Rivalry among game console manufacturers Sony, Nintendo, and Sega heated up Thursday, as Sega Japan announced that it would lower the price for five Sega Saturn game system titles by roughly 50 percent. The cut comes on the heels of similarly dramatic price drops by both Sony and Nintendo for their consoles, but it also coincides with another gaming milestone: SegaSoft quietly bowing out of the console software market.
On Thursday, SegaSoft, an offshoot of Sega, released Scud, the last game it will ever develop in the Saturn format.
The move comes as Sega, lacking Sony's diversity in games and Nintendo's sophisticated 64-bit technology, falls further behind in the console market. But SegaSoft president and CEO Gary Griffiths stresses that the company was spun out from Sega with the purpose of making games for the PC and the Internet. SegaSoft developed games for the Saturn and other consoles mainly as a way to defray start-up expenses.
Griffiths seems happy about working with PCs rather than consoles, regardless of the timeline. "When we design for the PC we're not paying royalties to anyone. It's an open platform." The development tools for the PC are much less expensive than those for the console, which must be licensed from the console makers, Griffiths notes, and the CD format is cheaper to manufacture.
SegaSoft has also started beta-testing HEAT, its online gaming network which uses licensed Mpath technology coupled with proprietary IPX software for playing networked games.
SegaSoft hopes to take advantage of the complex relationships that the Internet allows, by rewarding frequent customers with points that give discounts on games or allow them to accumulate new weapons and moves in existing games. "We're going after the hard-core gamer with HEAT," said Griffiths, noting that SegaSoft is using the points lure "to get players in and keep them in."
A recent report from the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association states that among American children and teenagers who own both consoles and PCs, 88 percent prefer PCs.
