10 years ago today on 9/9/99, Sega released (in North America) their newest console gaming system called the Sega Dreamcast. Considered by many seasoned gamers as one of the greatest gaming systems ever, the Dreamcast is celebrating its 10th anniversary today (9/9/09). The Dreamcast was the pioneer in online gaming as being the first system to feature a built-in modem and internet support. Unfortunately, even with the huge amount of support for the gaming population, Sega pulled the plug on the Dreamcast in March of 2001 when Sega faced stiff competition from a little system called Playstation.
Even though the Dreamcast was only with us for less than 2 years, it will be forever remembered. Sega Saturn unfortunately, won’t be.
I sure miss Power Stone and Jet Grind Radio…
Thank you! I was waiting for a Power Stone reference other than my own.
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re: the results of the webOS felasire unfortunately, it honestly doesn’t change all that much. The fundamental problems are twofold:1.) Hearing that HP was discontinuing support for their webOS devices was as much a surprise to us as it was to you. While that may simply be frustrating or annoying as a consumer, as a developer whose livelihood *depends* on the platform, having the platform-holder say, No more support for existing devices, and no plans for future devices is more than just an annoyance it’s a giant screw you to their partners who have invested a substantial amount of time money working on the platform expecting it to exist when then games you’ve been working on are ready.2.) While the felasire may have brought a few hundred thousand new users to the platform, there is *zero* growth potential in the near term beyond that. Once the TouchPads are sold out, that’s it. End of story. So even if we can get a huge percentage of that market for a game, once we hit that wall, it’s over. Think of it this way. In the next few days, that will be the most webOS users we will ever see. Every day from then on, someone will abandon their Pre for an Android/iOS phone, because there *are no more* webOS phones. They will stop using their TouchPad because of some bugginess in the OS that isn’t being fixed because the device no longer has support. And that’s how it always goes there’s always attrition but there will be *NO* growth to counterbalance that attrition.Until HP finds a partner for/sells webOS, the slope of that curve, starting today, is all downhill. And while that sounds cynical to say, what alternative is there? You *can’t get* a webOS device anymore. The platform for all practical purposes, is done. It’ll be a *brilliant* platform for hobbyists very small developers, provided that HP/Palm at least provides a really, really minimal level of support for the OS. But for a team of people that does this for a living? It’s not a viable option anymore.If someone announces that they’ll buy the OS make stuff for it, we’ll be there. We loved working with Palm, and we loved the OS. But until that happens, or until HP can actually rebuild some modicum of trust with the developers (I have no idea how that would happen, honestly), it’s simply not sensible for us to continue.