Don't Count Out the Dreamcast Yet

by Ben Breier

In regarding the battle upcoming in October with the Playstation 2 hitting the American market, I compare the Sega vs. Sony battle to World War 2.

My comparison goes as follows: Sega takes the role of the Americans, and Sony takes the role of the Germans. Alone, the Americans would never have been able to defeat the Germans, but after allying up with numerous other countries, the tyrant that was Germany was overthrown by the allied forces.

Plain out and simple, developers are being idiots. Many of the big guns, such as EA Sports, are refusing to develop for the Dreamcast, and I ask EA, why the Dreamcast bias? You could have churned out big money titles and cashed in on some of the early Dreamcast success, but you held back from it, and your significant drop in stock has certainly reflected that. When it comes to sports, I'll just stick to Visual Concepts or even Midway. I don't want any more of that EA Sports stanky crap.

Sega's third-party support isn't very thrilling right now. Capcom is probably their biggest gun pulling for them right now, and in the upcoming months, Falcom and Game Arts are also going to throw their water into the Sega bucket. However, RPG-wise, Sega has an ok start. Evolution and EGG gave RPGamers a taste of the system's power, but you've gotta wait for the real good stuff hidden in titles like Phantasy Star Online, Grandia 2, and Sorcerian. If developers will pull their heads out of their asses and develop for the Dreamcast, Sega may be able to overthrow Sony. However, this is banking on many factors, including the multiplayer network, and big name titles that should sell well in the states like Shen Mue and Chu Chu Rocket.

Don't count out the DC yet.

Ben Breier
Staff Writer
http://www.totalrpg.com