Don't get excited - really - but rumours have been zipping around the internet that Sega is considering dipping its unwisest toe back into the world of home console manufacturing. This all stems from the company's decision back in August, and only recently come to light, to update its trademark on the Dreamcast name. An application lodged with the US patent office looks to register:
Home video game machines; player-operated electronic controllers for electronic video game machines; video game interactive controller, namely, hand held pads, and floor pads or mats; joysticks for video games; computer cursor control devices, namely, computer mouse; flash memory cards; video game software, computer game programs.
Two entries on that list have got impressionable chins wagging: the floor pads and flash memory cards - neither of which were available on the original machine. If Sega has new peripherals in mind, then surely this is more than an effort to protect an obsolete brand? Surely, they have a follow-up in mind?
Well, no. As the spoilsports at Kotaku point out, Sega is almost certainly just protecting the name for another few years from chancers who fancy nicking it for their own dance mat-sporting games machines. Even that is a quite unlikely scenario.
Meanwhile, Sony is set to release a new PS3 update which includes support for 'Profile 1.1' the improved Blu-ray player firmware. This will allow a whole new range of features including picture-in-picture display and downloadable content. Despite this modest but compelling new feature-set, the analysts are still seeing Wii as this generation's winner. The Financial Times has a piece on the current state of the market, referring in the final section to Nikko Citigroup analyst Soichiro Fukuda, who reckons Wii will capture a 46 percent global market share by 2012, compared to 33 percent for Xbox 360 and a lowly 22 percent for PS3. It's all very different from some of the forecasts we were getting this time last year - research firm Strategy Analytics had the PS3 with a 60 percent market share by 2012 (more here).
I'd be surprised if things panned out the way Fukuda-san reckons. I can't see PS3 staying in third place at a point in its lifespan where developers will be really pushing the hardware. Xbox 360 in comparison will be looking rather creaky. As for Wii? Earlier this year, Insomniac's Brian Hastings compared the console to a mainstream consumer fad like Furbies or Cabbage Patch Dolls - something everyone must have for one maybe two Christmas seasons, but then forgets. He may well be secretly regretting that. Nintendo has, after all, just released its reasonably promising line-up for early 2008, featuring Mario Kart, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody.
That's the difference. Wii has all the hallmarks of a mainstream craze - short supply, frenzied parents, lots of bewildered media coverage - but while Tickle Me Elmo soon got tiresome and Cabbage Patch Kids offered nothing but dimpled faces, Wii just keeps giving. It's no one trick My Little pony.
.jpg?w=600)
