SEGA SAMMY CONSUMER HARDWARE ROADMAP - New SEGA Console Coming in 2010?

[parallaxscroll]

http://fgnonline.webs.com/

SEGA SAMMY CONSUMER HARDWARE ROADMAP (WORLD EXCLUSIVE REPORT PART 1)

- 05/11/09

Today we would like to present to you part 1 of our world exclusive report in which we shed light on SEGA SAMMY's plan for a HD casual system in development since 2007 and scheduled for worldwide release for the holiday season of 2010.

History

At the end of 1999 SEGA held a press conference where they laid out their hardware ambitions and talked extensively about broadband and a whole host of future technologies. Shoichiro Irimajiri was stated here as saying that SEGA would strike back with a vengeance in the next millenium. By Spring 2000 Irimajiri-san was already tasked with heading the development of SEGA's next console, Irimajiri was stated as saying that it would be a joint venture with numerous companies because the future box would do more than just play videogames thus they had to partner with cable companies, telecommuncation companies and Hollywood conglomerates. The aim for the design was a single chip solution measuring in at 250 million transistors ready for a Q4 2004 worldwide release. What is not known by the mainstream is that SEGA at this time was also in early stages of development for a 3D handheld which was to be based on the chip that went on to be known as the MBX developed by Imagination Technologies PowerVR division. The PowerVR MBX hit silicon in 2002 about the time SEGA had initially planned on launching a new Game Gear. This device would have beaten the PSP to market by 2 years. All of these plans where scrapped however by Isao Okawa who foresaw a software future for the company, the rest of the company however where vehemently against the idea of software only.

Fast forward a few years to early 2003 when Hideki Sato and the rest of SEGA's high level executives were desperately in search for either a merger or even a sale of the company. The discussions where being held with Sammy, Namco, EA and Microsoft. Again what is not known to the general public is that the reason for SEGA's desperation was that at this very moment SEGA had yet another system in development which had a worldwide target ship date of Q4 2005. This system would have competed against what went on to be known as the XBOX360 and Sony's PS3. The system was designed around a PowerVR Series 5 GPU and an unknown CPU, using standard DVD it was to be a cost/performance solution targeting a $300 launch price tag whilst simultaneously incorporating equal 3D throughput as the higher priced offerings by the competition. SEGA and Imagination Technologies on the 18th of March 2004 released a press release regarding the development of the chip for arcade use. Come Jamma 2005 when the world was expecting SEGA to unveil it's PowerVR based arcade board everyone was shocked to learn of the LINDBERGH which was basically a PC tower with an nVidia 6800GT and a Intel Pentium 4 3GHz Prescott. Whatever happened to the PowerVR based integrated silicon arcade board? Simple, the console that was to be based on the arcade board was scrapped by the newly formed SEGA SAMMY. With no console counterpart for the arcade board it wasn't financially feasible to spend tens and indeed hundreds of millions of dollars on integrated silicon thus SEGA quietly without telling anyone just took a mother board and slotted in components from a mid range PC from 2004 and called it "LINDBERGH". The PowerVR Series 5 whose development SEGA funded lived on however as the PowerVR SGX series of mobile GPU's. The Series 5 architecture was designed to be highly scaleable, low end parts for mobile phones and high end parts for arcade boards and consoles, unfortunately the world never got to see the performance of the higher end variants.

So to recap -

There was a next gen system in development in 2000 which was scrapped by owner Isao Okawa and there was a next gen system in development in 2003/2004 which was scrapped by Isao Okawa's friend and new owner Hajime Satomi.

Present and Future

With the Nintendo Wii hitting retail and gaining worldwide superstardom of the likes never witnessed SEGA SAMMY once again immediately got to work on another system with orders from the boss himself Satomi-san. This system shall be a HD casual console and is designed to compete with the successor to the Wii. The design of the system FGN can officially confirm was finalised in late 2008, it's arcade variant goes by the name "RINGEDGE" the specifications of the system are as follows.

The chosen CPU is the Intel Pentium E2160 Allendale 1.8GHz Dual-Core Processor, the GPU of choice is the Shader Model 4.0 compliant 9600GSO with 384 MB GDDR3 RAM, System memory measuring 1GB DDR2-800. Other features include an onboard HD audio DSP, 32GB SSD, standard DVD, and WiFi connectivity. SEGA SAMMY plans on shipping the system with two controllers, a motion sensing remote and one which looks similar to the Saturn 3D controller. One for casual gaming the other for non-casual. To top this off SEGA SAMMY shall be using a stripped down version of Microsoft's Windows Embedded Standard 2009 for ease of development. This particular version differs from the standard version where only the DirectX functionality is included, the standard edition costs $90 per shipping device. As SEGA SAMMY's version doesn't include the non gaming features SEGA SAMMY has managed to get a hold of the OS for less than half of that cost.

SEGA SAMMY plans on launching the system in time for the holiday season of 2010 for no less than $200 and no more than $250. The company doesn't plan on publically acknowledging the project this year, thus an official announcement won't take place until 1H 2010.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our world exclusive where we shed light on SEGA SAMMY's consumer plans for the "RINGWIDE"

Do I think SEGA Sammy is gonna actually launch a new consumer console in 2010 or anytime in the next 2.5 years (upto fall 2011) ? NO.

Do I believe SEGA was working on consumer consoles & handhelds beyond the Dreamcast, earlier this decade that got canceled when they quit the hardware biz? YES Absolutely.

[PapaStu]

Do I believe SEGA was working on consumer consoles & handhelds beyond the Dreamcast, earlier this decade that got canceled when they quit the hardware biz? YES Absolutely.

Yeah, it was called the XBox.

[parallaxscroll]

Yeah, it was called the XBox.

No.

There was a real Sega console in development during 1999-2000 that was going to be a successor to the Dreamcast, entirely seperate from Xbox.


from the book 'Opening The Xbox' by Dean Taikahashi (an extremely credible book and author) page 192-193:

'Another plan involved buying Sega, the maker of the Dreamcast console. As far back as 1998, Microsoft had initiated talks to acquire Sega. The companies already had a working relationship since Microsoft provided software for the Dreamcast, but relations had soured in part because game developers didn't use that software. Sega was in third place with its console was still losing a lot of money.

Worldwide, Sega had barely sold 5 million units as of early 2000, giving it a base far smaller than Sony's estimated 73 million units. Moreover, the older Sony machine and the Nintendo 64 continued to outsell the Dreamcast. Sega had launched dozens of games in the United States, but only one of those titles, a football game, sold over a million units. Sega didn't gave the financial wherewithal to stay in the race, and that prompted third-party publishers like Electronic Arts to support the other consoles instead.
By buying Sega or otherwise investing $2 billion in the company, Microsoft could acquire not only the Dreamcast technology but a lot of talent that it didn't have, like Sega's nine game development studios--which had consistantly created hits like Sonic The Hedgehog, key sports titles, and Virtua Fighter. Sega also had a hardware design group that crafted new consoles.

Shoichiro Irimajiri, who was the CEO of Sega Enterprises in Japan, said his company was surprised to learn first from other game developers that Microsoft was planning to enter the console business. He was angry that he hadn't heard it from Microsoft first. His complaints led to meetings to discuss whether Microsoft and Sega could work together on the next-generation console. At first, he wasn't interested in selling out to Microsoft because the Dreamcast appeared to be doing well in the United States. The Microsoft side was equally lukewarm to the idea

"Every time we looked at them, we thought all we wanted was the software," said Chris Phillips, who managed the Sega relationship until he left Microsoft in early 2000. "They weren't willing to sell just their software business. They wanted Microsoft to do a box that could combine the Xbox and the Dreamcast2."

Yet like a bad rerun, Sega kept coming back and getting audiences with Bill Gates. One of Sega's top messengers was Kay Nishi, a former Microsoft employee and the CEO of ASCII in Japan. Nishi had a very close friendship with Bill Gates. Whenever he came to town, he could get meetings on short notice with Gates. He used that influence to get Gates together with Sega's top executives, Isao Okawa and Shoichiro Irimajiri.

In some ways, Sega was appealing. Some Microsoft executives had their doubts about the feasibility of coming up with a truly killer application that would drive people to buy the console over other systems. Ed Fries, who had confidence in his own game group of 700 developers, opposed the Sega deal because he believed Microsoft could create its own hit games.
Irimajiri said Sega wanted Microsoft to make the Xbox compatible with the upcoming Dreamcast 2. Okawa also wanted the Xbox to run games made for the original Dreamcast.

Also

http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2000/6/12-69

Sega to license Dreamcast out?
Some very interesting plans may be in the works at Sega. Including Dreamcast 2.
The Asian Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sega is in talks to license Dreamcast technology to other companies. Also, Sega is negotiating with various semiconductor companies to to form a joint venture that would build an advanced chip to power the next incarnation of the Dreamcast, as well as other devices. The JV could open as soon as October of this year.

"The future game box will be an all-in-one, set-top box," Sega Vice Chairman Shoichiro Irimajiri said in a telephone interview. "In that case, Sega's role is one part of many functions, so we cannot do it alone. We need very good alliances or a joint venture."

Apparently, Sega is already talking to potential licensees, including automobile companies, hardware makers, and satellite-television and cable-TV providers. These talks have been confirmed by Mr. Irimajiri.

The AWSJ reports that Mr. Irimajiri traveled last week to the U.S. and this week to Europe, to meet with up to 15 companies to discuss Sega's plan. He emphasized that the discussions are preliminary and he declined to identify the companies involved. "Everything is still unclear," he said. It looks like Sega is approaching NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Philips Electronics NV; chip maker STMicroelectronics NV, who is making their own next generation graphics chip based on the PowerVR technology that powers the Dreamcast, and Imagination Technologies, the Company behind the PowerVR technology itself.

According to the AWSJ, officials at NEC, Hitachi and Imagination Technologies declined to comment. A spokesman at Philips said the executives he contacted were unaware of any talks with Sega. Officials at STMicroelectronics couldn't be reached for comment.

Chip makers are the likely partners because Sega hopes to build a complex processor for use in Internet appliances, the people familiar with the plans said. Sega appears to be looking to put many functions of a game machine onto one piece of silicon, making it easy to integrate advanced computer graphics into other products.

Also, in reference to the free Dreamcast plan "If our intuition is right Sega will be the dominant force in the narrowband Internet world," Mr. Irimajiri said in the report. It was also stated that he believes broadband won't be widely available until 2005.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ry.php?id=8642

ISAO OHKAWA CONFIRMED AS SEGA PRES

Sega has confirmed the swap of Ohkawa for Irimajiri at the head of Sega, although those sales figures make seriously interesting reading…

According to Nikkei, the Japanese business news service, poor domestic sales of Dreamcast are the reason for the decision, but rumour is already circulating that Ohkawa has been brought in to oversee something far more significant; such as the sale of the company.

The Japanese report also claims Irimajiri will concentrate his efforts on designing a successor to the Dreamcast, already known to have been in development for some years.

Sega failed by around 500,000 to meet its 1.1 million Dreamcast sales target for the second half of the year ended March. Ohkawa is to overlook the restructuring of the company, although details of what this will mean for the hardware future of Sega are still unconfirmed.

As far as the sale of Sega goes, these rumours are nothing new to the company. Microsoft is well known to have had talks with the upper echelons of the Dreamcast manufacturer in March, and fresh talk of a Sony buy-out has sprung up in recent weeks.

http://www.gamasutra.com/newswire/ne...ex20000522.htm

Sega is confirming a shuffle of the top brass. As speculated, Sega Enterprises President Shoichiro Irimajiri will step aside to allow Isao Ohkawa, president of Sega parent company CSK, to takeover. Ohkawa is moving into the hot in order to oversee a massive restructuring of Sega's development activities. The reorganization plan, originally announced in November, will split Sega's interested into a total of nine separate units organized by region and specialty. Irimajiri will stay on in a vice presidential role to focus on the creation of a Dreamcast successor.

There are other articles out there mentioning the successor to Dreamcast, but the ones here should be enough to give you an idea that there, legitimately, actually *was* indeed at least one more Sega console in development before Sega canceled all hardware projects and announced they would end production of Dreamcast.

[ProgrammingAce]

You mean this xbox, circa July 2000 with sony's custom testing software installed? The one that was given to me by someone in Microsoft's internal testing facility?

http://gameoftheart.com/games/XDK3910.html

Or how about this xbox with a chihiro connector installed? Circa May 2000

http://gamerhistory.com/images/Xbox1.../Proto(11).jpg

Sega of America was helping Microsoft develop the Xbox hardware. I'm not sure if Sega of Japan knew this or not. That's why Peter Moore jumped ship from Sega to Microsoft.
Sega sent engineers to help develop the Xbox1 so they could use the part

[SegaAges]

You mean this xbox, circa July 2000 with sony's custom testing software installed? The one that was given to me by someone in Microsoft's internal testing facility?

http://gameoftheart.com/games/XDK3910.html

Or how about this xbox with a chihiro connector installed? Circa May 2000

http://gamerhistory.com/images/Xbox1.../Proto(11).jpg

Sega of America was helping Microsoft develop the Xbox hardware. I'm not sure if Sega of Japan knew this or not. That's why Peter Moore jumped ship from Sega to Microsoft.
Sega sent engineers to help develop the Xbox1 so they could use the part

Dude, you are all into this shit, so I knew it was a matter of time before you posted.

I knew about the set top box way back when, but did anything ever happen with that?
Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought the set top box got released in other countries.

As far as my information goes (programmingace, I am sure you can correct me), but I thought that the set top box was basically going to allow for downloading dc games to the box instead of using gd-r's

[lagartija_nick]

If this were true it would it not stand to reason that Sega would at some point have to stop publishing games on Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo Consoles?
If there games were not exclusive to their own hardware why would anybody by their system?

What I am getting at is 2010 holiday seems a little soon, At some point they would have to cut off production for other consoles. If that happens (short of bankrupcy) then we will know for sure something is up.

I don't know how far Sega's publishing plans extend to at this point, but if games for other hardware companies are being published by Sega close to holiday 2010 and beyond then this cannot possibly be true.

[SegaAges]

Whether I want this or not, which I do, my educated guess is that it is new arcade hardware.

That makes a shitload more sense.

As for home use, well, I have seen consolized atomiswaves on eBay if that counts, hehehe

[ProgrammingAce]

You mean this xbox, circa July 2000 with sony's custom testing software installed? The one that was given to me by someone in Microsoft's internal testing facility?

I of course meant Sega here.

As far as my information goes (programmingace, I am sure you can correct me), but I thought that the set top box was basically going to allow for downloading dc games to the box instead of using gd-r's

To be honest, i don't know anything about the set top box. But if that was their plan, it was a pipe dream. Storage capacities and bandwidth would never have been able to handle the gigabyte of data that each GD-Rom holds.

It may have been the precursor to the original xbox live arcade, but that's neither here nor there and complete conjecture on my part.

I think it's safe to assume that if Sega was helping Microsoft with the hardware they may have been helping with Xbox live as well. If not intentionally, then because Microsoft scalped a bunch of Sega employees. It's pretty impressive what Microsoft managed to put together in a year, it's not hard to imagine that former Sega employees were part of that.

[Zap!]

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeee be true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[123►Genei-Jin]

If they're truly developing new hardware, I hope it's arcade only. Considering the only decent game series they currently have is Virtua Fighter, a new console would most likely be yet another failure.

[G-Boobie]

If they're truly developing new hardware, I hope it's arcade only. Considering the only decent game series they currently have is Virtua Fighter, a new console would most likely be yet another failure.

Don't forget Yakuza and (hopefully) Valkyria Chronicles. Their recent attempts to bring the Phantasy Star series back into respectability aren't half bad either.

Interesting find, Parallaxscroll. Thanks for posting.

[BHvrd]

I would say fuck Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo and immediately jump on this baby day one.

The chance to own a new Sega console is just too exciting in itself.

[ShinobiMan]

I would say fuck Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo and immediately jump on this baby day one.

The chance to own a new Sega console is just too exciting in itself.

My thoughts exactly, BUT... I don't think it's going to happen. Wishful thinking maybe, but the chances of it happening are slim. Time will tell I guess.

[segagamer]

My thoughts exactly, BUT... I don't think it's going to happen. Wishful thinking maybe, but the chances of it happening are slim. Time will tell I guess.

I agree with you 100%.

[Zap!]

Let's hope it comes with Alex Kidd and they return to their SMS roots. Sonic as mascot turned me to rival Nintendo.

[Ed Oscuro]

This isn't like the old days where a console will bring a completely different gaming experience, but that's not such a bad thing here actually. Mainly I'm looking forward to some competition in the DLC and game pricing arenas. Would be nice to see the Nintendo console have some pricing pressure put on it for example.

[Sonicwolf]

If Sega released a console now it would be a disaster. That kind of saturation in the market is unwarranted and the consumers would not bother buying a system that would basically have the same games as the PS3 and the 360. Also, its not like anything would be a massive leap forward like each new console launch used to bring. Each new generation is less of a jump in graphics than the previous to the previous.

[Zap!]

If Sega released a console now it would be a disaster. That kind of saturation in the market is unwarranted and the consumers would not bother buying a system that would basically have the same games as the PS3 and the 360. Also, its not like anything would be a massive leap forward like each new console launch used to bring. Each new generation is less of a jump in graphics than the previous to the previous.

You have to remember, there are a lot of die-hards Sega fans out there and haters that don't like Sony, M$, or Nintendo. I'm no longer a hater (used to hate Sony but recently came around), but I am pro-Sega and would love to see a familiar face re-enter the market. It'll make me feel like a teen again, I am obsessed with the past. Hell, bring back Atari too.

[Sonicwolf]

You have to remember, there are a lot of die-hards Sega fans out there and haters that don't like Sony, M$, or Nintendo. I'm no longer a hater (used to hate Sony but recently came around), but I am pro-Sega and would love to see a familiar face re-enter the market. It'll make me feel like a teen again, I am obsessed with the past. Hell, bring back Atari too.

It is very doubtful that a large bunch of Sega fans have held off buying a new game console since 2001 because they hate the big three companies. Also, Do you really think that a good amount of the 80+ million people that have bought home consoles already from this generation would buy another just because its a Sega console? You could bring in the argument that its Sega and Sega has Sega games. Well, Sega's primary franchises have been milked and degraded for years now and their games arent exactly as quality-ridden as they used to be. I already have a PS3, 360, and Wii and if Sega brought out a new console it would have to have one hell of a selling point to get me to buy it. Believe me, I love Sega(or getting to the point of 'used to love'). Dreamcast and Genesis are some of my favorite consoles but I feel their time has passed and unless their is a major home console failure of the current big three, they should remain backed-off until a more oppurtune time arrives.

[Zap!]

It is very doubtful that a large bunch of Sega fans have held off buying a new game console since 2001 because they hate the big three companies. Also, Do you really think that a good amount of the 80+ million people that have bought home consoles already from this generation would buy another just because its a Sega console? You could bring in the argument that its Sega and Sega has Sega games. Well, Sega's primary franchises have been milked and degraded for years now and their games arent exactly as quality-ridden as they used to be. I already have a PS3, 360, and Wii and if Sega brought out a new console it would have to have one hell of a selling point to get me to buy it. Believe me, I love Sega(or getting to the point of 'used to love'). Dreamcast and Genesis are some of my favorite consoles but I feel their time has passed and unless their is a major home console failure of the current big three, they should remain backed-off until a more oppurtune time arrives.

Who said they held off? No, many have reluctantly switched to Nintendo, but wish there were more choices out there than only one long-time video game maker (Sony and M$ have not been making games for 30+ years like Sega and Nintendo) in the hardware business.

If Sega completely cuts off making games for the big three, and their 2010 Sammy comes with a new Shenmue, Alex Kidd, Fantasy Zone, or Phantasy Star, then this thing could sell. I will get this on day one and be willing to wait in the freezing cold.