Hey folks, Valkor here, taking a film break to address an issue that I need to put to sleep once and for all. Now since its release unto the masses in 1999, the Sega Dreamcast has always has and will always be my heart and soul, system of choice. It is a machine that showed us the power of what a great company can go when it finally gets its shit together and breathe forth new life that was simply mind-blowing. But strong marketing from the competition and past failures put a hurtin on Sega so much that they were bumped out of the consoles and relegated to making software for those which it competed against. Since then there have been rumors on top of rumors that Sega was making a comeback to consoles. But those years have passed and a new console was yet to be seen, making me believe (back then) that there was no hope for a new Sega system – and I was ok with that, because at that time the Playstation 1 and 2 were pretty strong and essentially filled my gaming needs along with PC gaming. And hey, Sega was still producing great titles so other than not playing them on a console that was Sega-fied… I was quite content.
But, I'd say in the past couple of years, there has been a new resurgence of rumors that a new Sega Dreamcast was in the works, tentatively titled "Dreamcast 2". And thinking back to my Dreamcast days… why not a Dreamcast 2? Well, I've shared my thoughts about this repeatedly whenever I attend any gaming event, and I'll ask other reporters, developers, PR, anyone who'll listen to my thoughts on a Dreamcast 2. And the majority agreed – No to a new Sega Console. Why? "There simply isn't room for one more system" is the most common answer. And I'll accept that, it doesn't sway my hopes of a new Sega console, but it's an acceptable answer nonetheless. Last year, fellow writer Alacran did a brief report on a "Sega rumor" that didn't pan out to much, but it did fuel my interest further to seek out the truth of this elusive console. I even approached several Sega reps at this year's E3 and was given a quick answer "No comment". Again I take it for what it's worth and I won't read into it any further than that… that is until today…
So recently I decided once more to traverse the internets to see if there were any new rumors of a Dreamcast 2 and my search lead me to this rumor in particular – [HERE] - link no longer available
This is an article that I recall 2D-X's JayDub showing me some time ago. The article itself dates back to 2007 (similar articles go back even further) and essentially it states that this company, Imagination Technologies, is working with Sega on a new console. First off, as I seek out similar articles, a lot of this "reporting" is being fueled by a lot of small blogger sites (quite possibly to snag hits from the search engines), and they've all agreed or believe that Sega is working with this company on a new Sega console. To pull a quote from this particular article:
Today we can exclusively reveal that SEGA has signed with Imagination Technologies of the United Kingdom to provide, to quote our source "a very high end next generation graphics chipset" for exclusive arcade and console use.
If we were to take an educated guess we would have to say that this emplies the in development PowerVR Series 6, the successor to the PowerVR SGX5XX Series.
Regarding other technicalities nothing is yet known. Thus information such as Ram Configuration, Ram type, CPU, CPU provider etc... currently remain a mystery.
But my own searches lead me to an article back in 2004, which discusses Imagination Technologies, working with Sega on arcade hardware; From the Press Release that can be found [HERE] - (link no longer available). So yes at one point, Sega was working with IT, but for arcade systems only, not for a new console. It is quite possible that someone has taken that press release and tweaked it for their own needs as the original article(s) don't state a source or where the rumor first began; they all state the same thing - "rumor is circulating that Sega is currently working on a console". Circulating from where exactly? From inside Sega of America? Sega of Japan? Sega Europe? From within Imagination technologies? Maybe someone's cousin's, uncle's, ex-girlfriend's, stepmom heard it from the ice cream concessions guy outside of E3? But if you can't claim where the source began (not the actual source) then it shouldn't be reported. Period.
Fake! But still looks cool!
Now before anyone jumps on my case with "but you let Alacran report a rumor"! And yes that is correct, but one that sorta panned out to have an inkling of truth as there does exist ARCADE hardware for RingWide and RingEdge, but nothing else since then... at least not about a console. So now I had to take things a step further, because clearly Sega is adamant about "no new consoles", but this rumor piece keeps recirculating, so why not take it up directly with Imagination technologies? I did! And what that lead me to was this: According to the rep and taking a quote direct from the email -
We don't generally comment on rumours but I'm happy to point you to public domain information: (link no longer available) you can see from the public information on our website that Sega are not currently announced as a licensee of our technology.
Of course it is possible that SEGA could work with one of our licensees to get access to our technology, rather than license directly. I'd not be able to comment on that; you'd be best asking them directly.
As you can see from the Licensee list, Sega is nowhere to be found. But this doesn't mean anything concerning a new console. What it does mean, is that this particular rumor is a brickwall, road to nowhere, a dead horse that we need to stop beating. So with that in mind, I think we can lay this one to rest, unless something else comes up. But it would appear that Imagination Technologies and Sega are not in bed together in the making of a new console. Does that mean I must cast aside all hope that a new Dreamcast or Sega console won't come into fruition? Not a chance! I gotta keep the Dream(cast} alive, because I believe the time is just right for Sega to make a comeback. Please share your thoughts on this in the comment section below.