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"Winner Of The Second Annual Montgomery Burns Award For Outstanding
Achievement In The Field Of Excellence"
April 7, 2000
Hang on to your wigs and keys, because Sega has fired the biggest shot
yet in their battle against Sony. In August of this year, a Sega-owned
Internet Service Provider called SegaNet will be launched. Anyone who owns
a Dreamcast and commits to SegaNet for two years will get a $200 rebate
from Sega, regardless of when they bought their Dreamcast. Anyone who
signs up for SegaNet and doesn't own a Dreamcast will be sent one, free of
charge. Anyone who doesn't own a Dreamcast and doesn't sign up for SegaNet
will be shot on sight for their lack of cooperation.
SegaNet will be a full-fledged ISP that works on both Dreamcasts and PCs,
and it will supposedly offer much better gaming performance than any other
ISP. The price of SegaNet will be $22 per month for unlimited access,
which is pretty typical for ISPs. There will be no additional fees to play
any of the Dreamcast's online games, but there could be small fees required
to enter into the many gaming tournaments that will be taking place on
SegaNet.
You don't have to sign up for SegaNet to play any of the Dreamcast's
online games or surf the web using the Dreamcast. However, signing up for
SegaNet will give you an advantage over other players because it's so much
faster. SegaNet will initially be funded by $100 million, and it has a big
technology partner in GTE Corporation. GTE is also partnered with Yahoo,
BankOne, The Los Angeles Times, and Abdullah the Butcher's House of Ribs.
Given how the PlayStation 2 is so much more powerful than the Dreamcast,
Sega clearly needed something to shake things up and keep their competitive
edge, and they have done exactly that with the formation of SegaNet.
SegaNet will drastically increase the number of Dreamcast owners there are
in the US, and this is very important to the health of any console system.
More owners of a system equals more third-party developers, more third-
party developers equals more games, more games makes the system more
attractive to gamers and increases the number of owners, and the process
repeats itself, often resulting in a healthy, thriving system.
Ten to twelve online Dreamcast games will be playable over SegaNet by
the end of the year, including Quake 3: Arena, Black & White, NFL 2K1,
NBA 2K1, Ready 2 Rumble 2, and Phantasy Star Online. The development of
Phantasy Star Online is running behind schedule and it may or may not be
released this year, but the Dreamcast will have a hot selection of online
games this fall without or without Phantasy Star Online.
At a retail conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, SegaNet's technology was
displayed in a game of NFL 2K1 between Sega's Greg Thomas (who was in Las
Vegas) and former San Francisco 49er Marquez Pope (who was in San Rafael,
California). Using the Dreamcast's built-in 56K modem and SegaNet's
technology, Sega claims that Thomas and Pope played the game at 60 frames
per second with very little latency.
A new company called Sega.com is being set up to run SegaNet. This
company will have over 200 employees by the end of the year (separate from
Sega of America's employees), and it will be led by CEO Brad Huang. Huang
was the person who initially came up with the idea to offer free Dreamcasts
in exchange for SegaNet membership. Huang's business skills are a hell of
a lot better than his verbal skills, because he constantly stumbled over
his words and said awkward things during the Sega teleconference this week.
The other executives who participated in the conference had to constantly
cover up for Huang and explain things that he said. The conference was
scheduled to start at noon Eastern time, but it didn't actually start until
about 12:06 Eastern time. I want those six minutes of my life back,
dammit!
After the initial announcement during the teleconference, a 40-minute
Q&A session took place in which some new details were revealed.
-Some retailers will be participating in Sega's $200 rebate program, and
some won't. At retailers who are participating in the program, you'll be
able to get an instant rebate directly from the retailer. Otherwise, Sega
will send you a check in the mail.
-Some of the Dreamcast's online games (including Phantasy Star Online) will
let American gamers play with Japanese gamers, despite the Dreamcast's
drastically different network structures in the two countries.
-Sega is still planning to offer the Dreamcast's easy-to-install Ethernet
adapter this fall, which will let Dreamcast owners use their pre-existing
cable modem or DSL access to play the Dreamcast's online games. When asked
whether this would give an unfair advantage to cable modem and DSL users,
Sega replied that these users will be clearly marked in the games. In some
games, cable modem and DSL users might only be able to play against each
other, not 56K users.
-Sega is probably going to have a "preferred broadband ISP" at some point,
similar to their partnership with AT&T WorldNet last year. Sega is
considering a promotion wherein they would send you the Dreamcast's
Ethernet adapter at little or no cost if you commit to Sega's preferred
broadband ISP.
-Version 2.0 of the Dreamcast's web browser is still scheduled to be
released in May. Version 3.0 will be released alongside SegaNet in August.
Both new versions of the browser will support Flash, Java, MP3s, instant
messaging, and most of the other things that Version 1.0 should have but
didn't.
-In addition to the $200 rebate, anyone who commits to two years of SegaNet
will also get a free Dreamcast keyboard. With the free keyboard (as well
as the Dreamcast mouse due out later this year), there will no longer be a
legitimate argument that the Dreamcast versions of games like Quake 3 can't
compare to the PC versions because of inferior control. You'll be able to
play with the mouse and keyboard set-up that works so well with first-
person shooters.
-Coinciding with the launch of SegaNet will be a portable MP3 player for
the Dreamcast. This device fits into the controller like a VMU and is
capable of storing up to 128MB of MP3 files.
-While SegaNet will actually launch sometime in August, Sega's marketing
campaign will be at its strongest around September 7, the day of the MTV
Video Music Awards. Like they were last year, Sega will be the top sponsor
of the show.
For what it's worth, Sony has not flinched in the wake of this
announcement, at least not publicly. Then again, Sony has always talked
about Sega like it's a dog rather than a major competitor. Now all we need
is a press release from Sony with the headline, "Get down! Bad Sega! Bad!"
After spending some time with the PlayStation 2's Japanese launch lineup,
Nintendo's Ken Lobb said, "From what I have seen and played here today for
the PlayStation 2, we don't need to be in a hurry to release any details on
the Dolphin. We have lots of time." Like the X-Box, the Dolphin will
supposedly be more powerful than the PlayStation 2. But also like the
X-Box, it damn well better be because it will probably be released a full
year after the PS2. Nintendo promises that the Dolphin will have the
"largest and strongest library of hit games for any system introduction in
Nintendo history." That's quite a high standard to set for yourself,
Nintendo. After all, how can you possibly top the N64's Earth-shattering
two-game launch?
Like the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and X-Box, the Dolphin will offer
online gaming at some point (maybe at the system's launch, maybe sometime
thereafter). This hasn't been officially announced yet, but it's fairly
obvious. A Dolphin developer recently placed a help-wanted ad that
required applicants to have "knowledge of networking protocols and Internet
standards." Nintendo-owned Retro Studios recently hired former Id Software
employee Dave Kirsch, who has already gone on record saying that his
Dolphin development at Retro will focus on "network design and
implementation." In addition, Nintendo recently reserved the domain name
"nintendoonline.com"
In a move that is sure to spark a bidding war rivaled only by the fierce
battle over the rights to Winnie the Pooh for the Game Boy Color, Mattel
has put its video game division up for sale. After Mattel Interactive is
sold, it will no longer develop and publish video games based on Mattel
brands. Mattel games may or may not be licensed to a third-party company
for them to create. Wait a minute, you mean there might not any more Hot
Wheels or Barbie games? I can't go on!
Infogrames' name has been brought up as a potential buyer of Mattel
Interactive, but then again, Infogrames' name is always brought up whenever
a company is for sale. In their never-ending quest to buy their way into
EA's market-leadership position, Infogrames has reportedly bought a bum who
sleeps in the parking lot outside of their headquarters.
Electronics Boutique has announced plans to buy Funcoland for $110
million. If the deal were to go through, Funcoland stores would stay the
same rather than being converted into EBs, and the combined presence of EB
and Funco would be over 1,000 stores nationwide. EB's interest in buying
Funco arose from Funco's strength in the used-game market, which is sure to
grow this fall as many gamers exchange their old PlayStation games and
systems for PlayStation 2 games and systems.
The EB-Funco deal might not go through because Babbage's has offered to
buy Funco for $135 million ($25 million more than EB's offer). Regarding
the offer from Babbage's, EB's president and CEO Joseph Firestone said, "We
are proceeding as if nothing has happened." Firestone also said that if
push comes to shove, EB won't get into a bidding war with Babbage's. He
said, "We will not do anything that's going to dilute our proposed earnings
for this year."
The #1 video game retailer in terms of revenue is actually Wal-Mart,
with its biggest competitors being Toys R Us, Best Buy, and EB, and Funco.
A Babbage's spokesperson might have said, "We're not in the same league as
these stores because John from the Babbage's in the FSK Mall is still
telling customers that the PlayStation 2's graphics will never be able to
compare to the Dreamcast's. Where the hell did he get that idea?"
Blockbuster Video is expanding its test rentals of PC games into 14 more
US cities. Blockbuster's PC game rentals were previously limited to the
Seattle area, but they will now expand into Austin, Raleigh, Boston, San
Diego, Detroit, Salt Lake City, Cleveland, Sacramento, Hartford, Orlando,
Houston, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Jacksonville. Each participating
store will only carry about 20 PC games, with the newest ones being Rogue
Spear, Darkstone, and Slave Zero.
All of the games that are rented out are actually special versions of
each game that disable themselves after your rental period has expired.
In order to extend your rental period, you have to connect to Blockbuster's
web site and enter your credit card number (or buy "e-tickets" at
Blockbuster stores). The rentals cost $6 for the first five days and $4
for each additional five-day period.
One X-Box technical detail that I initially overlooked is its 64MB of
unified RAM. The standard RAM architecture for a video game system is to
have all the memory spread out over individual areas. For example, the
PlayStation 2 has 32MB of general RAM, 4MB of video RAM, and 2MB of sound
RAM. On the other hand, the X-Box's 64MB of RAM can be used for any
purpose a developer wants, making X-Box development an extremely flexible
process. In general, the X-Box is said to be much easier and cheaper to
develop for than the PlayStation 2. Almost every major third-party
publisher has pledged their support for the X-Box, including Electronic
Arts. The only notable exception is Square, who appears to be sticking to
PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games.
World Series Baseball 2K1 will be the only Sega Sports game released
this year that won't have online multi-player capabilities. Sega decided
to call their first World Series Baseball game for the Dreamcast "2K1"
instead of "2K" since it won't be released until July at the earliest and
fall at the latest. The sequels to NFL 2K, NBA 2K, and NHL 2K will all
have online multi-player modes, and they will all be developed by Visual
Concepts. Visual Concepts developed the original NFL 2K and NBA 2K, while
Black Box Games developed the original NHL 2K.
Origin has officially confirmed that famed game designer Richard Garriot has
left the company "to pursue other things," and 20 other Origin employees
have been laid off. Despite the departures, Ultima Online will continue to
be updated, and Ultima Online 2 will continue to be developed. However,
Wing Commander Online (which was never officially announced) has been
cancelled due to the cutbacks. An Origin spokesperson might have said,
"Rest assured that despite these departures, our next game will still be
released in an almost completely unplayable state, and even after you
download lots of patches, it will still be plagued by bugs and performance
problems."
A Paducah County judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed against several
video game companies by the parents of two slain children. Id Software's
CEO Todd Hollenshead recently said in his .plan file that the judge
"dismissed the case on all grounds, validating what we have said all
along-- the case lacked a shred of merit."
Eidos and 3dfx are running a joint contest whose grand prize winner will
get a Voodoo 5 graphics card delivered to them by a model portraying Lara
Croft. The contest was announced in a press release with lots of fluff-
filled quotes from Eidos' marketing director Scott Taylor (no relation to
the WWF's Scott "Scotty Too Hotty" Taylor). Five second-place winners of
the contest will get every game in the Tomb Raider series. Or they could
just send you one of them since they're all the same...
A British company called Fiendish Games is offering downloadable PC
games on their web site. You can download a demo of each game for free, or
the full version for $15. Fiendish says that their games are "of the
quality of epic games, but half the size and a quarter of the cost." First
of all, a quarter of the cost? When's the last time you saw a $60 game for
any system other than the N64? Also, judging by the quality of Fiendish's
first games, they must think that Rascal, Glover, and Spice World are "epic
games."
EA and Square are working together to create Triple Play Baseball 2002
for the PlayStation 2. The game was previously being developed by Kodiak
(makers of WCW Mayhem), but EA recently took the development rights away
from Kodiak. EA will apparently create Triple Play 2002 using the game
engine found in Square's baseball game for the Japanese PlayStation 2.
Triple Play 2002 will be released in the US in April 2001. This is good
news for any fan of baseball games, because the Triple Play series has been
in dire need of a new engine for years.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series, will be
inducted into the video game Hall of Fame at the Interactive Achievement
Awards this May. The third annual awards show will take place on May 11,
the first day of E3. The two previous Hall of Fame inductees were Shigeru
Miyamoto and Sid Meier.
Resident Evil Zero for the Nintendo 64 is officially scheduled to be
released in the US before the end of this year, but that release date looks
like it's going to change. The game is only about 20% complete, and it
currently has lots of slowdown and frame-rate problems. The biggest
problem of all that the game faces is the absence of Barry Burton.
Messiah was finally released for the PC last week after over three years
in development. The main character in the game is a baby named Bob, so
Interplay has hired famous midgets such as Gary Coleman and Hank The Angry
Drunken Dwarf (from The Howard Stern Show) to portray Bob in public as a
way to promote the game. For those of you have never watched The Howard
Stern Show and think this is a joke, it's not. There is a really a man out
there who calls himself Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf.
A Japanese woman-spanking simulator called Boong Ga Boong Ga may be one
of the weirdest games of all time. Believe it or not, this arcade game
actually comes with a replica of a woman's butt sticking out of it, and the
object of the game is to hit her butt as hard as possible with the game's
controller (which is shaped like a pointer finger). The woman's polygonal
face is displayed on the screen, and she reacts to every smack. Boong Ga
Boong Ga will surely never be released in the US, but just the fact that
it's going to be released somewhere in some capacity is very disturbing.
Square has revealed a Final Fantasy 9 tidbit that is sure to please many
gamers: The summoning and magic sequences will be shorter than they were in
FF7 and FF8. The game will also be less dark and futuristic than FF7 and
FF8. Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi says that FF9 is his
favorite game in the series. He says, "It's closest to my ideal view of
what Final Fantasy should be." Final Fantasy 9 is scheduled to be released
for the US PlayStation in October.
A group of retired baseball players have settled their lawsuit with
Sierra, which was filed because Sierra included their names and likenesses
in a baseball game without their permission. Sierra has deposited 675,000
dollars into an account that will be divided among the approximately 2,000
players who could be entitled to receive payment. If 2,000 players end up
getting money out of this settlement, each player will only get $337.50.
Nelson from The Simpsons reportedly said, "Ha ha!"
Infogrames has acquired the US and European publishing rights to the
promising-looking PlayStation game Koudelka. Koudelka was developed by
Sacnoth, a company founded by former Square employees. The game is said to
be a mix of Final Fantasy and Resident Evil, and it will be released in the
US this September.
As expected, most Japanese gamers have ignored Sony's recall of the
PlayStation 2's utility discs. The vast majority of people are opting to
keep their utility discs rather then exchange them for discs that are
identical except for not letting you play American DVD movies. A Sony
spokesperson actually said, "In three days we sent out over 1,000 memory
cards containing the replacement start-up software." It looks like it's
1,000 down and 999,000 to go...
Eidos has finally confirmed who will play Lara Croft in the upcoming
Tomb Raider movie: Angelina Jolie, the star of Girl Interrupted. Filming
of the movie will begin this summer in London, where it will be directed by
Simon West (the director of Con Air and The General's Daughter). No
release date has been announced for the Tomb Raider movie other than "at
least a year from now."
Sierra's PR manager has denied reports that Team Fortress 2 is coming to
the Dreamcast. He said, "I never announced that. Half-Life is coming to
the Dreamcast. That's all I can report right now." Uh... thanks, but no
one asked you to report anything. Trade journal MCV reported the Team
Fortress Classic and TF2 story as a fact. MCV has never been wrong when
they state something as a fact, while company PR reps regularly lie to
cover up things that have not yet been officially announced. Hmm... who
should I believe?
NEWS BRIEFS
Nintendo has officially delayed the Game Boy Advance. The system won't
be released in Japan until April of 2001, with the US release to follow
sometime thereafter.
Nyko and Hot Products are teaming up to make peripherals for VM Labs'
Nuon. Nyko will market and distribute the products, while Hot Products
will design, develop, and manufacture them. Now all they is someone stupid
enough to buy them...
The latest on the Wonder Swan (Bandai's portable gaming system) is that
it will be released in the US this summer.
A LucasArts spokesperson recently said, "It's a pretty safe bet that
you'll be seeing something from LucasArts on the PlayStation 2 in the
future." Who the hell cares? I like Star Wars as much as the next guy,
but LucasArts is about as skilled at game development as I am.
SALES CHARTS
The following sales charts are based on unit sales at all retailers in
the week of March 19 to 25.
Dreamcast
1. Dead or Alive 2
2. Crazy Taxi (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's review of the game)
3. Sword of the Beserk: Guts' Rage
4. Rayman 2
5. NBA 2K
PlayStation
1. WWF Smackdown
2. Syphon Filter 2
3. Triple Play 2001
4. Syphon Filter
5. Gran Turismo 2
old games still in the top ten: Syphon Filter, Spyro the Dragon, and Namco
Museum Volume 3
Nintendo 64
1. Pokemon Stadium (over one million copies sold already)
2. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
3. Mario Party 2
4. WWF Wrestlemania 2000
5. Namco Museum 64
old games still in the top ten: Super Smash Bros., Super Mario 64, and
Goldeneye 007
PC
1. The Sims
2. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
3. Star Wars: Force Commander
4. Star Trek: Armada
5. Lego Island
old games still in the top ten: RollerCoaster Tycoon and Half-Life
Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News,
GI News, Next Generation, Adrenaline Vault, The Magic Box, Daily Radar,
Sega X, PSX 2 Online, Nintendorks, IGN, MCV, The Sega Zone, Sega Otaku,
Gaming Age, The NPD Group, www.cowdance.com
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