Sega addresses online gaming

During an interview with GameSpot, Charles Bellfield, vice president of marketing and corporate communications at Sega of America, further addressed the company's online plans, as it transitions into a third-party software publisher. According to Bellfield, the current SegaNet fee of $9.95 a month, which was recently implemented, is only applicable to the Dreamcast platform. The company currently has no plans to provide its own service, when releasing online games on consoles from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

"The fee is for the Dreamcast only," Bellfield explained. "When it comes to multiplatform content that will depend on the strategy of each company. We're still committed to delivering online content to the Microsoft Xbox before 2003. So far, we are certainly supportive of the public statements that we made with them at E3. We will also be supporting the Nintendo GameCube with online games. Nintendo has modem peripherals listed under its specifications and our GameCube game is titled Phantasy Star Online, so I'll leave it at that. As for Sony, as soon as Sony has made their announcements about online, we will follow up with our own."

GameSpot will have more on Sega's online plans as further information is available.