| From: | Jesse McClusky |
| Date: | 17 Sep 2000 at 22:53:58 |
| Subject: | Re: AMIOPEN: OT: Sega |
> From: "David Marshman" <marshy@silvan.demon.co.uk>
>
> Pat, if you're a SEGA fan, I don't think you need to worry about the
> above statement:-
> unless Jesse has inside information (which he might - I have no idea)
> then this is just a copy of a rumour which went around all the sega
> internet sites about 3 months ago.
> It all boils down to someone misinterpreting (or badly translating) a
> press release from CSK (Sega's parent company) that mentioned some of
> their future strategies (basically, they totally restructuted all of
> their internal software groups (i.e. AM1, AM3, CS, etc..., and are
> allowing them to develop for non Sega platforms if they desire - people
> (mis)took this to mean there would be no future Sega hardware)).
> To the best of my knowledge (and until someone can point me to a piece
> of concrete proof) I'd take the above with a (very large) pinch of
> salt.
Quite possible. I can't check on this, since I don't read Japanese that
fluently (hardly at all, actually). However, with Nintendo about to drop
from number 2 to number 3 in the console market, that bumps Sega
to number 4. And what I can say about SoA at least is that they have
always been short on funding. *very* short. At one point a couple of
years ago they had less than $1 million in liquid assets. They're doing
better at the moment, but are expecting to take a huge hit here in the
next couple of months with the US release of the PSx2, and again
next spring with the planned release of the X-Box. The Dreamcast
ISP service was more of an attempt to stabilize their cash-flow
somewhat over the next year or two than any actual service to the
consumer. It was actually a good move on their part. Pacifies the
investors, prevents a stock-dumping panic, that sort of thing.
> [It doesn't mean they aren't going to be the losers in the X-Box/PS2
> battle, but I don't think they'll be quitting the console hardware
> market any time soon...]
Their problem is, unlike Nintendo, they don't have anything to fall
back on except making games. 3DO managed the transition, but
almost didn't and lost most of their staff several times during the
process.
Jesse
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