That time when Dreamcast outsold Xbox in Japan

Just a fun little story that captured a few headlines for a short period of time. For a brand new console that hit Japan, it's amazing to think just a short while later the now obsolete Dreamcast would be shifting more of it's left over stock than Microsoft's newest console...

Sega Saturn on PS1? | Sega's plans which never were

When Sega shocked the world by going third party, we all knew what this meant - Dreamcast games on competitors consoles, but Saturn games on PS One?...

The Hunt for Dreamcast 2 | A search for the truth [Intro]

So there's been a lot of talk about the Dreamcast 2, whether it is just hypothetical 'what if' scenarios discussed among fans or made up renders peddling Sega returning back to the console market. However not a lot of discussion, or research, has been made surrounding the possibility or mention of a Dreamcast follow up.

This is just the intro to a huge research project I started a few years back looking into whether the Dreamcast 2 existed. This isn't a fan wish list or a hypothetical look into Sega returning, this is everything or anything relating to an official Dreamcast 2 surrounding 1996-2002.

I started this project started around 3 years ago when I saw a post talking about a Dreamcast 2. In there, it linked to an IGN article back around mid 2000 reporting how Shoichiro Irimajiri had stepped down as president to work on a console successor to the Dreamcast.

This one news article opened the flood gates, and the more I dug, the more I found. I scoured easily over 150 hours on the way back machine, tonnes of game magazines in physical and PDF formats, books and more. As I started to catalogue and assess everything I found, I asked myself - why has no one ever done this before?

A lot of information discussed will also talk about the Dreamcast and Sega's business strategy. When you are looking at hundreds - if not thousands - of articles around business strategies, you start to see parallels with what Sega was doing, and wanted to do at the time. This helps to draw a bigger picture to how the Dreamcast 2 would fit in and what it would be.

So what did I find? Quite a bit...

TGS Autumn 2002 | Dreamcast's Last Trade Show Appearance

Whilst we are all well aware of Dreamcast and it's demise in the west, the Dreamcast continued getting official support in Japan until 2007. However with the console ceasing production in March 2001 I was wondering; when was the last time the Dreamcast hardware was represented at a trade show? Information was quite hard to find on this but after trawling through a few sites, the Dreamcast's last physical appearance seems to be in September 2002. 

Up until then, the last appearance of Dreamcast seems to be E3 2001 with it all but disappearing afterwards. Looking past TGS 2002, there definitely wasn't any representation from 2004 up until the Dreamcast's full discontinuation in 2007 - evident by going through the archived TGS's reports. 

2003 is rather ambiguous, whilst Puyo Puyo was shown at TGS and listed for Dreamcast - along with the other ports of the game, there's no evidence I can find which suggests it was played on a Dreamcast on the show floor. After trawling through countless videos, show floor plans, even finding any videos of Puyo being displayed is something I can't find. The official TGS website will list it as being a Dreamcast title, though this will also list this under the other available platforms also. 

So what was shown? Well there were 2 games shown, both of which were visual novels. First off, there was Ever Seventeen ~The Out of Infinity and then also Me and Our Summer. I haven't played either of these titles simply due to them being visual novels and them not being playable in English. The games were not massively prominent in Sega's line-up at the time with them being relegated to the kid booth of TGS.

Until proven otherwise, 2002 TGS was the last time physical Dreamcast hardware was represented on the show floor at a major event. It's not a spectacular send off for the console, but it does make you wonder what Sega ever did with these final consoles...

References:

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2002/release/release20020830.html

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2002/booth/booth17.html

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2003/english/imgs/r3_7.pdf

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2004/list.htm

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2003/release8.html

Making Real Life a Game | does gamifying life work for productivity?

One thing that’s bugged me is the inspiration to be more productive, such as working on this blog, or learning a language. I’ve always found it easier to just sit at home after a hard day at work and just sit and watch YouTube to get that easy gratification fix. But I’ve been recently trying to change my lifestyle and the best way I’ve found is to turn your life into a game.

Working to a schedule is hard, it’s easy to look at it and just say “Nah” and do something else. I’ve been struggling to build those good habits, whether it be trying through a journal, planner or finding motivation on forums. 

Habitica is one of the most visually interesting of the bunch

Virtual Fighter X | The story behind VF4's early development known as VF-X

One of Sega's biggest franchises Virtual Fighter is to return some point this year in 2022 under the name Virtual Fighter X Esports. Upon it's announcement I was initially excited, then I felt confused - that name sounds awfully familiar? Well back in the year 2000, Sega's next entry in the franchise was called just that - minus the 'Esport'.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to look back at the inception of the real Virtual Fighter X back before it was known as the 4th entry in the franchise, and what Sega's plans were before it was renamed became a staple in the mainline series as we know it.

Official Logo on Sega AM2 site

Nintendo GameCube Pre-Reveal Information | Everything we knew about GameCube Part 1 (1999)

Nothing got me more excited than following up all the information and rumours leading up to a console reveal. The drip-feed of information, the rumours, the pre-release screenshots and promo footage - it was a magical time. With the 6th generation of consoles looming, Nintendo had a lot to prove. Moving from the Nintendo 64, it had lost a lot of market and mind share. 

So I thought it would be interesting to have a look back at everything GameCube prior to it's release. I have spent hours collecting everything from wild rumours, off-hand comments and official information will be here to get a wider perspective and to really give a perspective of Nintendo from 1999 to it's official reveal at E3 2001.