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LOS ANGELES -- The contrast between Sega's ear-pounding, eye-popping, show-stopping extravaganza of last year and this year's minimalist by-invitation-only booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo couldn't be more noticeable.
At the 2000 show, Sega loaded all of its marketing weapons for one final kamikaze-style attack as its Dreamcast system faced off against Sony's PlayStation 2 juggernaut.
As we all know, Dreamcast lost the war. Cutting its losses, Sega pulled the plug on the system early this year, although additional software support is planned at least through year's end.
Facing a future without hardware, Sega has turned instead to software development.
Peter Moore, Chief Operating Officer for Sega of America, portrayed Sega as a "platform agnostic" entertainment software company that will develop games for next-generation systems such as Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's Game Cube and Game Boy Advance, and Sega's own Dreamcast.
"As a company," said Moore, "it is our belief that innovation is where we will go and continue to prove our success, in this brave new world of being a third-party publisher.
It's not the way he'd hoped it would be, but Moore is realistic about Sega's reduced stature.
"Quite frankly, you can see we're a much smaller presence this year, but it's a building year for us. We're more focused. We're clearly now in a position as a company to project where we go in relation to the other platforms. It's a very different experience for us.... Our software is second to none."
What it does with its software is yet to be seen.
"It is our intent that come holiday 2003, we will be a legitimate competitor for the number one spot as top video-game publisher in the world," Moore said.
Although the Internet sector has taken a beating in recent months, Moore said Sega remains bullish regarding the future of online gaming, citing successful Internet-capable Dreamcast games such as Phantasy Star Online and NFL2K1.
"We have never believed more in the future of online gaming," Moore said. "Is it going to be profitable and easy right off the blocks? Absolutely not. Is it going to be worth it in the long run? You bet your ass it is."
Can Sega make the best of this new strategic turn? Key observers seem to think so.
"Sega's in a really interesting position this E3," said Joe Fielder, director of Cnet's GameSpot website. "It could choose to model itself along the lines of leading third-party software publishers such as Electronic Arts by bringing out all of its key games on all three of the major game systems. That's worked well for EA, and it certainly could work for Sega as well." While Fielder anticipated that one of gaming's big three might announce an exclusive with Sega at E3, that hasn't happened.
"It would be quite a coup for Microsoft to be able to secure, say, the next Sonic game for the Xbox, since that's the sort of well-known game series that Nintendo and Sony have for their systems, and Microsoft doesn't," Fielder said. "I don't know if that's going to necessarily be Sega's strategy for the future, but it'll be very interesting to see if it'll be making those kind of alliances."
Sega is apparently avoiding such exclusivity. The software-only publishers announced over a dozen third-party titles in the works, including games for all three next-generation consoles as well as Nintendo's upcoming Game Boy Advance.
Xbox games in production by Sega include sports hits NBA2K2 and NFL2K2, as well as action-adventure Gun Valkyrie, Crazy Taxi Next and Jet Set Radio Future. Sega has also announced that it will bring its Saturn system classic Panzer Dragoon Saga to Xbox at an unspecified future date.
Sega's sports titles, as well as its martial arts game, Virtua Fighter 4, can be used on PlayStation 2.
Nintendo's Game Cube will be the beneficiary of three Sega titles, most notably Phantasy Star Online. Sega's trademark character, Sonic the Hedgehog, will make his Nintendo debut on Game Boy Advance, one of several games in development by Sega for its former arch rival's new handheld system.
"I'm sure a lot of people would never have expected to see Sonic on a Nintendo system," said Nintendo spokeswoman Beth Llewelyn. "But I'm excited. Sega makes fabulous games. They have great game designers. Maybe we can reap the benefits."
