Sega News Brief 7/30/2000

Asian DCs Get Modems: When Sega.Com Asia finally gets their ISP service out of Hong Kong up and running, it should truly expand ‘Net gaming on the Dreamcast even further. However, what good is an ISP designed for Dreamcast users if there’s no modem packed in with the Dreamcast? That problem will be fixed when a new batch of Dreamcast consoles arrive in September. While they may not look different, these should be the first ones in Asia packed with a modem inside.

Railroad Tycoon II without ‘Net play: First Quake III Arena gets bumped, now it looks like the title will not have Internet play. This title was originally meant to take advantage of SegaNet. There’s not much left that Sega can offer game wise that will help promote SegaNet, aside from ChuChu Rocket and NFL2K1.

X-Box Meant to Hit Home: It’s been reported that Microsoft might spend upwards of $500 million for the launch and marketing of the X-Box, helping the console at least survive its first eighteen months on the market. This compares to the $100 million Sega is spending on marketing for the Dreamcast in North America. X-Box is set to be the top rival of Sega, Sony, and Nintendo when it launches next year.

Sega Getting Out of ARCADE Business?: A rumor out of The Magic Box claims Sega might cease what they do best on domestic shores–release arcade games:

– RUMOR: Sega is planning to retreat from the North America and Euro arcade market by the end of this year, because the arcade market in these areas are not profitable anymore. A massive loss of 2,700,000,000 yen was incurred last year in the arcade market. Star Wars Racer Arcade, Nascar Rubbin’ Racing and Slashout may become the last arcade titles in US / Euro before Sega’s retreat.

Virtua Tennis Sequel: WSB2K1 got you down? Don’t worry, at least one sports title by Sega that’s stellar will be getting a sequel. Hit Maker (yes, that’s the name of the development group associated with VT)has confirmed that development will be starting soon on Virtua Tennis 2. This might be all we know until the upcoming Fall TGS in Japan.

EA Profits Down: And now, true proof that if you don’t support Sega, you will be eternally punished…Electronic Arts, which is currently utilizing the ‘power’ of the Playstation series, has posted sales of $154.8 million for fiscal Q1 2000, down from $186.1 million last year. Also, EA posted net losses of $42.3 million for the same period, compared to a profit of $2.3 million this time in ’99. And yet, EA still stands firm that they will not support the Dreamcast in the near future.

Sega Surplus?: Segadojo reports that Isao Okawa has predicted that Sega will enjoy a 1.5 billion yen surplus by March of next year. This comes on the heels of Sega announcing its first profit for a fiscal quarter, to the tune of 47 million US dollars, in two and a half years.

Let’s Go Make Even More Crazy Money: It has recently been confirmed that a sequel to Crazy Taxi is in the works. However, the only thing else that is known is that it might not necessarily feature taxis.

World Series Baseball 2K1 Recall?: It’s possible, a report out of the DC Tech Pages says that Sega might recall the title, and issue a better, complete version to those that participate in the recall, possibly sending with it a gift of some sort. It might happen as early as a few days’ time, but we’ll see.

In a related story, SegaDojo issued its third review of WSB2K1; this time the game was given a 7 out of 10.