought that was rather odd.

  • Submitted this story [dailyradar.com] days ago. Was denied (no biggie, but there is some better, more accurate information here).
  • [Super Smash Bros. 2 [everything2.com]]? I see a box with Mario jumping in front of clouds.bmp, holding Pikachu (instead of a beet) by the tail. I also see licenses for some of Disney's, Capcom's, Sega's, and Hudson Soft's characters. (Read More... [everything2.com])
  • I'm not suprised. SEGA is losing money and their stock [stockmaster.com] is crashing. But they have some well-liked products. That makes them a good candidate for an acquisition.
  • At last I can play a game where Sonic can kick that infernal plumber.
    Or will Mario kick Sonic's butt, maybe we will finally know.
    --------

  • Since Dreamcast was based on WinCE

    The Sega Dreamcast console has several available operating systems. Wince is mostly used for PC ports; other games use a Sega OS.

  • An interesting tidbit here... The Dreamcast was supposed to be only WinCE powered, that would mean that every game was supposed to be written for DirectX. Luckily Sega (my employer) made the decision to come up with it's own (superior) OS.

    Let's just say that WinCE has it's limitations, and personally, I think that it blows chunks, but there are still some titles that manage to get good performance out of it. For the rest, I get phone calls and e-mails from the developers asking how they can improve performance and work around memory leaks and bugs. *sigh*

    -- Joe

  • As a musician, he sucks. He pretends to be the man to reinvent Japanese music, but it just sounds like disposable synth pop. As a producer, I can only say that he knows what Japanese teenagers like, since his stuff is immensely popular. IIRC, he is the best selling producer of pop music in Japan, which is the second-largest music market in the world.

    But just try listening to the music from his performers. Globe is marginally tolerable, Amuro Namie is okay when she doesn't pretend like she can speak English (or sing), Hitomi is talented (for a whiner...the prevalent type of female singing style in Japan), TRF has only a few cool party songs, and Kahala Tomomi is the worst excuse for a singer I've ever heard. But the Japanese eat it up, as do foreigners who like to pretend they're Japanese.

    IMO, there are only two TK songs worth listening to: Amuro Namie's "A Walk In The Park," and Shinohara Ryoko's "Itoshisato Setsunasato Kokorotsuyosato," which is the theme song to the original anime Street Fighter II Movie. The latter is quite a good dance song; it goes well with the final fight scene in the movie.

    < tofuhead >

  • Oh god no. I give it 5 years for Aol-Time Warner- Microsoft to buy them. Can anyone see the day when we have one company to entertain us?

    But think of the innovations in entertainment they could deliver without having to worry about those pesky competing entertainment companies!!

    They could also claim that the web browser was integrated into (and part of) their entertainment, and therefore not illegally distributed.


    I've grown sick of the world and its people's mindless games
  • dont get all excited, read the damn article. nintendo, sega, and EA are teaming up... but not to make a new console, instead to sue Yahoo, for hosting illegal auctions, and refusing to remove them after numerous requests, when they have the 'responsibility and capability'. just what id call the CGIAA, console game industry association of america. damnit, when are we going to see all of these organisations united, we're gonna need a SYAAA, sue your ass association of america. fuckin america, gotta love it.
  • Sonic Team [neoseeker.com] seems to be pretty cool. They released Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Chu Chu Rocket. Phantasy Star will be an online multiplayer RPG game for the Dreamcast (awesome), coming out the begining of next year.
    --
  • I wouldn't be so quick to call it vaporware. The threat of Sony taking over completely has sent real shockwaves through the console industry. If anyone is likely to start supporting multiple systems with in-house developed software, it's Sega...They already have a history of porting many of their arcade/console titles to the PC, so its not as much of a leap of the imagination as it would be to see Nintendo supporting other platforms. (no, licensing out Mario for edutainment games doesn't count).
  • Historically, there have really only been two console systems at a time. Nintendo and Sega had it for a while, then Sony entered the market, and Sega started getting rocked. They have no new system in development, and the upcoming systems from Nintendo, MS, and Sony are going to nail the coffin in the Dreamcast, which wasn't all that popular to begin with.

    When MS entered in, that made it even more unlikely that Sega was going to be able to stay floating. Nintendo pretty much got whupped by Sony in the last round because of cheaper, better games, and its looking like MS is buying enough to ensure that they aren't going to lose.

    Teaming up with Sega will give both companies an edge theat they are going to need to stand against MS.
  • I agree. Seeing M$ in the console market doesn't sound very cool to me, but having companies team up to destroy it does =)

    After all, they bought out my ex-favorite video game company, Bungie [bungie.com]. Those Bastards!!!!

    Of course, Bungie can't be much better for selling out to M$... How could anyone possibly be any more of a whore?

  • Well hmm... just was thinking and wondering who would have initialized this suggestion of a merger. Nintendo? nah... Sega? I'm sure... I admit, I may be wrong, but working at CompUSA and seeing that Sony is killing both of them (even before PS2), Sega is almost out of the running and Nintendo is lacking in anything playable (a direct customer quote.) This hardly makes me a professional but... I think they have to get together to keep up with Sony's six hundred meter screwing.
  • No, it's sega.

    Here's [altavista.com] an article explaining Sega's release of the Aibo.
    Sony makes car stereo equipment. Why would they be into robotics and stuff?
  • You are partially right..Namco would be 'king' of the arcades, but Sega would be 'queen'... I'd assume, but can't say for sure, that Konami with its recent music-game-hits would even be ahead of Atari who don't have much of a showing these days other than some gun games (Namco's Time Crisis series is much better!!!) and the Rush driving games.

  • Yeah Right... (Score:4)

    by ChaosEmerald ( 178369 ) on Saturday October 28, 2000 @07:39PM (#667646)

    I've heard numerous things about this, from Sega going out of buisness (most likely an exageration from Sega's loss) to Sega becoming an "Internet company" (actually true, the head of Sega of Japan is an idiot). What's most likely to happen? Sega will become a third party developer.

    The actual Sega compay is losing money from the Dreamcast, but with every software division being split into a seperate company, it's much easier to see if Sega is actually worthwhile as a hardware company.

    I personally think that if Sega can survive the Dreamcast, they will be worthwhile again as a hardware company; Sega's name will be cleared of the SegaCD/32x/Saturn era. However, if they can't survive, Smile Bit, Sonic Team, Hit Maker, and all the other renamed and now independant AM divisions will keep on making "Sega" titles as third party developers.

    Oh, and on a side note, I think X-Box is most likely to succeed next in the US.

  • Sorry, bad link.
    slashdot is adding spaces to the url for some reason. here is the real one.
    http://babel.altavista.com/translate.dyn?urltext =http%3A%2F%2Feurope.branchez-vous.com%2FE urope%2Factualite%2F00-01%2F04-135303.html&lp=fr_e n
  • Heh, no.. The first response was correct. Sega didn't create the robotic dog named Aibo.
  • This makes some sense, but it will be years before it will actually take place (if it ever does).

    Sega is known for quickly releasing new consoles that don't take advantage oft he latest and greatest in graphics/sound hardware, and making a ton of games. Nintendo is known for putting out good hardware, taking as much time as they want (eons), and releasing a few dozen games (each at near the price of the console itself).

    If the hardware engineers get together, maybe something great can happen and a happy medium is found in power/release date for the hardware. They'd probably keep the Sega game division intact since they make some good games. I'm just guessing, but Nintendo must have 1 game dev team for all the Mario stuff. Flame me if I'm wrong. Nintendo is also notorious for not signing enough 3rd party developers, due to technical hurdles for the hardware, or license restrictions.

    Anyways, these two companies are not going to grow. All their eggs are in one basket. Sony already has their hand in several other markets and they aren't going to go away if the Playstation fails (which it doesn't look like it will right now).

    Specialized consoles WILL go away. Thats it. Anybody remember the days of the original Pong home game. Nothing but a console with two knobs and a power button. Got replaced by cartridge systems. New technology replaces old. New technology often makes things easier to do, and brings in new competition when a company sees that it won't be as hard to re-use existing technology, that have to develop everything from scratch. Nobody needs $10000 3D graphics cards developed anymore, just run down to local computer store and pick up the top-of-the-line for $300. It's getting easier to put consoles together, and the specialized hardware, that Nintendo and Sega develop just isn't needed, as shown by the X-Box.

  • Oh my. (Score:1)

    by NickV ( 30252 )
    Oh my..
    Forty years of darkness! Rivers and seas boiling! The dead rising from the grave! Dogs and cats living together... Sega and Nintendo merging... mass hysteria

    Who would have ever thought that day would happen? It's like Oracle merging with MS!
  • The fact that you're comparing him to mainstream artists condemns him to my ears.
  • Last year the chairman of Sega, Isao Okawa, stated publicly that they were not planning to stay in the harware business [gamespot.com]. So they have been more-or-less openly using the Dreamcast as a cash cow to fund a move into software, and this latest comes as no great surprise. I don't like to think of any hardware as disposable, and the 1999 announcement definitely kept me away from their gear.
  • Despite Microsoft's continued insistence, it's a Windows PC in console packaging and as such is very easy to develop for, since so many people know DirectX.

    No, it's a console which runs an embedded-NT kernel and Direct X. It doesn't have a motherboard in the traditional PC sense, but rather a mainboard like a console, with both the CPU and GPU sharing the 6.4 GB/s bus to RAM in a UMA architecture. Yes, the CPU and GPU share the same basic internal core as a PIII and NV20, but they are custom chips, not off-the-shelf. Alright, it's closer to a PC than any other console, but it's not just a Windows PC with different form factor.

    And it's not just easier than PS2 for those who know Direct X already: to program the PS2 you need to essentially write balanced assembly code for 2 vector processors all while streaming textures into the tiny 4MB VRAM fast enough to keep up with the action. The libraries that ought to be around to help developers do basic tasks are apparently rather scarce. Meanwhile, Direct X, whatever one may think of it, is certainly a far superior solution, even for someone who has never used it before. That's why in addition to PC developers making the cross-over, there's a whole lot of console-only developers on that list.
  • How would this change the gaming industry with two major players working together?"

    The thing you're missing is that Sega is not a major player. They haven't been since the Genesis days. The Saturn was a complete flop. The Dreamcast is fairly nice system, but can't possibly compete with the PlayStation 2. In five years, Sony will still be a major player in the gaming industry, and if the XBox comes to fruition, Microsoft will be too. (Microsoft has the resources to be a major player in whatever they like.) Nintendo's future isn't quite as certain. The N64 was a great system, and complemented the PlayStation nicely with its different graphical style. But it's clear that they don't have the corporate and technical momentum they did in the past. A Sony-Nintendo merger could save the future of both companies, if they can release a system within the next two years comparable to the PSX2.

    Many of you who have posted so far seem incredulous about the possibilities of this happening, but if public response to this is good, I definitely think this could happen, and would be good for the gaming industry.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • Interesting comments.

    You may find the DC has better graphics for most titles and Dead or Alive 2, which is on both platforms, looks much better on the DC.

    It's not as direct a comparison, but Quake 3 on the DC looks better and runs smoother than Unreal Tournament for the PS2. And while this was true for Q3 and UT on the PC, it's fair to say that the DC Q3 comes closer to the original than UT on the PS2 does, an impressive statement considering Q3 only really pulled ahead on high-end PC's. The PS2 is clearly the more powerful machine as a simple sum-of-its-parts, but half the VRAM and much less ease-of-programming are apparently hurting it quite a bit.

    Sony has a terrible software ratio(1:1.8) which makes the $188 hit on each PS2 more difficult.And as you know, the $$$ come from software sales.

    Why is Sony losing on the PS2? Easy, the PS2 happens to be one of the cheap(est) DVD player on the market.

    Sony has apparently forgotten all the lessons they so ably taught Nintendo and Sega with the launch of the PS1. With the PS2, Sony has copied Nintendo's restrictive licensing, the Saturn's difficulty-of-programming, and both Nintendo and Sega's head-in-the-sand arrogance. Hell, they've even copied 3DO and the Phillips CDi with their hairbrained scheme to turn the PS2--which doesn't even ship with a modem--into the mythical set-top-entertainment-center-information-super-on- ramp of Convergence Past, Present and Future. Instead, as you insightfully point out, they may only succeed in losing a hell of a lot of money selling cheap DVD players to people with little intention of playing games. Sony is obviously betting that those people will justify the high purchase price to themselves as cheap-for-a-DVD-player, and then start buying games on the justification of well-I-already-own-the-console. Of course, in order for that to work, the games have to be fun, which they currently aren't. The question is how quickly they'll become so.

    This is going to be a damn interesting round of the video-game wars, perhaps the most interesting yet. Objectively, Sega ought to be in a fine position--decent DC sales, great price, PS2 shortages, online gaming outta the box, and a crop of games which matches the PS2 graphically and bests it in gameplay. But they're losing money, and most importantly, they've lost hype. Hardcore gamers love the DC--but they've already got one. For everyone else, the only thing that's gonna get them to buy a DC is that--as you suggest--they go to the store looking for a PS2 and find out there are none. I'm not so sure that this is the sort of thing you want to build a market strategy on.

    And then there's the XBox. So far, MS is playing the role of Sony in the last round--listen to developers, make the machine easy to program, snap up as many big-name titles as you can. Of course the big difference is in timing--the PS1 came out second, but only because Sega rushed the Saturn launch, with disasterous results. The XBox is coming late, which is held out by some as the fatal mistake of the N64. But with the lateness should be a corresponding technical superiority, something N64 didn't have. Plus it'll have a ton of top-tier 3rd party games, another fatal weakness of the N64.

    It used to be everyone ridiculed the XBox as misguided, bloated, underpowered vaporware. Nowadays the only place you run into those opinions is slashdot, and less and less even here. Time and Newsweek are still sold on the PS2 hype, but developers appear to have moved on, and regularly gush about the XBox. I'm sure we all hope the latter group is more important in the long run.

    And then, of course, there's the GameCube. Well, it's nice, and it comes in cute colors. To me it just screams XBox-lite--more powerful and easier than the PS2, but not as powerful or easy as XBox. eDRAM is some pretty hot technology, but still expensive and difficult to fab. Frankly, I don't trust it in the hands of ArtX [arstechnica.com] any more than I would the Bitboys (Oy!). And I just don't think the rest of the system is going to be up to snuff, especially by the time it launches.

    What Nintendo has going for it is some hot properties--Mario, Zelda, Metroid, DK, Pokemon. But while some great games have been made out of these, they're in a shrinking niche of the gaming industry, as the power of technology is allowing video games to become much more complex and appeal to an audience far beyond 9-14 year old boys. Meanwhile, MS seems to have miraculously gotten a share of or stolen outright all the great games which were once reasons to look forward to a PS2--Halo, MGS2, Oddworld, Crash, etc. I've heard EA is about to be signed, if they're not already. About all Sony has left is Square, and we'll see for how long.

    So if I had to guess, I'd go with the XBox as the victor, the DC as becoming a small but solid success for a Sega desperately in need of that, the NGC as being the same for a Nintendo with rather greater aspirations for it, and the PS2 as garnering significant marketshare but without earning Sony either the profits or the influence it has apparently decided are inevitable.

    But we'll have to see.
  • Imagine Sonic and Mario games on the same console? It's impossible not to buy it if you are a videogame fan. It's a big thing for Nintendo either, as they don't have many good games avaiable for their systems. Mario getting rings? Sonic getting coins? Can't wait to see.
  • Just to let you know, Panasonic and Nintendo have a deal to release a version of NGC that has a DVD player. The only reason it won't be available on all NGC's is to keep the cost down for people that don't want a DVD player. NGC will start out at a price possibly as low as $150, which is unheard of nowadays as a launch price.
  • I least we'll beable to play mario/sonic without buying seperate platforms.
  • Bah Humbug

    The next big thing is gonna be the ZX Spectrum console its gonna be huge (and its only £9.99 in the UK, including 2000 games!!!)

    See this article [theregister.co.uk] in the register [theregister.co.uk] or this advertisement [games-console.com] for the console (sold as the MegaJoy 2000
  • I heard several months ago that Sega was to start producing software for other consoles, including Nintendo. I think this is a wise business move on their part. Sega and Nintendo both come to mind when I think of excellent game producers, but the fact that they also have to produce hardware to play the games on is a severe hinderance in my opinion.

    I personally think Dreamcast is an excellent console, and Nintendo's Gamecube [ign.com] is the only console I plan to purchase from this round of consoles, but my purchasing decision is only based upon the game choices Nintendo will present me with. If Sega and Nintendo were to give console options for their games, instead of providing only for their own hardware, their software sales would skyrocket, but their hardware sales might plummet. It's kind of a catch-22.

    If Sega and Nintendo want to join up, I say more power to them. It gives me more gaming options for the future.

    -agent oranje
  • That story's about a different press release (not necessarily unrelated, but different) that happened a few weeks (months?) ago, as far as I know.

  • According to this report dated january 1999 [ign.com] anyway. It's not unusual for corporate policy to change when the people at the top change, and he has been there since 1949.

  • Most unlikely. Sega would be further ahead making games for all of the systems out there to maximize their potential for earning money (which is the other rumor that is going around). Hell, I would love to play Virtua Fighter 3tb on my PS2.
  • Why is Sony losing on the PS2? Easy, the PS2 happens to be one of the cheap(est) DVD player on the market.
    I've wondered if this might be a problem for them, but a couple of things don't add up for me here

    1. Isn't it a little early to say that Sony is losing money on the PS2? Do any consoles make money immediately after their release?
    2. Aren't PS2s around $300? That doesn't make them anywhere near cheap for a DVD player. Brand name players (even Sony) are around $200. No-names are as low as $99.
  • ...affect the release of the GameCube?

  • actually they've since said they're working on a sequel to the dreamcast.
  • Sega has announced that it will be making sonic(ie) games for nintendo for quite a while.
  • The story is the result of gross mistranslation.

    The original Asahi Shimbun article [asahi.com] mentions that Sega is hiring a guy named Tetsu Kayama as a consultant for their network operations, then goes on to list his previous accomplishments, including creating joint-managed companies with Nintendo and Komuro. This got interpreted as the things that Kayama is going to do for Sega, somehow.

    VIdeo-Senki [video-senki.com]

  • Then I encourage you to do so [stg.net]. He's having the sort of impact on the modern music scene that others could only dream about, and his influence will remain long after the Backstreet Boys and boybands have been forgotten.
  • Oh god no. I give it 5 years for Aol-Time Warner- Microsoft to buy them. Can anyone see the day when we have one company to entertain us?

    ________

  • A) That better be a Dreamcube 256
    B) God can you imagine those 2 trying to come up with a name for a merged company?

    On a more serious note, it's just a JV, not a merger. I always thought that if S & N could ever get over their mutual hatred of each other, they'd make an AWESOME merger.
    God, the games they'd produce!
  • To compete with the big bad giant, perhaps creating your own giant is a good pre-emptive move. After hearing how much $ M$ will be putting into XBox, I imagine these two would have a lot to gain (such as survival).
  • I'm sorry I didn't spell it out for you. The XBox specs state that it's made of mostly common components that a PC has, with the exception of the "special" video card. That's my point.
  • I can't help but wonder if this move won't mark Nintendo's possible entry into the world of modern arcade gaming. A quick visit to any large arcade will show that Sega is clearly king of the ring there. It would be interesting if Miyamoto or someone equivalent at Nintendo started focusing their energy on arcade games.
  • another huge corporate monopoly. That seems to be the trend these days. Large Company A merging with Large Company B, creating a massive corporate organization and its inevitable result on end users and government. It's all about the bottom line nowadays.

    =================================
  • This is one of best, most subtle, troll threads I've seen in a while.

    I wonder how many more responses you can get...Next, I suppose you have to suggest that Atari created the Aibo but sold the rights to Hasbro.

  • Re:Sega + Nintendo = .... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sega + Nintendo = Sintendo or Niga Both of which I'm sure could be considered far too controversial to catch on, hence this will never, ever happen.
  • Pretty much all of the home publishing rights to these old Atari games belong to Hasbro now, so they'd have to be involved.
  • > I have to say that as a sega employee this
    > really wouldnt surprise me... their 1st aprty
    > games and our network and we'll beat every other
    > company out there...it is definitly a huge
    > advantage.

    I wonder how the higher-ups in each company feel about this. Are they all for it, or do they see it as a necessary evil?

    A few years ago, when a Nintendo-Sega merger was a ridiculous idea, that very thing became a topic of discussion among my friends. I had this mental picture of the big announcement in Electronic Gaming Monthly. The cover art would feature Luigi and Tails all smiles and shaking hands, while Mario and Sonic stood off to the sides, with backs turned and arms crossed...

    --LordEq
  • Now the X-box is a different story. That should be a great system too, the only doubt in my mind about that is whether developers will test out a new gaming company or stick with proven ones.

    Actually, lots [xbox.com] of developers have signed up to develop for XBox. Despite Microsoft's continued insistence, it's a Windows PC in console packaging and as such is very easy to develop for, since so many people know DirectX.

  • Nintendo is lacking in anything playable (a direct customer quote.)

    What kind of retarded customers do you get in CompUSA?

    Nintendo games (first party and the stuff they do with Rare) are among the most playable of all games for any system. Look at Mario64, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Mask of Majora, Excitebike 64....

    Of course, that doesn't really guarantee continued system and game sales...But its one of the first times I've seen someone suggest Nintendo games are not playable.

  • It wouldn't.
  • creating your own giant is a good pre-emptive move

    Hey, If it works for Voltron and Neon Genesis Evangelion... :)

  • Re:No way, man! (Score:3)

    by The_Messenger ( 110966 ) on Saturday October 28, 2000 @09:56PM (#667684) Homepage Journal
    Are you posting from a dentist's office? See if you can find the Rolling Stone with Cobain on the cover.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • I'd like to see the gamecube succeed just because of Ninetendo's games. Of all the computer games I've played, I've liked Nintendo's games best. As does my wife. It's nice to have games we both like (my wife has started to see the humor in gibs, though ;-).

    Adding Sega's games to the mix would be nice. Again, Sega's games are 'more fun' for my wife and me than those that appear on PCs and the Sony boxes.

    -Paul Komarek
  • I assume you mean Gran Turismo 2. That game is going to kick ass, my friend. I sucked ass at the original, but had fun playing it anyway, because of its super-mega-excellent graphics, kick-ass customization, tons-o-cars, et cetera. If GT2 is even better, then... wow.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • When I was in Japan a year ago, I must say Sega was the absolute King and Queen of the arcades. They have their own Arcade chain called Sega World, and they are more common than McDonalds here in the States. In their version of a mall, they sometimes have three or four different arcades in different parts of the mall, and they are always packed. Games like Crazy Taxi had massive lines formed behind them. (I loved the game so much, I purchased a Dreamcast when I got home just so I could play it.) If you have been to any major arcades in the States, like Gameworks, Sega is still the obvious victor. Sega is almost exclusively multiplayer gaming, and those games are what kicks arse. Those are the games you see lines forming to play, not watch. Konami's Dance Dance Revolution games' crowds are formed by viewers, not players. The crowd is their to see someone, usually Asian, bust a move, not to embarass themselves. Like the Sega employee's post above mentioned, Nintendo's in house games are the best. Look at their 1 million+ copies sold list. Very few people can say they didn't love Mario 64 and spent hours trying to find the nonexistant Luigi, or smiled when they found Yoshi at the top of the Castle. Who didn't rush to the store to buy The Ocarina of Time? Or what about getting all nostalgic while racing on the LONG Rainbow Road course in Mario Kart 64 from viewing the neon character signs in the distance, or from hearing the stock "Good Luck" voice sample in StarFox 64? Though these companies were rivals in the eighties, both have *evolved* in very different areas, to the point where a merger would be excellent for the consumer. My God, the games these two companies could produce together as a team, along with the musical talent of Tetsuya Komuro, would be worthy of drool that would otherwise go towards Natalie Portman. Now, a little off topic, I do not understand why any ./er would buy a PSX2, or PSX anything, and still be capable of living with themselves. If you ask me, Sony is a much larger monopoly and more consumer damaging company than M$ could ever hope to be. They make money off of alot of the movies we watch, the movie houses we go to, the tv shows we watch, and the tv shows we watch them on. Every monitor that was attached to the macs we used in highschool were Trinitrons. Nearly every one's VCR, home stereo, personal CD player, personal cassette player, headphones, DVD player, and Surround Sound decoder sports the Sony logo. How can people who do everything they can to keep Microsoft out of their computers, and are disgusted when they see MSNBC logos be so willing to accept with open arms and embrace products and content from Sony?

    ==================
    Hippie Logger Jock
    ==================
  • Sega crossing over to other systems has been happening for some time now [segasoft.com].

    Yes, I know it looks like an 1337 hax0r's site, but it's the real deal. Most of their stuff hae been ports of Virtua Cop and Genesis Sonic games to the PC.

  • Gran Turismo 2 came out for the Playstation 1 sometime around last Christmas. He's refering to Gran Turismo 3(Which up until last week was called Gran Turismo 2000).

  • it was backwards compatible with PS1 games

    I just want to know what the appeal is in backwards compatibility in a CONSOLE. Quite honestly, it means shit. The PS1 will not be developed for in 12 months, and then who will even want the old software anymore? Only people that have a PS1 already.

    The Genesis/Mega Drive and the GameGear both had an add-on to make them backwards compatible with the Master System - it was hardly a huge selling point for them.

    The ability to play obsolete games on a home console just isn't a selling point. People that have games for the old console should just use it to play them, and people without games for the old console OR the old console should buy games for the new one - simple.

    And don't even get me started about the PS2's incompatibilites with some PS2 games.... poor programming of games on Sony and their 3rd parties behalf have made things a nightmare for Sony.

    The only company that has done cosole backwards compatibility right was Nintendo, with the Game Boy to Game Boy Color (the GB Pocket was hardly new hardware), and soon to be the step from the Game Boy Color to the Game Boy Advance. Why has it worked for them? Because the GBC is pretty much a beefed up version of the original Game Boy chipset, and the Game Boy Advance includes the majority of the GBC's chipset on it alongside its new stuff.

    Backwards compatibility is not important on a home console. In PCs yes, in handhelds maybe, but the home should buy new games for new generations. Home consoles don't need Windows/MacOS like problems trying to keep compatible with 15 years worth of crap.

  • I'm thinking Super Smash Brothers with Sonic & crew... now that'd be fun!
  • I don't think turning consoles into mini-PCs is what most console gamers want. The whole beauty of the console is a fixed hardware setup. This lets you buy a game, pop in it the tray, and be ready to play in appromixately 3 seconds.

    For my PC, it's great I can expand it as new hardware becomes available. It's good that I can install any kind of software I want. But for my PS2/XBox/DC/NGC I don't want to mess with that. I love my console because it functions like a toy, or even a DVD player -- it always works for any title.

    The last thing I want to invade my console is patches *cough* Diablo II *cough*, illegal operations, or not enough RAM on my video card.
  • Umm... Spyro the Dragon is a Sony PlayStation beastie. 'tis my younger sister's favourite PSX game series...
  • Besides Rare, Nintendo also has Retro Studios, Left Field, and the recently acquired Silicon Knights.
  • Really?! Wow, I am out of it. Thanks for the info.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • Re:Yeah Right... (Score:3)

    by Wellspring ( 111524 ) on Sunday October 29, 2000 @02:27AM (#667696)
    I personally think that if Sega can survive the Dreamcast, they will be worthwhile again as a hardware company; Sega's name will be cleared of the SegaCD/32x/Saturn era. However, if they can't survive, Smile Bit, Sonic Team, Hit Maker, and all the other renamed and now independant AM divisions will keep on making "Sega" titles as third party developers.

    It isn't just a question of 'clearing their name'. They'd have to throw out their name and start over. The Dreamcast is sweet-- hell, the Saturn was pretty sweet, too (though tough to code for). But what this boils down to is corporate incompetence. They don't treat their developers well, they don't have a clear product strategy (ie they don't treat their customers well), and they are in a competitive market with companies who don't suffer any of these faults.

    I used to sell these things retail, and I can't tell you how thoroughly burned the customers feel (the hard core games playing group-- ones who buy a game twice a week).

    It isn't their technology people. It is just bad business sense, and I suspect that the next recession will finish the product line off.

    Until then, I can only hope that they release a dedicated Soul Calibur appliance. ;)

  • Why? They have NO advantage in playing their PS1 games in their PS2 - in fact, there is a chance the PS2 won't be able to play all their games and they'd have to hand on to the PS1 anyway.

    They already have the ability to play a PS1 game, the PS2 offering it won't seriously affect them.

    Scenario 1:

    Joe walks into his local game store. There, sitting in all their glory, are a PS2 and a Gamecube.

    Joe owns a PS1.
    Joe wants a next-next-gen console.

    Putting aside the DVD/Cost/Power/Software factors (basically, everything else), why would buying a PS2 be more appealing just to Joe because of PS1 compatibility then buy a Cube? He already owns a PS1, and he's checked, all his PS1 games work on the PS2. PS1 games on PS2 would be a fancy trick, but he already has the ability to play his PS1 games.

    Joe is back to choosing the better console though more 'traditional' methods.

    Scenario 2:

    Joe walks into his local game store. There, sitting in all their glory, are a PS2 and a Gamecube.

    Joe owns a PS1.
    Joe wants a next-next-gen console.

    Putting aside the DVD/Cost/Power/Software factors (basically, everything else), why would buying a PS2 be more appealing just to Joe because of PS1 compatibility then buy a Cube? He already owns a PS1, and he's checked, but some of his PS1 games won't work on the PS2. Joe has no choice, he has to keep his PS1 to play all his classic games.

    Joe is back to choosing the better console though more 'traditional' methods.

    Basically, the way I see it, either way, backwards compatibility is either is a useless tool, or doesn't work.

    If Sony has actually done something useful with it, and improved on the PS1 games with the PS2 hardware (as Bleemcast does to PS1 games on a Dreamcast), then it would enhance the original games, and be a selling point. As it stands, the PS2's backwards compatibility is a gamble to the comsumer - hopefully your software will work.

    I put this to you - how often do you use your PS1 to listen to Audio CDs? Probably rarly, if ever. That was the PS1's 'version' of backwards compatibility. The PS2 'version' is being able to play PS1 CDs.

    I doubt you will use the PS2's 'version' much either...

  • I should have stated "gaming consoles will go away", that's what I really meant.

    But what do you think of Sega and Nintendo's future market for their products? They don't have anything but the gaming consoles. Although I can't explain the success of the gameboy, I just can't see them staying alive by themselves by just making game boxes.
  • Since Dreamcast was based on WinCE, its performance and profitability (after licensing MS software) were probably erroded from the inside. Now with MS advancing their own X-Box, it's time to cut bait with Microsoft and find a more trustworthy partner, their rivals at Nintendo.

    With Sony making the real advances and Microsoft shifting the spotlight to themselves, Sega's had to do something!

    "Why are these Dreamcast and X-Boxes freezing up?" Shhh... They're Thinking! ;-)

  • Let me point out several things:

    I don't write comments for my /. karma level. It doesn't make me any money and I really don't care about it.

    Sega has never been technically superior to Nintendo. Remember, Genesis was limited to 64 colors, and didn't have the psuedo-3d mode 7 that SNES has.

    I don't remember stating any facts about the number of games for PS. Its obvious to everyone in the world that the PS has more games than all other systems combined.

    You are right about the number of games for Nintendo systems being more than Sega. I got that backwards. That Saturn system completely slipped from my memory.

    You lacked to comment on the 3rd paragraph I wrote. That was the one that was directly related to the article. What I stated, was that Sega already has the in-house dev team to produce the games and would match up nicely with Nintendo's superior hardware. Everything else I stated was pretty much my own opinion of what things are like. I didn't state I was an expert or a follower of the industry.

    Get a life. If my comments infuriate you this much, then you should check yourself into a mental clinic because you'll probably go postal if you ever turn on the news and find out all the "real" stuff thats happening in the world. Sorry, the world doesn't revolve around video games.

    I could be stupid though, I just wrote all this in a reply to somebody that only posted their message as anonymous.
  • ...I thought it was a hoax.
  • The Genesis/Megadrive better than the SNES.
    I would have to disagree with that. Although the Genesis technically had a faster CPU in it, the graphical and sound capabilities were vastly inferrior. Except for this and their marketing lingo "Blast Processing", which they admitted later had no real meaning, the SNES outdid them in nearly every way.

    Graphics: Not only did the SNES have 256-colours as opposed to the Genesis's 64, but the graphics processor included a wonderful feature called H-DMA, that let you program memory/graphic register changed triggered by the scanline approaching a certain H/V position. Mode 7 got all the press, but H-DMA did all the work. Using H-DMA, they were able to change "Mode 7", which was just simple scaling and rotation, into something that looked three dimentional by varying the scaling each and every scanline. It also allowed them to easily change portions of the colour palette between scanlines, creating OVER 256 colours on screen at once.

    Sound: For sound effects, the genesis used a yamaha chip that wasn't capable of much more than FM music and sounds. The SNES, on the other hand, used a chip designed by Sony that produced digital sound based on a wavetable that was uploaded by the host program (game). The chip was entirely self-contained and could be programmed in such a way that it could continue playing sound with no intrevention from the CPU, with events sent to it periodically through the four I/O ports accessable from the main SNES 65816 CPU.

    These two differences in the SNES alone meant that the CPU had to do very little work to maintain the game, whereas the Genesis, with it's less powerful video/sound subsystem, had to spend more of it's cycles on maintaining them to maintain a similar output, and in some cases, it wasn't even possible.

  • This story comes up every few years... and it's not happened yet. Don't hold your breath. Sega is bucking to become the Atari of the late ninties/early zeros, and it's not because their hardware is bad -- it's because their software consistently doesn't keep up with that hardware, combined with a crappy and inconsistent marketing scheme. They should have quit while they were ahead with Genesis.
  • I disagree. Actually, I think the GameCube has great potential. If it came out now, it would greatly outsell ps2. The specs are better, and the internal makeup of the NGC is much neater (so I hear) than that of PS2, making it much easier to develop for. Not to mention the online gaming capabilities. Dreamcast didn't get off to a good start, which ruined sales despite the fact that it is a good system. It would be a good merger if Sega and Nintendo joined up. The quality of the games would be better than PS2. The only advantages that I think the PS2 has are the release date and the backwards compatibility with PSX (NGC could possibly have backwards compatible controllers, but not games).

    Now the X-box is a different story. That should be a great system too, the only doubt in my mind about that is whether developers will test out a new gaming company or stick with proven ones. Of course, Bill Gates' money could help things, but the consumers would face the same problem. I guess we'll just have to see how things shake out.

  • Re:Not true (Score:3)

    by nd ( 20186 ) <nacase AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday October 28, 2000 @07:56PM (#667710) Homepage
    This is simply not true. Nothing official of this sort was confirmed, though there were rumors that the Sonic team may develop for the Gamecube (some truth to that I'm sure).

  • Nintendo (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have to say that as a sega employee this really wouldnt surprise me, just the frintic pace of everything around here lately. Half of us aren't sure what our jobs are, and they seem to not want to tell us til whatever is going on is over with. all in all a joint venture with Nintendo seems a damn good idea. their 1st aprty games and our network and we'll beat every other company out there, especially considering that we already have narrowband net gaming down, not everyone will have broad band even by the time xbox and NGC come out, so it is definitly a huge advantage.
  • Not the launch date, but the success of the system out of the starting gates.

    If Sega comes on board with Nintendo as a 3rd party developer, it could give a larger release library of games, some of them being ports of some of Sega's well known and popular arcade games.

    Notice how one of the biggest complaints about the PS2 so far has been the lack of games? Sure, it's got all of the PSX games, but most people who rushed out to buy a PS2 already have a PSX.

    Dark Nexus
  • Oh god no. I give it 5 years for Aol-Time Warner- Microsoft to buy them. Can anyone see the day when we have one company to entertain us?

    No, according to my Acme Crystal Ball, it's worse. Everything has a Loony-Tunes theme, with product placements for Coke or Pepsi along with 'guest appearances' from stars of the latest movie. All of this is dynamically changed depending on what company pays the most to get prime placement.

    All the games look like they were designed by the Olsen twins (still no brests) but play like Quake. The advanced MS 'game wizard' feature prevents anyone from making mistakes, asking at each turn if you 'Really want to Frag Chairman Eisner?'.

  • Compared to Sony, Microsoft's licensing of the X-Box system is likely to be much more open and flexible than that for the PS/2. This may put game and software developers with Open Source/Free Software sympathies in the ironic position of preferring to work with the X-Box.

    Sega and Nintendo may also be amenable to changing their stances to something that's somewhat more free, although I wouldn't hold my breath.

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