Emerging from hiding once more, the ever controversial Rick Powers tackles what it means now that Sega's out of the console business.

It’s been a long time coming, but Wednesday, January 31, 2001, Sega announced that they were ceasing production of the Dreamcast console, and were going to focus on making games for other platforms. Many owners of the unit are now furious, but they have only themselves to blame. Sega has a history of ditching a console early when it learns it can’t win the current conflagration in the market.

Sega’s strength has always laid in the arms of its arcade division. Sega’s coin-operated machines are a beauty to behold, innovative and inspiring. Its console business, on the other hand, has resulted in frustration for both consumers and Sega alike. It’s not the first time that it was suggested that Sega get out of the race altogether and focus on games. We’re just all wondering what took so damn long.

Do you actually think the N64 is dead? Since when?!? Jon reminds everyone that one of their favorite systems should still be working great and still merits playing.

We gaming journalists are a wily lot, and in celebration of our infinite cleverness we have designed our own mini-vocabulary of buzzwords and catch phrases. In what other sector will you find such liberal use of words like “decidedly” or phrases like “a mixed bag”? I must admit, it’s fun to invent these things and see other people adopt them and make them a credible part of our specialized glossary. Sometimes we take normal words and give them new meanings. Most people look at the word “launch” and imagine a rocket or perhaps a boat; we gaming gurus conjure images of promotional material and pre-order slips.

Ed takes a look at what we can expect from Sega now and examines what the latest events mean. Will the "Sega Scream" fade into memory, or does the game giant have a chance in its new role as third-par

It’s official now. Nintendo will only have 2 competitors in the next generation of console wars. Industry veteran and beloved software maker Sega has stated that they will drop out of the console hardware business to focus on software. The days of the Sega Scream are numbered. Or are they? In truth, the Scream is very much alive now. Sure it won’t be on the soon to be defunct Dreamcast for much more than a year or so, but the famous scream will be heard on all 3 of the next-generation consoles. And, ironically, Sega should have more influence in the next-generation battle than they were likely to have had before their announced restructuring. How so? Well, exclusive software has always played an important role in establishing console dominance in every generation. It figures to be even more important in the next-generation battle. With the costs of game production continuing to rise, third party publishers are more and more likely to put out a game on multiple platforms to get the biggest bang for their buck. Why limit yourself to a single console when for a fraction of the cost of a new game, you can port that title to another platform? While this practice will bring in more money for publishers, it makes the differences between the consoles less distinct. Thus the few titles that are console exclusive will stand out even more in the next-generation console wars.

Nintendo, Sega and Sony have been releasing their consoles in America with great success for 15 years. Now Microsoft plans to reverse the trend. What kind of opposition will they face?

A war is about to take place. Throughout the Internet many people are already taking sides. They argue endlessly over specs, inflated polygon numbers, fill-rate, features, lists of developers and more. The sides are clear. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Until recently, Sega could be counted amongst their ranks, but alas, the once mighty hardware developer has already fallen to the rank of respected 3rd party. Meanwhile, Sony has a head start on the others, but Nintendo and Microsoft have had more time to prepare their forces. It's going to be one hell of a battle in America at the end of the year.