I flat-out can NOT believe that someone would STILL try to defend Gamergate or victim blame Zoe Quinn.
Have you been residing in a cave the last couple years?
We divorce you.
To Coventry with you.
Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium
- Thread starter RySenkari
- Start date
- Status
Have you been residing in a cave the last couple years?
We divorce you.
To Coventry with you.
...on a lighter note, what's the ITTL status of Firefly? Did it get made? If so, did it run into the same hilarity with Fox's high sheriffs? (I've always suspected that a key motive behind what they did to the show was punishing Joss for using Fox production facilities to make the Buffyverse shows for other networks.)
Yeah, speaking of, did Buffy's 6th season run into the same... "issues" that it did IOTL?
Also:
Windex20 said:
A few pages too late, but regarding DC Comics? How are Lobo and Hitman faring? They, along with Aquaman, are what got me into comics back in the 90s, and both fell victim to the big shift in editorial at DC around 2000-01 in OTL.
Lobo especially would be interesting - had DC not canned the title when they did, as the internet picks up, he very easily could have beaten Deadpool to the punch of being the internet's favorite hyperviolent fourth-wall breaking mercenary. DC wasted a bloody opportunity there.
Hitman meanwhile, has and always will be, one of the master works of the Dark Ages of comics. As much as it getting cancelled hurt, its ending was unforgettable.
Lobo especially would be interesting - had DC not canned the title when they did, as the internet picks up, he very easily could have beaten Deadpool to the punch of being the internet's favorite hyperviolent fourth-wall breaking mercenary. DC wasted a bloody opportunity there.
Hitman meanwhile, has and always will be, one of the master works of the Dark Ages of comics. As much as it getting cancelled hurt, its ending was unforgettable.
*deep breath* Hoo boy. Let me first address some of the reader questions I've passed over, then I'll briefly address the elephant in the room.
Yes, it still does. Spielberg's fascination with World War II transcends all butterflies and Band of Brothers happens pretty much as it does IOTL, with a few dialogue and actor changes but mostly the same.
Ben Croshaw will be getting a very...interesting job offer sometime in the next couple years. Jim Sterling is currently at university as of TTL 2003.
We'll have some pop culture updates starting some time after E3, I'd like to at least touch on anime a little bit in those. We do need to show what Japan's up to at this time as far as anime and manga is concerned, no doubt there will be some completely original titles making the rounds at this time.
Gawker still exists as of TTL March 2017. And that's all I've got to say about that.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are both airing on Fox as of this time. Buffy will end in 2004, Angel in 2005. As for Firefly, Fox is probably going to give Whedon another series after both of those shows are through, so....it very well could be Firefly, or it might not be. Yes, Tara still died. Joss Whedon is still Joss Whedon after all. Cordelia lives though!
Um...we'll have to get back to you on Lobo and Hitman. I'll try to come up with an idea for them so that Pyro doesn't have to come up with EVERYTHING for the comic stuff
-
Okay, so let's address quickly what happened. Basically, no matter how tempting it is to discuss the political situation surrounding gaming, please, PLEASE try to abstain from it. We won't be dipping heavily into any sort of gaming politics of that nature until probably 2013, so until then, please don't ask any questions regarding it so things don't go off the rails. We've said and will continue to say that things don't get NEARLY as toxic and crazy as they do IOTL. The "dudebro" games of TTL 2017 would probably be considered middle of the road by OTL 2017's standards. I'm really tempted to spoil the results of the 2008 presidential election to give partial explanation for things and satisfy you guys, but the 2000 election post was poorly received and we don't want to give up any more big spoilers. Please keep the focus on where it belongs... the games. The awesome, amazing, incredible games coming up that you guys won't be able to read about if you get banned or the topic gets locked.
Speaking of games: Divine Wrath, Kingdom Quest, and the Vintage series will continue as planned. We were also discussing another 2004 game with Abe, but we didn't get all the information on it before his banning, so right now we're probably going to postpone it until 2005 and then figure out if we should try to get in touch with him or fill in the gaps ourselves or just cancel it.
I'm hoping to do an update today, but it's kind of iffy, my car's been acting up and I had to have it towed, so I might be dealing with that today.
Thank you again to all the readers and contributors. We really appreciate the feedback and we have a lot of fun doing this TL. Onward and upward.
Yes, it still does. Spielberg's fascination with World War II transcends all butterflies and Band of Brothers happens pretty much as it does IOTL, with a few dialogue and actor changes but mostly the same.
Ben Croshaw will be getting a very...interesting job offer sometime in the next couple years. Jim Sterling is currently at university as of TTL 2003.
We'll have some pop culture updates starting some time after E3, I'd like to at least touch on anime a little bit in those. We do need to show what Japan's up to at this time as far as anime and manga is concerned, no doubt there will be some completely original titles making the rounds at this time.
Gawker still exists as of TTL March 2017. And that's all I've got to say about that.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are both airing on Fox as of this time. Buffy will end in 2004, Angel in 2005. As for Firefly, Fox is probably going to give Whedon another series after both of those shows are through, so....it very well could be Firefly, or it might not be. Yes, Tara still died. Joss Whedon is still Joss Whedon after all. Cordelia lives though!
Um...we'll have to get back to you on Lobo and Hitman. I'll try to come up with an idea for them so that Pyro doesn't have to come up with EVERYTHING for the comic stuff
-
Okay, so let's address quickly what happened. Basically, no matter how tempting it is to discuss the political situation surrounding gaming, please, PLEASE try to abstain from it. We won't be dipping heavily into any sort of gaming politics of that nature until probably 2013, so until then, please don't ask any questions regarding it so things don't go off the rails. We've said and will continue to say that things don't get NEARLY as toxic and crazy as they do IOTL. The "dudebro" games of TTL 2017 would probably be considered middle of the road by OTL 2017's standards. I'm really tempted to spoil the results of the 2008 presidential election to give partial explanation for things and satisfy you guys, but the 2000 election post was poorly received and we don't want to give up any more big spoilers. Please keep the focus on where it belongs... the games. The awesome, amazing, incredible games coming up that you guys won't be able to read about if you get banned or the topic gets locked.
Speaking of games: Divine Wrath, Kingdom Quest, and the Vintage series will continue as planned. We were also discussing another 2004 game with Abe, but we didn't get all the information on it before his banning, so right now we're probably going to postpone it until 2005 and then figure out if we should try to get in touch with him or fill in the gaps ourselves or just cancel it.
I'm hoping to do an update today, but it's kind of iffy, my car's been acting up and I had to have it towed, so I might be dealing with that today.
Thank you again to all the readers and contributors. We really appreciate the feedback and we have a lot of fun doing this TL. Onward and upward.
Detective Conan is still around, Conan is still solving crimes and is still just a kid. Case Closed might actually get dubbed under its original title, since we may or may not have Funimation (which is still doing mostly video game dubs and has just now gotten around to anime localization) be the one to localize it. As for Tiger Woods, we've barely covered golf games at all (except for Mario Golf)
Rest assured, the Tiger Woods PGA series still exists and still sells decently, we just shy away from covering annualized sports titles for the most part unless something major occurs with them in terms of a change or an especially good game. Nothing much has changed with it, though the overall presentation quality and graphics of the games are slightly improved from IOTL. As for Tiger himself, he's still kicking ass out on the links, in fact he's won two MORE majors than he has by this point IOTL.And sure, you're welcome to submit your ideas for Rome: Total War to us via PM.
Kind of figured when I remembered that there were several excerpts from Kotaku beforehand.
Spring 2003 (Part 6) - The Wave's Second Wave
As E3 2003 approached, the Nintendo Wave was still selling like hotcakes, though the company was able to keep store shelves stocked for the most part throughout the months of April and May. Between Nintendo, Japan, and Europe, the Wave broke the five million units barrier in mid-April, and throughout the entire month of April, sold over one million units alone. While sales began to slow up just a bit into May, Wave sales remained well ahead of those of the Xbox, which was still running a strong second, averaging about 600,000 units sold per month. The Sega Katana, while still running a distant third to the Xbox, hadn't seen its sales dip even after the release of the Wave. In fact, Katana sales were picking up, if only slightly: sales went from 220,000 in March 2003 to 260,000 in April, and the release of Knuckles and Bit was helping May 2003 to be the strongest month for the Katana since 2002. The only console that saw its sales drop that spring was the Ultra Nintendo: Ultra Nintendo sales dipped slightly in March 2003 and April 2003, and then plunged in May, though sales were still outpacing that of the Katana. The Ultra Nintendo was still selling well at $99, with a variety of game bundles available.
The fact remained that the Wave was now on top of the gaming world, and, thanks partially to Nintendo generously stocking shelves, was actually outpacing Ultra Nintendo sales over its first few months of release, if only slightly. The Wave was well on its way to being Nintendo's next big hit, and Nintendo's #1 position in the game industry was still unchallenged.
Though the Wave still lacked a killer app, Killer Instinct 3 and Mario Kart: Double Dash! were still topping sales charts throughout April 2003, along with Ken Griffey: Hall Of Fame, which took advantage of heavy sales during the start of the 2003 MLB season to remain a strong third ahead of the Wave's new releases during that month. In addition to the excellent new Wave exclusives popping up that spring, a number of ports, both straight and enhanced, made their way to the console.
April 2003 saw the releases of Devil May Cry and Ridge Racer Wave. Devil May Cry featured a number of graphical and gameplay enhancements, and was the best selling of the early Wave ports, with a great deal of hype accompanying its release in the runup to the release of that year's sequel. Ridge Racer Wave was an enhanced port of Ridge Racer 3, which was exclusive to the Katana. It boasted vastly improved graphics (not quite on par with Gran Turismo 3, but still outstanding compared to any racing game released before it save for perhaps the Xbox's Project Gotham Racing) and a number of new tracks, and also a sleek new presentation style. It was the first Ridge Racer to come to a Nintendo home console, and it was an improvement even over the excellently received original.
Max Payne and Victory came in May. A pair of gritty shooters, the two games were fairly identical to the original Katana/Xbox versions, with Victory boasting a few more enhancements than Payne. Both games sold well, with Victory eventually outselling the Katana and Ultra Nintendo versions of the game. Of course, Victory looked vastly better than the Ultra Nintendo version, showing just how much of a technological leap the Wave was.
In June, The Sims came to the Wave, and while it wasn't quite as robust in terms of options as the PC version was (it lacked all the mods of the PC version, obviously), it was still a very solid port, and slightly better received than those on the Wave and the Katana. Thanks to good promotion by Nintendo, it became the best selling console version of the game, though it would never be the kind of phenomenon that the PC version was.
As 2003 rolled on, the Wave was not only amassing a library of original content, but of some of the best games of the past two years, games that only Katana and Xbox owners had gotten to play up until that point. The biggest of the ports, Grand Theft Auto, wouldn't be announced until E3. But even without Grand Theft Auto, Nintendo and Sony had plenty to be happy about with their marvelous new console.
-”The History Of Console Gaming: Year-By-Year (Part 8)”, Wired.com, posted on July 3, 2012
-
Wave Race: Blue Crest
The sequel to Wave Race: Ultramarine, Blue Crest is the TTL equivalent to OTL's Wave Race: Blue Storm for the OTL Nintendo Gamecube. It has many of the same features as OTL's game, including weather forecasts that allow the player to choose to race on days when the weather is more favorable to them. It boasts some of the best graphics of any console game to date, particularly the water, which is universally regarded as the best yet seen in a console game. It boasts 14 characters, six more than OTL's game, with a variety of quirks and difficulties that allow players to select the character best suited to them. Rebecca (from Squad Four) returns as a guest character, though Otacon (from Metal Gear Solid) does not. In his place are three other guest characters: Joanna Dark, Nash Grieves (from Victory) and Aki Ross from the upcoming Final Fantasy X, in the character's first appearance in a video game (and part of Squaresoft's heavy promotional push for the character). The game itself is heavily promoted as part of the general early hypefest surrounding the Wave, with the game's graphics pushed front and center as an example of the console's technological quality. Released in April 2003, Wave Race: Blue Crest sees the best reviews for the series to date, though sales themselves are somewhat less than Nintendo anticipated. Ultimately, the game would become the best selling of the three games in the series, but not the huge blockbuster Nintendo was hoping for. Regardless, the game turns a healthy profit and would continue to see decent sales as part of the Wave's budget re-release program down the road.
-
Wario World
Wario World is the first major Nintendo platformer to be pushed for the Wave, sort of taking the place of OTL's Luigi's Mansion, though Wario World doesn't quite make the launch window (it comes out in May 2003). OTL's Wario World was developed by Treasure, but as Treasure remains an Enix subsidiary ITTL, and though Enix now makes games for other companies, Treasure is still focusing largely on the Katana, Wario World is instead developed by Nintendo R&D1, the company that did the Wario Land games both IOTL and ITTL. Thus, Wario World is quite different from OTL's game. It's still a 3-D platformer and still focuses more on Wario fighting than platforming, but there's a great deal of exploration and treasure hunting involved, and the game plays out like the original Wario Land game if it was developed in the same way as the Mario 3-D platformers. The plot involves Wario, whose castle is huge but could always be bigger, learning about a great buried treasure on an island. He obtains a treasure map and hunts the treasure down....but when he finds the archipelago where the treasure is located, he realizes it could be on any one of ten islands, and begins island-hopping to find his riches. He's opposed on his quest by familiar series foil Captain Syrup, a beautiful pirate captain who serves as both friend and foe to Wario on his quest. Wario must battle a variety of overgrown animals, greedy pirates, and sea monsters to win his riches. In the end, he learns that the legendary Sea Kraken has captured his treasure, and he reluctantly teams up with Syrup to descend into the Kraken's lair to find it. He defeats the Kraken, and depending on how much treasure Wario's gathered throughout the game, he'll either end up marooned on an island by Syrup, left with only a little bit of his treasure, left with a lot of his treasure, or left with all the treasure, enough to buy his own huge island and live in a castle so big it makes even Mario cry. With its whimsical storyline and use of some of the best tropes and mechanics from past Wario Land games, Wario World is generally received better than the original. It's not considered as good as the Mario games by any stretch, the platforming isn't as fun, the missions are somewhat repetitive, and Wario himself just isn't as likable, but it's a solid 8/10 platformer and it sells extremely well due to it being the first true Nintendo platformer on the new system. It doesn't exactly quench Mario fans' thirst for a new game on the Wave, but it's a decent appetizer.
-
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
Perhaps the most anticipated Wave title following Killer Instinct 3, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is released in June 2003 (after the E3 show in May, where it gets a major presence by Nintendo and Sony). The previous two games both sold over ten million copies each on the Ultra Nintendo, and Gran Turismo 3 had a lot to live up to. A game several years in the making, it serves as both the most advanced racing simulator yet and a showcase for the graphical power of the Nintendo Wave. The game features over 400 cars, significantly more than what appeared in OTL's game, due to the longer development cycle and the Wave's improved capabilities. It features both an Arcade Mode and a Simulation Mode, just like OTL's game, and it also features online gameplay. Upon its release, it becomes the first Wave title to score a higher GameRankings percentage than Ken Griffey: Hall Of Fame, and quickly becomes the highest selling game to date on the system, topping Mario Kart: Double Dash! in just six weeks of release. The game raises the bar for simulation racing on consoles, and is considered among the best games of 2003.
The game did mark a departure in terms of advertising and promotion. Ayrton Senna did not return to promote the game. Instead, Formula One racer Michael Schumacher took over as the main promoter for the series, appearing in both television advertisements and magazine ads for the game, which mostly promoted the game's addition of Formula One racers. Senna would respond by taking over for Dale Earnhardt to promote NASCAR 2K4.
The fact remained that the Wave was now on top of the gaming world, and, thanks partially to Nintendo generously stocking shelves, was actually outpacing Ultra Nintendo sales over its first few months of release, if only slightly. The Wave was well on its way to being Nintendo's next big hit, and Nintendo's #1 position in the game industry was still unchallenged.
Though the Wave still lacked a killer app, Killer Instinct 3 and Mario Kart: Double Dash! were still topping sales charts throughout April 2003, along with Ken Griffey: Hall Of Fame, which took advantage of heavy sales during the start of the 2003 MLB season to remain a strong third ahead of the Wave's new releases during that month. In addition to the excellent new Wave exclusives popping up that spring, a number of ports, both straight and enhanced, made their way to the console.
April 2003 saw the releases of Devil May Cry and Ridge Racer Wave. Devil May Cry featured a number of graphical and gameplay enhancements, and was the best selling of the early Wave ports, with a great deal of hype accompanying its release in the runup to the release of that year's sequel. Ridge Racer Wave was an enhanced port of Ridge Racer 3, which was exclusive to the Katana. It boasted vastly improved graphics (not quite on par with Gran Turismo 3, but still outstanding compared to any racing game released before it save for perhaps the Xbox's Project Gotham Racing) and a number of new tracks, and also a sleek new presentation style. It was the first Ridge Racer to come to a Nintendo home console, and it was an improvement even over the excellently received original.
Max Payne and Victory came in May. A pair of gritty shooters, the two games were fairly identical to the original Katana/Xbox versions, with Victory boasting a few more enhancements than Payne. Both games sold well, with Victory eventually outselling the Katana and Ultra Nintendo versions of the game. Of course, Victory looked vastly better than the Ultra Nintendo version, showing just how much of a technological leap the Wave was.
In June, The Sims came to the Wave, and while it wasn't quite as robust in terms of options as the PC version was (it lacked all the mods of the PC version, obviously), it was still a very solid port, and slightly better received than those on the Wave and the Katana. Thanks to good promotion by Nintendo, it became the best selling console version of the game, though it would never be the kind of phenomenon that the PC version was.
As 2003 rolled on, the Wave was not only amassing a library of original content, but of some of the best games of the past two years, games that only Katana and Xbox owners had gotten to play up until that point. The biggest of the ports, Grand Theft Auto, wouldn't be announced until E3. But even without Grand Theft Auto, Nintendo and Sony had plenty to be happy about with their marvelous new console.
-”The History Of Console Gaming: Year-By-Year (Part 8)”, Wired.com, posted on July 3, 2012
-
Wave Race: Blue Crest
The sequel to Wave Race: Ultramarine, Blue Crest is the TTL equivalent to OTL's Wave Race: Blue Storm for the OTL Nintendo Gamecube. It has many of the same features as OTL's game, including weather forecasts that allow the player to choose to race on days when the weather is more favorable to them. It boasts some of the best graphics of any console game to date, particularly the water, which is universally regarded as the best yet seen in a console game. It boasts 14 characters, six more than OTL's game, with a variety of quirks and difficulties that allow players to select the character best suited to them. Rebecca (from Squad Four) returns as a guest character, though Otacon (from Metal Gear Solid) does not. In his place are three other guest characters: Joanna Dark, Nash Grieves (from Victory) and Aki Ross from the upcoming Final Fantasy X, in the character's first appearance in a video game (and part of Squaresoft's heavy promotional push for the character). The game itself is heavily promoted as part of the general early hypefest surrounding the Wave, with the game's graphics pushed front and center as an example of the console's technological quality. Released in April 2003, Wave Race: Blue Crest sees the best reviews for the series to date, though sales themselves are somewhat less than Nintendo anticipated. Ultimately, the game would become the best selling of the three games in the series, but not the huge blockbuster Nintendo was hoping for. Regardless, the game turns a healthy profit and would continue to see decent sales as part of the Wave's budget re-release program down the road.
-
Wario World
Wario World is the first major Nintendo platformer to be pushed for the Wave, sort of taking the place of OTL's Luigi's Mansion, though Wario World doesn't quite make the launch window (it comes out in May 2003). OTL's Wario World was developed by Treasure, but as Treasure remains an Enix subsidiary ITTL, and though Enix now makes games for other companies, Treasure is still focusing largely on the Katana, Wario World is instead developed by Nintendo R&D1, the company that did the Wario Land games both IOTL and ITTL. Thus, Wario World is quite different from OTL's game. It's still a 3-D platformer and still focuses more on Wario fighting than platforming, but there's a great deal of exploration and treasure hunting involved, and the game plays out like the original Wario Land game if it was developed in the same way as the Mario 3-D platformers. The plot involves Wario, whose castle is huge but could always be bigger, learning about a great buried treasure on an island. He obtains a treasure map and hunts the treasure down....but when he finds the archipelago where the treasure is located, he realizes it could be on any one of ten islands, and begins island-hopping to find his riches. He's opposed on his quest by familiar series foil Captain Syrup, a beautiful pirate captain who serves as both friend and foe to Wario on his quest. Wario must battle a variety of overgrown animals, greedy pirates, and sea monsters to win his riches. In the end, he learns that the legendary Sea Kraken has captured his treasure, and he reluctantly teams up with Syrup to descend into the Kraken's lair to find it. He defeats the Kraken, and depending on how much treasure Wario's gathered throughout the game, he'll either end up marooned on an island by Syrup, left with only a little bit of his treasure, left with a lot of his treasure, or left with all the treasure, enough to buy his own huge island and live in a castle so big it makes even Mario cry. With its whimsical storyline and use of some of the best tropes and mechanics from past Wario Land games, Wario World is generally received better than the original. It's not considered as good as the Mario games by any stretch, the platforming isn't as fun, the missions are somewhat repetitive, and Wario himself just isn't as likable, but it's a solid 8/10 platformer and it sells extremely well due to it being the first true Nintendo platformer on the new system. It doesn't exactly quench Mario fans' thirst for a new game on the Wave, but it's a decent appetizer.
-
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
Perhaps the most anticipated Wave title following Killer Instinct 3, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is released in June 2003 (after the E3 show in May, where it gets a major presence by Nintendo and Sony). The previous two games both sold over ten million copies each on the Ultra Nintendo, and Gran Turismo 3 had a lot to live up to. A game several years in the making, it serves as both the most advanced racing simulator yet and a showcase for the graphical power of the Nintendo Wave. The game features over 400 cars, significantly more than what appeared in OTL's game, due to the longer development cycle and the Wave's improved capabilities. It features both an Arcade Mode and a Simulation Mode, just like OTL's game, and it also features online gameplay. Upon its release, it becomes the first Wave title to score a higher GameRankings percentage than Ken Griffey: Hall Of Fame, and quickly becomes the highest selling game to date on the system, topping Mario Kart: Double Dash! in just six weeks of release. The game raises the bar for simulation racing on consoles, and is considered among the best games of 2003.
The game did mark a departure in terms of advertising and promotion. Ayrton Senna did not return to promote the game. Instead, Formula One racer Michael Schumacher took over as the main promoter for the series, appearing in both television advertisements and magazine ads for the game, which mostly promoted the game's addition of Formula One racers. Senna would respond by taking over for Dale Earnhardt to promote NASCAR 2K4.
Spring 2003 (Part 7) - The Sega Job(s)
March 31, 2003
Steve Jobs took a few moments to study the sheet of paper that had been placed before him. He looked up at Hisao Oguchi, then briefly turned to the Apple executives seated behind him. He looked down at the paper again.
"This is the best you can do?" asked Jobs, adjusting his glasses for a moment and glancing skeptically at Oguchi.
"This is a fair price," Oguchi replied. Jobs looked down at the paper again.
"I think.... you can come down just a bit more," said Jobs, and wrote something on the paper. He slid the paper to Oguchi, who shook his head.
"Sonic the Hedgehog... Ecco the Dolphin... Shenmue....Virtua Fighter...these are lucrative franchises. We cannot sell them for less than this price. We have already come down so much from our initial offer."
Jobs knew that Toshiba was wavering, but he also knew that other companies were starting to probe Sega, and stabilizing Katana sales were starting to make Sega's valuation creep up. This price was a bargain, and once other companies began making their own offers, this price may not last. Jobs looked down at the paper again.
"It will take us a lot of work to move into this business," said Jobs. "We're taking an enormous risk."
"So did we. It paid off. It isn't the easiest business, but someone with the right mindset and the willingness to break the rules can accomplish many things."
Jobs knew Oguchi was trying to flatter him, but flattery wouldn't make him take a bad deal. He looked down at the sheet of paper again. One of the Apple executives whispered something into Jobs' ear. Jobs nodded, then looked down at the paper a fourth time. He picked it up. He held it in his hands. He showed it to the other executives, who nodded in affirmation. They weren't nodding to signal that Jobs should take the deal, but that it was his decision whether or not to do so.
"This IS a fair price," thought Jobs. "The question is, do I really want to do this?"
-
"Woz, what are you playing?" asked Jobs. It was 1990, and Jobs was in preparations to launch his new venture, the NeXT computer. He was spending time at the home of his former business partner and longtime friend Steve Wozniak, and as he was coming back from the kitchen with a glass of orange juice, he saw Wozniak playing a Gameboy.
"Tetris," Wozniak replied, his eyes focused on the screen.
"Oh yeah, that Russian game."
"It's addictive."
Jobs walked over to look at the screen as Wozniak was playing. It was a simple game, perfect for the monochromatic screen of the Gameboy. Nothing like the colorful, vivid game cabinets still guzzling quarters at arcades and pizza parlors everywhere, but something about this game was more engrossing than all the fancy arcade titles put together.
"How are those things doing, by the way? The Gameboys?"
"Beats me," said Wozniak, continuing to play his game. "I'm not a Nintendo shareholder."
"Well I'm gonna find out," Jobs replied. "If people are as into that game as you are I bet they're selling a ton of them."
"Probably," said Wozniak, clearing his 250th line.
"...we could do something like that. The Gameboy. There can't be a very powerful chip in there. ....maybe after this NeXT thing rolls out, we could do something like this. But make it even better, with a color screen."
Wozniak and Jobs had worked on games together, back in the day. The two had cut their teeth on video games before starting Apple. Jobs had always wanted to get back into the industry, but by the time he'd left Apple, Nintendo was just starting to tighten its grip, and there didn't seem to be room for any competitors. Maybe, just maybe, there was room for something else like this.
But it was just a passing fancy. NeXT took off, then Sega rolled out their Game Gear. Jobs focused on NeXT, passed up the deal with Bandai, and finally returned to Apple after they'd bought out his new venture.
13 years after that brief flicker of inspiration in Steve Wozniak's living room, things had come full circle.
-
Steve Jobs set the piece of paper back down on Hisao Oguchi's desk.
"Mr. Oguchi..."
-
"I remember being shocked when I heard the news: Apple had bought us out for $986 million. I knew about the rumors, obviously, but just hearing that it had actually happened was really mindblowing. All of a sudden, my colleagues and I had a new boss, and nothing would ever be the same. And soon afterward, I was one of the first people Steve Jobs wanted to talk to. Of course I was nervous, I thought he was planning to fire me. But instead, the two of us had a long conversation. I remember it being almost three hours. We talked about family, we talked about our careers, and of course, we talked about video games. He ran a number of ideas past me, ideas to really shake things up, ideas to come after both Microsoft and Nintendo. I thought most of them were good, the ones that weren't, I told him what I thought. He told me he wanted me to be the number one guy on his team. I agreed, of course, and that was the start of the long, sometimes bumpy, but mostly positive relationship between myself and Steve Jobs. We both knew we had an uphill battle. The thing is, even though he'd come on only recently, I think he had a better grasp of just how tough it would be than even I did."
-Reggie Fils-Aime, in a 2015 interview with Kotaku.com
-
Even after Sega and Apple agreed to terms on the purchase of Sega's games division, the two companies still had a number of hurdles to jump, some legal, some financial. The two companies had to negotiate just what sort of relationship Apple and Sega would now have. Sega, of course, would now be primarily a toy company, though they would continue to operate their arcades in Japan. They would also continue to operate the Sega Gameverse arcades in North America, at least for the time being. Those were in a slow decline, a number of locations had closed, though most still remained. Apple would eventually introduce some brand synergy to those facilities, pairing some of them up with Apple Stores adjacent to the arcades. Sega also held the exclusive rights to produce toys based on their game properties, though Apple would receive a cut of this. For the most part, however, Sega had exited the game business completely. They invested the nearly $1 billion from Apple into promotion, research, and development for their toy lines and used a small fraction of it to bolster some of their more popular arcade facilities. The injection of funds would pay dividends for Sega in the years to come, cementing them as one of the world's premier toy companies and joining Hasbro and Mattel in what would be known as the "toy triumvirate".
Apple was about to enter the video game business in a big way. While all the i's were being dotted and all the t's crossed, the two companies would remain mum about the deal itself, though it was one of the worst-kept secrets in the gaming press, especially after Toshiba and the other potential suitors for Sega suddenly dropped out of the race. The first public announcement of the partnership would come at E3 2003, amidst all the glitz, glamour, and game announcements of that year's expo. Rather than launch into developing a new console immediately, Apple would bide their time and continue to push and promote the Katana. Apple began courting software companies to begin developing games for both the Katana and the Macintosh, which would be re-imagined as somewhat of a budget alternative to the Xbox and the Wave. Apple would begin to introduce elements of iTunes to the SegaNet service, starting with the introduction of classic Genesis games that could be downloaded to the system, a home console first (though the Sega Channel allowed the download of games to the Genesis via a cable line, SegaNet would be the first time that a consumer could purchase and permanently own downloadable games). While Apple did begin research into what the Katana's console successor would be, they didn't want to launch anything to early, so as not to be technologically behind whatever Nintendo and Microsoft had coming next. Instead, the company's immediate hardware focus would be on a project that Steve Jobs had been dreaming up for many years...an advanced handheld gaming device, bearing Apple's name and Sega's games. For now, it would largely be business as usual. First-party games would continue to carry the Sega label, and the Katana would continue to be marketed as the Sega Katana. It would be some time before Apple would truly begin to forge its own identity in the video game industry.
-”The History Of Console Gaming: Year-By-Year (Part 8)”, Wired.com, posted on July 3, 2012
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Mindy Kaling: And it has been confirmed that Steve Jobs will be appearing at E3. Not only will he be present on the show floor, but he'll also be giving a keynote speech at the event, fueling the continued rumors that Apple may have purchased Sega. Neither Apple nor Sega has commented on Jobs' appearance at E3.
Patrick Clark: Meanwhile, Sega has a full slate of games on tap for the upcoming event, including numerous Sonic announcements, a new Commander Keen game, and possibly a new Virtua Fighter as well. Katana sales have picked up in recent weeks, and they may pick up even more: many are speculating that Sega will announce a Katana price drop at the show.
Mindy: While Jobs has been confirmed to appear at the show, it's not been announced what he'll be discussing, so it's likely we'll have to wait until E3 itself before we know what the topic of Jobs' speech is going to be. And of course, we'll have all the coverage from the floor of E3, including live footage of Steve Jobs' keynote speech, here on G4.
Patrick: So, do you have any guesses about what Steve Jobs could be talking about at E3?
Mindy: Maybe he'll answer the burning question on everyone's minds: why are there hardly any good games on the Mac? I mean honestly, I go to the store, I pick up a PC game, and almost always it says on the box: not for Macintosh computers. My guess: he's going to come up to the podium, tell us all how much he hates video games, and that we should be doing something better with our lives, like buying the new model iPod for only $599.99.
Patrick: Now with 40 gigs of memory, or just enough to fit In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida!
-from the April 21, 2003 episode of G4 Weekly News
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"From the days of the SG-1000's launch against Nintendo's Famicom in 1983, Sega had been chasing Nintendo. Even after scrapping the SG-1000 for the technologically superior Master System, Sega struggled to achieve the kind of market share to challenge their rival, now a rapidly growing titan of the industry. With the Genesis, Sega had finally found its groove, and thanks to the clever marketing and savvy of executive Tom Kalinske, the company stood a fighting chance, even when Nintendo teamed up with Sony, making the odds decisively uneven. In 1997, with the Saturn going strong and the SNES-CD fading, Sega perhaps achieved its zenith: the one moment when its market share reached a majority, the one moment when it seemed that they might finally topple the giant once and for all. But the Ultra Nintendo exceeded even Nintendo's own lofty expectations, and like the tragic hero Icarus, brought Sega swiftly down to Earth. And yet, the chase continued. Sega continued to pump out great games, and even after the battle was joined by computer company Microsoft, the Katana seemed like it could be a contender. But with sales and fortunes slipping, and with Sega's toy division being held back by the continued failure of the Katana to achieve anything close to what its rivals were achieving, the company finally decided to cut its losses. The finalization of the sale of Sega's games division to Apple, on May 9th, 2003, marked the end of an era in the game industry. It marked a shift of the game industry from a strict focus on gaming to an approach incorporating computers, multimedia, and of course, the Internet, the most epochal technological development of the past 50 years. It marked the end of the industry's Japanese civil war and launched the battle of East vs. West, the one that Microsoft had fired the opening shot in with the launch of the Xbox, but which now had turned into Microsoft/Apple vs. Nintendo/Sony, even as the two American computer companies themselves competed as bitter rivals.
It was a new beginning...and the end of the chase. After 20 years, Nintendo had crossed the finish line first, just as the starting gun went off yet again. Sega, the game company, now Apple. Sega, the toy company, watching from the sidelines with both sadness and relief."
-The Chase: Sega's 20-Year Struggle To Take Down A Giant
Steve Jobs took a few moments to study the sheet of paper that had been placed before him. He looked up at Hisao Oguchi, then briefly turned to the Apple executives seated behind him. He looked down at the paper again.
"This is the best you can do?" asked Jobs, adjusting his glasses for a moment and glancing skeptically at Oguchi.
"This is a fair price," Oguchi replied. Jobs looked down at the paper again.
"I think.... you can come down just a bit more," said Jobs, and wrote something on the paper. He slid the paper to Oguchi, who shook his head.
"Sonic the Hedgehog... Ecco the Dolphin... Shenmue....Virtua Fighter...these are lucrative franchises. We cannot sell them for less than this price. We have already come down so much from our initial offer."
Jobs knew that Toshiba was wavering, but he also knew that other companies were starting to probe Sega, and stabilizing Katana sales were starting to make Sega's valuation creep up. This price was a bargain, and once other companies began making their own offers, this price may not last. Jobs looked down at the paper again.
"It will take us a lot of work to move into this business," said Jobs. "We're taking an enormous risk."
"So did we. It paid off. It isn't the easiest business, but someone with the right mindset and the willingness to break the rules can accomplish many things."
Jobs knew Oguchi was trying to flatter him, but flattery wouldn't make him take a bad deal. He looked down at the sheet of paper again. One of the Apple executives whispered something into Jobs' ear. Jobs nodded, then looked down at the paper a fourth time. He picked it up. He held it in his hands. He showed it to the other executives, who nodded in affirmation. They weren't nodding to signal that Jobs should take the deal, but that it was his decision whether or not to do so.
"This IS a fair price," thought Jobs. "The question is, do I really want to do this?"
-
"Woz, what are you playing?" asked Jobs. It was 1990, and Jobs was in preparations to launch his new venture, the NeXT computer. He was spending time at the home of his former business partner and longtime friend Steve Wozniak, and as he was coming back from the kitchen with a glass of orange juice, he saw Wozniak playing a Gameboy.
"Tetris," Wozniak replied, his eyes focused on the screen.
"Oh yeah, that Russian game."
"It's addictive."
Jobs walked over to look at the screen as Wozniak was playing. It was a simple game, perfect for the monochromatic screen of the Gameboy. Nothing like the colorful, vivid game cabinets still guzzling quarters at arcades and pizza parlors everywhere, but something about this game was more engrossing than all the fancy arcade titles put together.
"How are those things doing, by the way? The Gameboys?"
"Beats me," said Wozniak, continuing to play his game. "I'm not a Nintendo shareholder."
"Well I'm gonna find out," Jobs replied. "If people are as into that game as you are I bet they're selling a ton of them."
"Probably," said Wozniak, clearing his 250th line.
"...we could do something like that. The Gameboy. There can't be a very powerful chip in there. ....maybe after this NeXT thing rolls out, we could do something like this. But make it even better, with a color screen."
Wozniak and Jobs had worked on games together, back in the day. The two had cut their teeth on video games before starting Apple. Jobs had always wanted to get back into the industry, but by the time he'd left Apple, Nintendo was just starting to tighten its grip, and there didn't seem to be room for any competitors. Maybe, just maybe, there was room for something else like this.
But it was just a passing fancy. NeXT took off, then Sega rolled out their Game Gear. Jobs focused on NeXT, passed up the deal with Bandai, and finally returned to Apple after they'd bought out his new venture.
13 years after that brief flicker of inspiration in Steve Wozniak's living room, things had come full circle.
-
Steve Jobs set the piece of paper back down on Hisao Oguchi's desk.
"Mr. Oguchi..."
-
"I remember being shocked when I heard the news: Apple had bought us out for $986 million. I knew about the rumors, obviously, but just hearing that it had actually happened was really mindblowing. All of a sudden, my colleagues and I had a new boss, and nothing would ever be the same. And soon afterward, I was one of the first people Steve Jobs wanted to talk to. Of course I was nervous, I thought he was planning to fire me. But instead, the two of us had a long conversation. I remember it being almost three hours. We talked about family, we talked about our careers, and of course, we talked about video games. He ran a number of ideas past me, ideas to really shake things up, ideas to come after both Microsoft and Nintendo. I thought most of them were good, the ones that weren't, I told him what I thought. He told me he wanted me to be the number one guy on his team. I agreed, of course, and that was the start of the long, sometimes bumpy, but mostly positive relationship between myself and Steve Jobs. We both knew we had an uphill battle. The thing is, even though he'd come on only recently, I think he had a better grasp of just how tough it would be than even I did."
-Reggie Fils-Aime, in a 2015 interview with Kotaku.com
-
Even after Sega and Apple agreed to terms on the purchase of Sega's games division, the two companies still had a number of hurdles to jump, some legal, some financial. The two companies had to negotiate just what sort of relationship Apple and Sega would now have. Sega, of course, would now be primarily a toy company, though they would continue to operate their arcades in Japan. They would also continue to operate the Sega Gameverse arcades in North America, at least for the time being. Those were in a slow decline, a number of locations had closed, though most still remained. Apple would eventually introduce some brand synergy to those facilities, pairing some of them up with Apple Stores adjacent to the arcades. Sega also held the exclusive rights to produce toys based on their game properties, though Apple would receive a cut of this. For the most part, however, Sega had exited the game business completely. They invested the nearly $1 billion from Apple into promotion, research, and development for their toy lines and used a small fraction of it to bolster some of their more popular arcade facilities. The injection of funds would pay dividends for Sega in the years to come, cementing them as one of the world's premier toy companies and joining Hasbro and Mattel in what would be known as the "toy triumvirate".
Apple was about to enter the video game business in a big way. While all the i's were being dotted and all the t's crossed, the two companies would remain mum about the deal itself, though it was one of the worst-kept secrets in the gaming press, especially after Toshiba and the other potential suitors for Sega suddenly dropped out of the race. The first public announcement of the partnership would come at E3 2003, amidst all the glitz, glamour, and game announcements of that year's expo. Rather than launch into developing a new console immediately, Apple would bide their time and continue to push and promote the Katana. Apple began courting software companies to begin developing games for both the Katana and the Macintosh, which would be re-imagined as somewhat of a budget alternative to the Xbox and the Wave. Apple would begin to introduce elements of iTunes to the SegaNet service, starting with the introduction of classic Genesis games that could be downloaded to the system, a home console first (though the Sega Channel allowed the download of games to the Genesis via a cable line, SegaNet would be the first time that a consumer could purchase and permanently own downloadable games). While Apple did begin research into what the Katana's console successor would be, they didn't want to launch anything to early, so as not to be technologically behind whatever Nintendo and Microsoft had coming next. Instead, the company's immediate hardware focus would be on a project that Steve Jobs had been dreaming up for many years...an advanced handheld gaming device, bearing Apple's name and Sega's games. For now, it would largely be business as usual. First-party games would continue to carry the Sega label, and the Katana would continue to be marketed as the Sega Katana. It would be some time before Apple would truly begin to forge its own identity in the video game industry.
-”The History Of Console Gaming: Year-By-Year (Part 8)”, Wired.com, posted on July 3, 2012
-
Mindy Kaling: And it has been confirmed that Steve Jobs will be appearing at E3. Not only will he be present on the show floor, but he'll also be giving a keynote speech at the event, fueling the continued rumors that Apple may have purchased Sega. Neither Apple nor Sega has commented on Jobs' appearance at E3.
Patrick Clark: Meanwhile, Sega has a full slate of games on tap for the upcoming event, including numerous Sonic announcements, a new Commander Keen game, and possibly a new Virtua Fighter as well. Katana sales have picked up in recent weeks, and they may pick up even more: many are speculating that Sega will announce a Katana price drop at the show.
Mindy: While Jobs has been confirmed to appear at the show, it's not been announced what he'll be discussing, so it's likely we'll have to wait until E3 itself before we know what the topic of Jobs' speech is going to be. And of course, we'll have all the coverage from the floor of E3, including live footage of Steve Jobs' keynote speech, here on G4.
Patrick: So, do you have any guesses about what Steve Jobs could be talking about at E3?
Mindy: Maybe he'll answer the burning question on everyone's minds: why are there hardly any good games on the Mac? I mean honestly, I go to the store, I pick up a PC game, and almost always it says on the box: not for Macintosh computers. My guess: he's going to come up to the podium, tell us all how much he hates video games, and that we should be doing something better with our lives, like buying the new model iPod for only $599.99.
Patrick: Now with 40 gigs of memory, or just enough to fit In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida!
-from the April 21, 2003 episode of G4 Weekly News
-
"From the days of the SG-1000's launch against Nintendo's Famicom in 1983, Sega had been chasing Nintendo. Even after scrapping the SG-1000 for the technologically superior Master System, Sega struggled to achieve the kind of market share to challenge their rival, now a rapidly growing titan of the industry. With the Genesis, Sega had finally found its groove, and thanks to the clever marketing and savvy of executive Tom Kalinske, the company stood a fighting chance, even when Nintendo teamed up with Sony, making the odds decisively uneven. In 1997, with the Saturn going strong and the SNES-CD fading, Sega perhaps achieved its zenith: the one moment when its market share reached a majority, the one moment when it seemed that they might finally topple the giant once and for all. But the Ultra Nintendo exceeded even Nintendo's own lofty expectations, and like the tragic hero Icarus, brought Sega swiftly down to Earth. And yet, the chase continued. Sega continued to pump out great games, and even after the battle was joined by computer company Microsoft, the Katana seemed like it could be a contender. But with sales and fortunes slipping, and with Sega's toy division being held back by the continued failure of the Katana to achieve anything close to what its rivals were achieving, the company finally decided to cut its losses. The finalization of the sale of Sega's games division to Apple, on May 9th, 2003, marked the end of an era in the game industry. It marked a shift of the game industry from a strict focus on gaming to an approach incorporating computers, multimedia, and of course, the Internet, the most epochal technological development of the past 50 years. It marked the end of the industry's Japanese civil war and launched the battle of East vs. West, the one that Microsoft had fired the opening shot in with the launch of the Xbox, but which now had turned into Microsoft/Apple vs. Nintendo/Sony, even as the two American computer companies themselves competed as bitter rivals.
It was a new beginning...and the end of the chase. After 20 years, Nintendo had crossed the finish line first, just as the starting gun went off yet again. Sega, the game company, now Apple. Sega, the toy company, watching from the sidelines with both sadness and relief."
-The Chase: Sega's 20-Year Struggle To Take Down A Giant
Segapple vs. Ninsony. A titanic clash that will change the world.
Oh, and Microsoft is there too.
Oh, and Microsoft is there too.
Now this is a big moment in video game history! With Apple now owning Sega (the video game division, I mean), we're going to be seeing some pretty crazy events in the future!
So Sega itself will now cement itself as one of the three top toy companies in the world? That's actually not a bad ending for them. It's still a little sad, but they're in a far better state then they were in OTL.
So Sega itself will now cement itself as one of the three top toy companies in the world? That's actually not a bad ending for them. It's still a little sad, but they're in a far better state then they were in OTL.
“But the future refused to change...”
-Chrono Trigger
“The future is always changing.”
-Steve Jobs, E3 2003
We've come full circle now: Sega exits the console market like OTL but here Sega rises from the ashes to continue participating in the game market as a competitor. It's still more than a little bittersweet to read, though.
This has interesting implications for Apple's penetration into the Japanese market, though, given that Sega owning Bandai means that all those anime-based games they do will show up on the Katana's successor. Microsoft still probably loses big there like OTL but Apple's future looks quite bright.
-Chrono Trigger
“The future is always changing.”
-Steve Jobs, E3 2003
We've come full circle now: Sega exits the console market like OTL but here Sega rises from the ashes to continue participating in the game market as a competitor. It's still more than a little bittersweet to read, though.
This has interesting implications for Apple's penetration into the Japanese market, though, given that Sega owning Bandai means that all those anime-based games they do will show up on the Katana's successor. Microsoft still probably loses big there like OTL but Apple's future looks quite bright.
Sega got Ataried in the sense there socially speaking two Sega...Sega Toys Co Ltd who is now an arcade and toy company and Apple who got Sega Co Ltd who is the home(and now portable) videogame developer, so yeah in a way there a sega who is out of videogames and a Sega who is part of Apple(legally is apple but they can use sega brand for games and derivates), called in and out universe Apple-Sega.
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