August 6, 1999
Sega of America's president Bernie Stolar announced at a teleconference
this past week that AT&T WorldNet will be the official and "preferred"
Internet Service Provider (ISP) of the Sega Dreamcast. There will be no
cost to access the Internet using a Dreamcast other than the cost of the
ISP. AT&T WorldNet has three different pricing plans:
-$10 per month for 10 hours of access ($1 for every hour thereafter)
-$20 per month for 150 hours of access ($1 for every hour thereafter, but
you'd have to average five hours online per day to over the limit)
-$22 per month for unlimited access
Gamers who sign up for the $20-per-month or $22-per-month plans will have
a Dreamcast keyboard provided to them free of charge by AT&T. Existing AT&T
WorldNet customers who buy a Dreamcast will also be provided with a
keyboard. Sega claims that they do not currently plan to release a
Dreamcast mouse, or at least they're not ready to announce it yet.
Gamers will still be able to enter the local access number of their
existing ISP (just as long as it's PPP-compliant) and connect to the
Internet with a Dreamcast for free. If you're not signed up for AT&T
WorldNet and still want a Dreamcast keyboard, you will be able to buy one
off of Sega's web site (www.sega.com) for a price to be announced later
(presumably between $20 and $30). The keyboard may or may not be made
available on retail store shelves as well.
Gamers connecting to the Internet with a Dreamcast will be able to do
most of the usual stuff you can do on the Internet, including surfing the
web, writing e-mail, and participating in web-based chat. However, you
will not be able to play any Dreamcast games over the Internet until early
2000 in order to ensure that the online portions of games are "AAA." In
addition, Sega said that Sonic Adventure will be the only launch game to
have any online components in it whatsoever (uploading and downloading game
files, high scores, etc.). While Sega never directly said so, this would
mean that the ability to box with other gamers has been taken out of Ready
2 Rumble Boxing, and the ability to download updated rosters and stats has
been taken out of NFL 2K. Sega claims that every game they're working on
now will have some sort of online component, but that's hard to believe at
this point. At E3, Sega claimed that all the games they were working on at
the time would have some sort of online component, and that has turned out
to be completely untrue. Other tidbits relating to the teleconference:
-The Dreamcast version of the hit PC RPG Baldur's Gate will be one of the
first Dreamcast games to be playable over the Internet.
-Sega Rally 2 has been delayed again and will not be released in the US
until next year. However, the game will still be released on the day of
the system's European launch (September 23), as will Virtua Fighter 3 Team
Battle.
-The Dreamcast's web browser was developed by PlanetWeb and will be
included with the system for free. Free upgrades to the browser will be
made available every three months or so.
-Direct modem-to-modem multi-player games will not be possible with the
Dreamcast.
-On the day of the teleconference, Sega's stock went up 18%.
Sega has announced that over 200,000 gamers nationwide have put money
down and pre-ordered a Sega Dreamcast. Sega estimates that 250,000 or even
300,000 systems could be pre-ordered by the time the system is released on
September 9. By comparison, about 100,000 PlayStations were pre-ordered
before its US release on September 9, 1995.
Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed the existence of a new Mario game for
Nintendo's next system Project Dolphin, and he has also revealed a few
tidbits about the game. Miyamoto revealed that the game will look and feel
more mature than previous Mario games when he said, "You'll see a
completely new side of Mario on Dolphin. Don't you agree that both Mario
and Luigi have become a little too cutesy? It's time they became a bit more
grown-up. That's where the Dolphin comes in." This is an encouraging trend
for Nintendo that started when Rare decided to make the main characters in
their upcoming N64 game Jet Force Gemini less cutesy. Miyamoto also
confirmed that Luigi will play a big role in the game when he said, "If an
onlooker were to see the game in our development room now, he'd probably
think that Luigi is the main character."
In addition to the next Mario game, Miyamoto is also working on a
massively multi-player game for the Dolphin, according to the industry
trade publication MCV. The game will be a persistent online world (like
Ultima Online and EverQuest) that could support up to 1,000 players at once
on a single server.
Miyamoto has wasted a lot of his time in recent years working on games
for the dead 64DD, including the Mario Artist series and the 64DD's Zelda
add-on pack. The Mario Artist series has already been confirmed to have
switched to the cartridge format, and it seems that Zelda 64's add-on pack
may now be a regular N64 game as well. Nintendo recently released several
screen shots of a game called Zelda Gaiden, which looks just like Zelda 64.
It is not known for sure whether Zelda Gaiden is the 64DD add-on translated
onto a cartridge, but the theory makes a lot of sense.
Three games from Activision have joined Sony's Greatest Hits promotion,
which consists only of games that have sold more than a million copies.
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Vigilante 8, and Asteroids have joined 61 other
PlayStation games that have reached the one million milestone, and are now
selling at retailers nationwide for around $20 each. Unfortunately,
Activision still can't seem to turn a profit. While the company's revenues
in their latest financial quarter went up from $62 million in the same
quarter last year to $84 million this year, they still posted a net loss of
$4.4 million (which is worse than the $3.7 million loss they posted last
year).
Nintendo has delayed more of their games, as they always do at least
once a month. Specifically:
-The N64 version of StarCraft has slipped from late September to October 25.
-The Game Boy Color version of Star Wars Episode I: Racer has slipped from
October 4 to December 6.
-Excitebike 64 has been delayed and its release date is now "To Be
Determined" (in other words, not for a long, long time).
In addition to the previously announced signing of Randy Moss to promote
NFL 2K, Sega has signed Allen Iverson to promote NBA 2K. In addition to
appearing on the game boxes, Moss and Iverson will lend their expertise to
the developers of the games and help them tweak the gameplay. Moss was
named the NFL Rookie of the Year last year (and was in the running for
league MVP), while Iverson led the NBA in scoring.
As part of its continuing plan to slim down, Sega of Japan offered many
of its employees an early retirement offer in June. About 750 employees
accepted this offer, and Sega is re-paying each and every one of them for
their years of service with a free Dreamcast and a thank you card signed by
Sega's chairman and president.
In its latest earnings report, Sony Corporation revealed that the
PlayStation market in Japan is slumping. It's still doing much better than
any other system in Japan, but sales have declined 16% and profits have
declined 30%.
Brady Games recently released and then recalled a full of crap WWF
Attitude strategy guide. The guide contained numerous factual errors and
omissions, prompting Acclaim to issue a statement telling gamers to stay
away from Brady's guide. Rather than letting the strategy guide fester on
store shelves like a piece of crap (Mario Party and Superman come to mind),
Brady told retailers to pull the guide from store shelves. In addition,
anyone who purchased the guide and wants a refund will get it, along with a
$5 rebate offer on the purchase of another Brady strategy guide. Still,
one has to wonder how the full of crap strategy guide came to be in the
first place. The executive meeting may have sounded something like this:
Bob: "I've got an idea! Let's write a strategy guide on an incomplete
game! That way the many changes made to the game before it's finished will
make our guide a joke and make a mockery of our company and our
reputation."
Bob's boss: "Sounds like a plan, Bob."
The first RPG for the Sega Dreamcast is currently scheduled to be
released before end of September. The game is called Evolution, and the US
version of it is almost complete. Evolution was met with mostly negative
and mediocre reviews by the Japanese press. Still, the Dreamcast is getting
its first RPG a hell of a lot sooner than the N64 got its first RPG. Quest
64, anyone?
Nintendo has granted The Learning Company a license to print money. An
agreement recently reached by the two companies will allow The Learning
Company to make educational software with the Pokemon license and release
it for the PC. Before the end of this year, The Learning Company plans to
release two separate educational programs branded with the Pokemon name and
characters.
Electronic Arts has signed a four-year deal with Major League Soccer to
include MLS's players, teams, uniforms, and logos in upcoming FIFA soccer
games from EA Sports. The first EA game to carry the MLS license will be
FIFA 2000, which is now being called FIFA 2000: Major League Soccer. The
addition of MLS's 12 teams will bring the total number of teams in the game
up to an insane 850.
Star Wars creator George Lucas has told a Japanese magazine that he
would like a game based on Star Wars Episode II to be released for the Sony
PlayStation 2. Lucas, along with Steven Spielberg, made no secret of the
fact he was amazed by the PlayStation 2 technology demos at E3.
On a Sunday, August 8, a Quake 3: Arena tour bus will depart from
Mesquite, Texas and begin promoting the highly-anticipated first-person
shooter for the PC. The bus is 45 feet long and an eye-catching jet black
in color. Over the next three months, the bus will tour Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Fully playable multi-
player games of Quake 3: Arena will be available on the bus, and numerous
demos and other things will be given away to plenty of lucky gamers.
Eidos Interactive has acquired the rights to make games based on the
2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia; the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt
Lake City, USA; and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The first
of these games will obviously be based on the 2000 Games, and is being
developed by Attention To Detail for the PlayStation and PC. Let's just
hope that Eidos' Olympic games turn out better than Izzy's Quest for the
Olympic Rings, which was released by US Gold right around the time of the
1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.
Nintendo has struck a new deal with Tommy Hilfiger in which a limited
amount of Game Boy Colors will be branded with Hilfiger's red, white, and
blue logo. The promotion has already kicked off in the Southern and
Western regions of America, and it will start in the East and Central
regions on Sunday, August 8. The promotion will only last for two weeks in
each region, or until supplies run out. In addition to the limited addition
Game Boy Colors, over 1,100 locations of Tommy Hilfiger Boys will feature
Game Boy Colors running playable demos of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe and Star
Wars Episode I: Racer.
SNK has struck a deal with Namco to bring Pac-Man to SNK's portable
gaming system, the Neo Geo Pocket Color. The system is now available for
sale at retailers nationwide, and Pac-Man will be released for it on August
31. It will contain both the original Pac-Man and a new, side-scrolling
adventure game.
For the week of July 11-17, the top ten selling PlayStation games were:
1. Driver
2. Tarzan
3. Final Fantasy 7
4. Triple Play 2000
5. The Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit
6. WWF War Zone
7. Syphon Filter
8. MLB 2000
9. The Need For Speed: High Stakes
10. Star Ocean: The Second Story
For the week of July 11-17, the top ten selling Nintendo 64 games were:
1. Super Smash Bros.
2. Star Wars Episode I: Racer
3. Rugrats: Scavenger Hunt
4. Goldeneye 007
5. Mario Party
6. Command & Conquer
7. Super Mario 64
8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
9. Superman
10. Mario Kart 64
For the week of July 11-17, the top ten selling PC games were:
1. Roller Coaster Tycoon
2. Rainbow Six Gold Pack
3. Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition
4. Dungeon Keeper 2
5. Total Annihilation: Kingdoms
6. The Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit
7. Cabela's Big Game Hunter
8. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
9. Sim City 3000
10. The Need For Speed: High Stakes
Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News,
GI News, Next Generation Online, Adrenaline Vault, The Magic Box, Happy
Puppy, PlanetQuake, IGNPSX, IGN 64, Nintendorks, The Sega Zone, Sega Otaku,
Gaming Age, Weekly Famistu, www.hamsterdance.com
Back To The Main Page
Master Gamer News- July 23, 1999
Master Gamer News- July 11, 1999
Master Gamer News- June 26, 1999
Master Gamer News- May 21, 1999
Master Gamer News- May 9, 1999
Master Gamer News- April 27, 1999
Master Gamer News- April 10, 1999
Master Gamer News- March 29, 1999
Master Gamer News- March 17, 1999
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com