Sega announces drastic restructuring

  • By Shahed Ahmed, GameSpot
  • Posted Jan 31, 2001 11:40 am PT

Sega of America announces that it plans to become a third-party publisher and drops the Dreamcast price to $99.95.

Sega of America has officially announced a drastic restructuring strategy to become a multiplatform third-party software publisher. The company also confirmed a drop in the price of its Dreamcast console from its current $149.95 price point to $99.95. Additionally, as part of its three-tier business strategy, the company will focus its resources on the network gaming arena and on becoming a technology architecture provider of the Dreamcast chipset technology to a broad range of devices. The company announced today that it will provide software to Palm handheld devices, and it recently confirmed that the DC chip will be integrated into an upcoming line of set-top boxes from European firm Pace Micro Technology.

"Sega is a company that has always dared to innovate and push this industry forward," said Peter Moore, president and CEO of Sega of America. "Sega will continue to do so with its new strategy, and the result for consumers will be what you would always expect from a rules breaker like Sega--a library of pioneering, jaw-dropping content now available any way you want to play."

The Dreamcast price drop will become effective on February 4 in North America. As expected, production of the Dreamcast console will be discontinued on March 31. Sega is making the change in an attempt to expedite its exit from the hardware business, though the company will continue to support the console with more than 30 first-party games scheduled for release this year. The company expects to have a 4 million unit installed base in North America and an installed base of more than 8 million units in Japan.

Sega's stock has risen nearly 70 percent over the past several days since news regarding its restructuring strategy broke. The company has received an additional cash infusion through a personal donation of $730 million from CSK chairman, Isao Okawa.

5 Comments

  • score89

    Posted Sep 12, 2009 8:21 pm PT

    I remember reading of this in a nintendo magazine (mexican version of Nintendo Power), man that day I dream sonic became mario's bi**ch

  • snarple_basic

    Posted Sep 11, 2009 2:48 pm PT

    It was a hard time, I remember owning a N64 at the time and when the Dreamcast came down to $99 and was bundled with 2 games I decided to stop paying $40 - $60 per N64 game and buy Dreamcast games for $20 - $40.... Also getting to own a copy of Crazy Taxi had a big deal to do with it, that was only $20 at the time.... GREATEST SEGA DREAMCAST GAME EVER!!!!

  • ForzaAbruzzo

    Posted Sep 10, 2009 3:00 pm PT

    I was absolutely disgusted by this news. Sega had already broken enough hearts in the past when they abandoned other consoles such as the Sega CD, 32X, and the Saturn. After all the hype given to the DC, and the "commitment" they had promised towards become #1 again in the console market, they go out and stab their consumers in the back once again. Considering how well the DC had sold over the course of a year, there was absolutely no justification for them to completely abandon it!

  • ssjdagas

    Posted Sep 10, 2009 12:37 pm PT

    Had they only had more money I bet the DC would have done well enough. Not PS2 numbers of course, but it would likely have sold better than Gamecube and XBOX.

    EDIT: I mean with more money they could have kept making it longer. I blame the 32X, Mega-CD, Saturn etc for draining all they money from SEGA.

  • ericstifer

    Posted Sep 9, 2009 7:41 pm PT

    this was a sad day, i cried a little

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