URGENT! Sega plans to stop GD-ROM production in February, help petition against this

[Guru of Time and Space]

It is nearly certain that Sega of Japan plans to discontinue production of GD-ROM media in February, 2007. This media is used almost exclusively by the Sega Dreamcast home console, and the NAOMI arcade system. By stopping production, future official games (licensed by Sega) on the Dreamcast or NAOMI will not be possible.

Help put a stop to this!

http://dreamcast-scene.com/index.php/Main/GDROMproductionpetition

Head on over to Dreamcast-Scene using the link above to find out ways you can help stop this from happening and ensure that future titles come to the Dreamcast and NAOMI arcade board.

-GoTaS

[Charlesaway]

There's always those MIL STD CD-ROM format thingies, so not the end of the world, but still...

[Amy Rose]

Why are they stopping production? It seems a bit silly if they can make money off the product.

[neuropolitique]

Why would Sega continue production because of a petition. Surely their decision is based on numbers, and if they are not making a profit based on current sales no amount of "signatures" on a petition will change those numbers.

[dbiersdorf]

What licensed Dreamcast games are still coming out anyway!?

[Kamisama]

Why would Sega continue production because of a petition. Surely their decision is based on numbers, and if they are not making a profit based on current sales no amount of "signatures" on a petition will change those numbers.

Older petitions showed that they care about it. Without Dreamcast-Scene Petitions some games would not have been released :) So we hope we can make them produce GDs (and Games!) in the future too.


What licensed Dreamcast games are still coming out anyway!?
You should at least click on the Link. There are 2 licensed Games announced.

[njiska]

Older petitions showed that they care about it. Without Dreamcast-Scene Petitions some games would not have been released :) So we hope we can make them produce GDs (and Games!) in the future too.


You should at least click on the Link. There are 2 licensed Games announced.

Not that i want to rain on your parade or anything. But until Goatdan says something about this i'm not Concerned. I trust him more then anyone else on matters of DC as he actually produces DC games.

So Dan, i'm calling you out, let's her your thoughts?

[jajaja]

Is the GD-ROM discs really nessessary? I know DC can play burned games on CD-ROM so it should be possible to release games on CD too.

[PapaStu]

Not that i want to rain on your parade or anything. But until Goatdan says something about this i'm not Concerned. I trust him more then anyone else on matters of DC as he actually produces DC games.

So Dan, i'm calling you out, let's her your thoughts?

He doesn't use GD-Roms in his games. So for them to stop the production is a complete moot point for him. He went the route he did to keep the games costs down to the prices he charges and not the $50-70 that you see for the last few Dreamcast games that have come out (Last Hope ect.) because those are produced on actual GD-roms and the discs are so expensive to purchase and the manufacturing costs are passed on to the consumer.

[njiska]

He doesn't use GD-Roms in his games. So for them to stop the production is a complete moot point for him. He went the route he did to keep the games costs down to the prices he charges and not the $50-70 that you see for the last few Dreamcast games that have come out (Last Hope ect.) because those are produced on actual GD-roms and the discs are so expensive to purchase and the manufacturing costs are passed on to the consumer.

Yeah i know Dan himself doesn't use them, but i'd still like to know his opinion on what kind of effect the loss of GD-Rom manufacturing would have on the community.

[Poofta!]

i say let them die personally. good games can be developed on CDs. i for one will not pay 50-70 for new releases on a dead system.

[jpark203]

Being the big DC fan that I am, I will send in that petition, if only to show that I still care about the system. And Poofta!, I understand why you wouldn't want to pay that much for a game on a system that's "dead," but there are plenty of people who are willing to pay the price, including myself. :)

[Poofta!]

Being the big DC fan that I am, I will send in that petition, if only to show that I still care about the system. And Poofta!, I understand why you wouldn't want to pay that much for a game on a system that's "dead," but there are plenty of people who are willing to pay the price, including myself. :)

then you sign and send the petition, hope they listen, and continue paying it :)

[Guru of Time and Space]

Thanks for showing your support, guys!
If you could, could you please help out by passing this petition around the net and to everyone you know would have an interest? That would help out A LOT! Thank you.

-GoTaS

[meancode]

Being the big DC fan that I am, I will send in that petition, if only to show that I still care about the system. And Poofta!, I understand why you wouldn't want to pay that much for a game on a system that's "dead," but there are plenty of people who are willing to pay the price, including myself. :)

"Plenty of people" does not equate to many numbers, as neuropolitique spoke of earlier.

It is only the die-hard fans that are willing to buy them at that price.

[Guru of Time and Space]

"Plenty of people" does not equate to many numbers, as neuropolitique spoke of earlier.

It is only the die-hard fans that are willing to buy them at that price.

I'm just assuming you didn't read the page...

In case you didn't know, Under Defeat sold 10,000+ copies.
There must be a lot of die hard fans then.

-GoTaS

[meancode]

I'm just assuming you didn't read the page...

In case you didn't know, Under Defeat sold 10,000+ copies.
There must be a lot of die hard fans then.

-GoTaS

I read the page, I will blog about it later. And no, 10K copies is not a lot in today's world. Not a drop in the bucket. Out of the entire gaming populous, 10K die hard fans is nothing. I am sure there are more die hard DC fans than 10K, which is still a very minuscule amount.

Financially, I can see why SEGA would be doing this.

[Muscelli]

does this mean we wont see karous?

[Ze_ro]

Is the GD-ROM discs really nessessary? I know DC can play burned games on CD-ROM so it should be possible to release games on CD too.
The thing is, basically all the commercial DC games being released now are NAOMI ports (with the exception of Last Hope, and the Goat Store releases). Do CD-ROM's work on NAOMI? Will publishers even bother making NAOMI games if they have to fart around with the CD format to get it to work, or will they just say "screw it" and move to a different system?

Just because Goatdan doesn't mind using CD's doesn't mean that Milestone and G.Rev and others are willing to.

However, there's also the question of what Sega's current inventory of GD's is. I remember back in 2001 or so, Sega stopped production of Dreamcast systems, yet still had warehouses full of them, so they kept selling and it wasn't really a big problem. Does Sega stockpile GD-ROM's like this, or do they just make them to order? I don't see any official word from Sega linked anywhere from that petition, so for all we know, this may just be a temporary production halt until the current stock sells.

--Zero

[Guru of Time and Space]

The thing is, basically all the commercial DC games being released now are NAOMI ports (with the exception of Last Hope, and the Goat Store releases). Do CD-ROM's work on NAOMI? Will publishers even bother making NAOMI games if they have to fart around with the CD format to get it to work, or will they just say "screw it" and move to a different system?

Just because Goatdan doesn't mind using CD's doesn't mean that Milestone and G.Rev and others are willing to.

However, there's also the question of what Sega's current inventory of GD's is. I remember back in 2001 or so, Sega stopped production of Dreamcast systems, yet still had warehouses full of them, so they kept selling and it wasn't really a big problem. Does Sega stockpile GD-ROM's like this, or do they just make them to order? I don't see any official word from Sega linked anywhere from that petition, so for all we know, this may just be a temporary production halt until the current stock sells.

--Zero

Hi, thanks for your interest.

The NAOMI arcade board, as far as I know, cannot run CD-ROMs like the Dreamcast is capable of.

Now, let me get this out of the way. This isn't just about no more Dreamcast games being produced. The GD-ROM media is very important for other systems as well. If GD-ROM production stops, you will no longer see games on:

-the Dreamcast
-the Sega NAOMI arcade board
-the NAOMI 2 arcade board
-the Sega Chihiro arcade board
-and maybe even the Triforce board, as it is capable of using GD-ROMs.

As you can see, this is just a TAD bit bigger than "we will be getting not more Dreamcast games."

We have thought about whether or not Sega is just ceasing production because they are sitting on a 100,000+ stockpile of GD-ROMs in a warehouse somewhere... but, I think it's safe to say we'd rather be safe than sorry. Also, it may be that they have been sitting on a stockpile for awhile now and are about to run out. If this is the case, we'd like to get more produced.

Also, if you'd like to know more information about how we obtained this news, you can come talk with us in #Dreamcast-Scene on the EFNet servers on irc. We didn't make public the way we obtained this news because, right now, if we did, a certain company might receive a lot of backlash.

Thanks.

-GoTaS

[petewhitley]

No offense, but I fail to see why this is surprising or even a crisis. Every retro-console since the beginning of time has suffered this fate. Home-brewers still find ways to release new games, and the DC in particular has a very viable option in CDs. The DC fan base is small, stable, and unlikely to dramatically shift up OR down in numbers in the near future. If it doesn't make financial sense for Sega to continue to produce GD-ROMs now, it never will. You fault them for sticking to a viable business model. Or would you prefer them to take on charity cases and meet their demise sooner rather than later?

[Guru of Time and Space]

Please, read above. This isn't simply about the Dreamcast.

{Edit - Also, if it does indeed turn out that there is a dwindling stockpile of GD-ROMs left, we fear that Sega may indeed stop granting licenses to third party companies to publish titles on the Dreamcast.

-GoTaS

[MegaDrive20XX]

http://www.texavery.com/sounds/mad.wav