That woudl have been a massive kick in the face of Sony for sure but who knows if it woudl have worked if the deal went through. If that story is true, that is.
Well we know that Sega and Microsoft had at least some form of working relationship at the time... since DC games could be built using a specific version of windows CE.. and MS was quite interested in the DC during its development.. Its funny because after the death of the dreamcast.. i found my self garvitating to the Xbox as alot of the games i was looking forward to on the DC got moved over to it.. (Spefiically Shenmue 2, JSRF, Crazy Taxi 3)
I actually remember hearing about something like this at the time...of course, I dismissed it as a stupid rumor.
this was rumored around the time of the XBOX launch even word has it the dreamcast on a chip was ready to go and made with XBOX in mind
Wasn't the SH-4 based "Dreamcast on a chip" solution produced by Renesas (sp)? I also read once the same had been planned for inclusion as the main CPU of a set-top box from Pace that would allow Dreamcast games to be downloaded via broadband, with titles ordered through the unit's built-in Sky service. Even if the Dreamcast as a standalone console no longer existed, had Sega gone with this I'm sure it would have resulted in plenty of revenue even now... just look at how many different uses the M2 technology continues to be used in!
There were even prototypes made of the Pace/Dreamcast set top box:- http://www.gamespot.com/news/2681885.html However it didnt use a 'Dreamcast on a chip' solution, it actually had an entire Dreamcast motherboard inside as can be seen in some of the pictures in the above article (Of course they might have changed this for the final design)
I've seen pictures of a prototype Xbox MoBo with a GD-Rom connector. The Chihiro arcade board also uses a standard Naomi GD-Rom drive.
This idea could of worked, but the audience that xbox had just weren't really into sega games, it was more stuff like halo and such. It really sucked sega didn't put shenmue 1&2 together like it was originally suppose to be for xbox.
I'm not sure about that. Most of the people that jumped to XBOX were doing so from Dreamcast. At least the people I knew that got them where.
I read about this whole thing the other day and it saddens me more, Dreamcast was my favorite console ever. Man the memories :crying:
I could say the same for the GameCube. SEGA spread their IPs according to the perceived market at the time after they shut down their hardware side. They still do actually, but I don't think there's a single place for the SEGA fanboy to find gold, he's forced to follow the publisher on every major platform.
This announcement just proves how many of the simillarities between both consoles were intended to make them compatible. All in all, I believe MS should have bought SEGA, then release the Xbox (or DC2, any name) in mid-late 2004. The fact is, at the time of its demise the DC was very popular, had a bigger userbase than the PS2 and still had a lot of great games on the way. The decision to shut it down was due to the panic attack at SEGA because they were running out of money and going bankrupt. As I said before it would have been much cheaper for MS to buy SEGA with stock and keep the DC going for a couple of years than sinking actual money (between 4 and 5 billions) on the Xbox, which ironically abandoned as soon as it got the X360 on stores. Yeah the SH3707, never saw actual production but I believe there was a working prototype. Honestly they could've made a portable DC on 2004 with that, problem is SEGA was no longer interested in hardware (nor is today) and the only third party interested on competing with nintendo were those swedish mobsters and their gizmondo thingy, which wasnt at attemp to make a console but to steal money from investors. Halo was actually planned for the Mac, and then for the PS2. That version (which was different from the Xbox one) could've been easily ported to the DC. But yeah the problem is FPS weren't that big back then, more confined to the PC due to the latter's online capabilities (and even then it was more of a niche). Halo was fun because it was the first FPS you could play online without a degree on network engineering: you just put the disc in, connect to Live and its done. Steam wasnt even an idea at the time... But back to the DC, well had SEGA put a second analog and paid Valve (which at the time was a tiny company) to get an exclusivity deal on HalfLife for the DC (and a port for the 9/9/99 launch) I bet it would've made quite a difference.
1/ If the DC was "very popular" Sega wouldn't have been at the brink of bankruptcy. Even the most ardent Sega fan will admit that the machine wasn't successful. I'm sure you'll witter on about how Sega was brought to its knees by poor business decisions, and that's partly to blame, no question. The idea that Microsoft would have considered somehow supporting this dead machine with no new technology of their own, though, is absolutely daft and completely contrary to their intentions of building their own brand. Backwards compatibility is another issue altogether but it's no surprise Microsoft dropped those plans when it was clear the Dreamcast was dead. 2/ FPS games on the PC a "niche" circa 2000? What are you talking about? The biggest games in the PC games industry at that time were FPS games. Half-life (and all its associated mods, including CS), Unreal Torunament, Quake 3. These were the lifeblood of PC gaming. 3/ You couldn't play Halo on Xbox Live. That came with Halo 2, which was released a year after Steam. Your statement: "Halo was fun because it was the first FPS you could play online without a degree on network engineering: you just put the disc in, connect to Live and its done. Steam wasnt even an idea at the time..." Where do you come up with this shit? Every time you post these rambling monologues you get most of it half-right and the rest plain wrong. I don't know why you bother.
Well... I can throw in the fact that my little brother got himself the original Xbox 'cause the only local place to've ever carried Sega products didn't have Dreamcasts when he one day figured he wanted to get a new console to share shelf with his N64. That's gotta count for something, I guess?
I would have smacked any young relative who bought an XBOX without my written permission and for scientific purposes. I rarely trust them with non-nintendo hardware
