Peep Show: Sega's Hidden Agenda

Here's the final installment of VideoGameSpot contributor Jer Horwitz's serial on Sega's fourth-generation system.

Did You Say SegaSoft?: SegaSoft is working with Sega of America on a new console, but as the 3DFX release clearly said, it may never come out. This is not, as some people keep saying, because Sega wants out of the hardware business, but because it is working on at least one possible alternative in Japan right now. What's known about Sega's 'other' console at the moment is that the Japanese arm of the company has, ironically enough, been in talks with a second 3-D chipset developer regarding the machine's graphics chips. Lockheed Martin's Real 3-D chips would be an obvious possibility given their present use in Sega Model 3 titles from VF3 to Virtua Striker 2 to Super GT. Little else is known, though rumors of Hitachi involvement have started to make the rounds, despite Sega's problems with the so-so expense-to-power performance ratio of its last two Hitachi chip-based machines (the 32X and Saturn). Saturn compatibility would most likely not be in the cards for even a Hitachi-based machine, from what my sources have indicated.

The Explanation: Why would Sega work on two consoles at once? There's a good reason: far from being internally united and focusing on the direction the company should be taking in the future, Sega is still internally very unsure about the future of video game machines. The company is divided between the notion of a machine that excels at arcade ports and one that could be a network computer (NC), and while one of the consoles it's developing is said to be Intel-compatible (or at least similar in configuration to a PC), the other is not. Console game companies have been forced to embrace online multiplayer gaming, and Sega's still not quite sure where it wants to wind up in the online gaming world.

The Swirlies: These are the issues surrounding Black Belt. Whatever the design contains if it is finally released, Sega will have to conquer a large number of preconceived notions and low expectations before its new toy will sell with developers, stores, and gamers.