Written by Daniel Pelfrey  on May 14, 2001

Where Is Sega Headed?: Running around at Sonic speed, but which direction?

Tweet

Comments

A lot has happened in what many people in the industry are declaring a УtransitionФ year. The Playstation 2 launch gets tripped up, Sega releases some major kick ass games, Nintendo almost drops out of sight, except for those games it does release. They sell. Then Sega announces (on the day it releases PSO no less) that it will stop production of the Dreamcast. The official Dreamcast Magazine gets pulled. If that isn't bad enough, Daily Radar goes under. (Both the magazine and Daily Radar are/were owned by Imagine.)

Where is Sega going now?

While the Dreamcast isn't dead yet, it has been placed on the critical list. With the new shift towards multi-platform development, we can look forward to playing Sega games in the future. But where is that future, and what is in store?

Sega announced that while it would still support their Dreamcast console, it would no longer do so exclusively. Which console will we see Sega games on? The answer to that is simple: All of them.

While we know that several development houses are working on games for other (non-Sega) platforms, it would appear that Sony's Playstation 2 could be the first to get some Sega love. A few games had been rumored as coming to the PS2 long before the announcement was made. These include Crazy Taxi, and 18 Wheel Pro Trucker, although not directly from Sega. Acclaim will be bringing these titles to Sega's former competitor. Crazy Taxi should be available soon after you read this.

Nintendo would be getting the next Sega games under their new focus. Sonic Advance and Chu Chu Advance are headed for Nintendo's new portable gaming platform.

Sega is not going into this territory blindly. Being a platform for third parties to publish for themselves, Sega knows a good deal when it sees one. Sega won't be taking any stinkers for deals with what are now the big three (Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft). While we won't see Sega leap-frogging to the head of the third-party pack this fiscal year, it could very well determine which console does get the 128-bit brass ring.

So, which games are going where? One major hint can be found in the Tokyo Game Show keynote address where it was announced that Sega is working on bringing 11 games to Microsoft's console.

On the Xbox, we can expect the following development houses to bring the following games.

WOW Entertainment is provide Xbox with:
╖ Sega GT

Smile Bit is probably the biggest supporter of Xbox, going on record it thinks it is a better machine to develop for. It currently has the following games in development for Microsoft's upcoming console:

╖ Jet Set Radio Future
╖аGun Valkyrie
╖ Panzer Dragoon
а
That leaves 7 more to be announced.
Through the proverbial grapevine and industry water cooler, (ok, press releases) we have learned that on the PS2, we can look forward to having:

╖ Virtua Fighter 4 (AM2)
╖ Space Channel 5 sequel (United Game Artists) [Editor note: WHY?!?! For the love of God why!??!]
╖ A Japanese series Sakura Taisen (Sega Overworks) that is rather Japanese specific, don't count on this game coming to America.

For Nintendo's GameCube:

╖ Amusement Vision is also working on Nintendo's next generation platform. This development house boasts such properties as the Daytona line of games and Planet Harriers. True, while primarily arcade games, one must remember Sega's penchant for bringing their arcade games home.

╖ Sonic Team is confirmed to be working on GameCube games. No titles have been announced, but Sonic and PSOv2 have both been rumored. With Nintendo's focus on younger gamers, this development house and hardware manufacturer could be a natural fit.

This is not all of the development houses Sega has. We have yet to hear on which console Sega Overworks will place their Skies of Arcadia sequel. Yes, it is working on the Уhardcore JapaneseФ style of games (Let's Build a Sport Team and GURU GURU Onsen) for Japanese PS2, but they have yet to make it to these shores. What will? Will it become a PS2 developer?

Visual Concepts is rumored to have NFL2K2 in development for all three consoles, but nothing has been announced as of yet.

Hit Maker also has yet to announce which consoles get their Virtua Tennis sequel. And though Crazy Taxi 2 is coming to Dreamcast, and Crazy Taxi is coming to PS2 (through Accliam), will future games go to Sony's machine exclusively? Nothing has been mentioned. Yet.

Appaloosa created the wonderful Ecco, and a sequel may be in the works. But where would it go?

Yes, there have been rumors, rumblings, and half shaded talks, but nothing definite other than what I have gone over.

Where does this leave such games as Shenmue? Yes, volume two is expected to hit the Dreamcast console sometime in November, but is that the whole story? Yu Suzuki has mentioned that Shenmue will last approximately 16 chapters. How many of those chapters will be included in the second bundle of discs? If the game isn't over, where will it go? With AM2 already developing for the PS2 (Virtua Fighter 4) it seems natural that Shenmue would get Уcleaned upФ and УanthologizedФ before releasing the next chapter on Sony's machine.

With Sega games dropping in price, and the number of actual Dreamcast games dwindling, we can expect a quick transfer of visibility. Expect to see Sega games appearing on other console sooner rather than later. With E3 literally just around the corner, the news will be flying in fast and furious. Stick with Sega, it may be a bumpy ride, but it will definitely be fun.