Game Development Giant

The release of DC is the most concerning thing in the industry at the end of this year.

This is the prelude to a new era, and DC is undoubtedly a console with excellent performance.

In Jester's memory, it may be due to his influence on the development timeline of game consoles. The advent of DC was actually a full year later than the advent of DC in the original world.

Of course, performance has also been improved.

It still uses Hitachi's processing core specially optimized for Sega. Its floating point computing power is four and a half times stronger than the current Pentium 2. NEC also developed a graphics processing chip specially for Sega. Even this time, Sega even followed suit. Microsoft has reached a cooperation, and DC's operating system is the DC-specific version of WINCE developed by Microsoft specifically for Sega.

Because this operating system is produced by Microsoft, it comes with IE, which means that players can browse the web directly through DC.

Of course, Sega also learned from Mars Entertainment in addition to a membership system similar to Mars Entertainment's Battle.net system. This is not surprising, because Mars Entertainment has proven through an entire generation that this membership system is a very successful and mature system. Not only Sega, but even Sony has recently announced that they will also add such a membership mode to the upcoming PS3.

It also announced that any player who purchased a PS3 console in the first month of release can receive a three-month membership experience for free. Of course, Sony's PS3 has not yet been released. What will happen then? Who knows? Things that can't be said for sure.

All in all, DC performance is very powerful.

And Sega's first-party has indeed prepared excellent games for this console. First-party, third-party, and even some have been announced for development but have not yet been launched. For example, Capcom said that they will Sega's DC developed a series of games called Resident Evil, which attracted the most attention. Of course, in the second half of the year, Shenmue almost became a commercial success all over the world.

To be honest, the saddest thing about Sega is that their main market is not Japan. Instead, it’s Europe and the United States.

They don't have many fans in Japan, but they have many fans in Europe and the United States.

However, the competition in Europe and the United States is too fierce. Mars Entertainment's strength in Europe and the United States almost makes any opponent despair, even Sony, which was very confident in its own development of the European and American markets at the beginning. They all had to change their strategy to use the Japanese market as their base and then expand.

Shenmue has caused a great response in Europe and the United States, but in Japan it can only be said to be average.

This is not to blame Sega and Yu Suzuki, because the Japanese themselves do not like this type of game. They do not like this kind of aimless game. The RPG they like is Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. A purely linear RPG game.

And DC did not disappoint players.

In fact, players have long been dissatisfied with current game consoles.

Now is the era of 3D games. The development of game technology, especially the improvement of graphics, can be said to be changing with each passing day. Players have long been dissatisfied with the previous low-performance home consoles. Before the advent of high-performance 3D graphics cards, this dissatisfaction was only the thought of some players. However, with the advent of high-performance 3D graphics cards, 3D on PCs The graphics processing power exceeds that of current consoles.

Then many players will be dissatisfied.

Many manufacturers have even expressed their opinions. They said that because of the display functions, they can now complete some game settings or effects on PC through high-performance 3D graphics cards. However, in current game consoles, above. Even on the most powerful Dreambox3, they are powerless.

Of course, fortunately, the price of high-performance 3D graphics cards is relatively high, and not many players can buy such graphics cards.

so. The current conflict is not particularly intense.

This is also the reason why Sega is so anxious to release its own console in advance, because in terms of performance, they know that it will be difficult for them to survive the chemical changes that have occurred when the entire Sony hardware department unites this time, and it is more difficult than belief and players. In terms of loyalty, they are far from rivals of giants like Mars Entertainment.

And, this time for PS3. It is the attention of Sony as a whole, not just Sony games, because this time Sony's PS3 is not just a game console, it also shoulders the important task of promoting the DVD model that Sony wants to promote. In other words, this A PS3 is not only a game console, but also a DVD player!

If released at the same time, or even released later.

That was the real disaster for Sega.

Therefore, for Sega, there are players in the market who are clamoring for a new console and a more powerful console. If the delay continues, they have no chance of winning, so releasing it early becomes their best choice.

In fact, Jester was also impressed by Sega's courage.

DC is a very advanced console, there is no doubt about it.

Jester has analyzed in detail why Sega's DC and Sony's PS2 failed in their original history, and what impact it would have on the entire gaming industry if DC succeeded. In fact, now Mars Entertainment's vision for the game console is exactly the same as that of Sega's DC. That is, the game console is a pure game console, not any other entertainment device.

Sony doesn't think so now.

Although they understood this truth ten years later with the PS4, thus defeating Microsoft in the game console market.

But at least for now, Sony still believes that the game console is not just a game console, it can also be used as other home entertainment devices, just like what Microsoft did with XBO later.

But it is natural for Sony to think so now, because this period also happens to be a period when DVD is popularized, and the superiority of DVD has been proven, and the price of an excellent DVD player is no cheaper than a game console , and a living room machine that can play both game consoles and DVD playback devices will certainly be favored by players.

Of course, the premise is that your game must be fun enough.

This is actually the biggest difference between Mars Entertainment and Sony before. Jester firmly chooses game consoles just for playing games. The reason why all its performance must unconditionally serve the game is precisely because of Mars Entertainment’s strong first-party development capabilities.

Of course, Sony's confidence and determination to popularize the DVD format does make Jester feel a little worried.

And somatosensory is Jester's trump card against opponents.

You have the DVD. I have body sensations.

You want to rely on DVD to win, why don't I want to rely on body sense to overtake in corners?

In Jester's previous idea, what would happen if DC succeeded? In fact, no matter how he imagined it, this idea would not succeed. Because the DVD format will never fail, it is just this aspect that determines the failure of DC.

In Jester's memory.

DC was full of highlights when it was born, but unfortunately its lifespan was too short. Sega fell apart after the entire console's lifespan was two years, and its history of home consoles for more than ten years also left many unsuccessful consoles. Unlike the Philips CD-I, 3DO, and Atari Jaguar, Sega should have done better. Unfortunately, they always encountered a series of misfortunes that ultimately led to their inability to overcome the difficulties in front of them. It just sank.

To be honest, although DC is of great significance, the situation it faces is undoubtedly extremely dark: Sega needs to rebuild its reputation in the home console market, Sony is about to release PS2, and it is a PS2 with built-in DVD playback function, coupled with the terrible Financial conditions, everything points to the outcome that Sega will be forced to surrender.

Sega's game concept, or the game concept reflected on DC, is very simple. That is what Jester has always insisted on. Home game consoles must focus on the game itself.

In the original world, Sony was successful with the PS2. A large part of it belongs to the success of the DVD format.

It was a special period of upgrading home entertainment carriers. For consumers, a machine that could play games and watch movies proved to be absolutely attractive, especially in 2000 when the price of a simple DVD player was as low as A PS2 is really comparable. If Dreamcast had defeated PS2 back then, it probably meant that the DVD format had also failed. But will DVD fail?

Impossible, then it means that Sony has been invincible from beginning to end.

Although more than ten years later, Sony once again proved that DC's production concept is correct.

certainly. In its original history, DC was the first console that could be connected via the Internet. However, in this world, this honor has been taken away by Jester's Dreambox 3.

However, if DC could succeed in the original world, it might bring the Internet era of gaming to an early stage.

Is there anything wrong with the production philosophy of focusing on the game itself?

It's hard to say.

It can only be said that the PS2 in history and the PS3 in this world emerged in compliance with the historical trend. It has powerful functions, excellent industrial design, and the crazy ability to carry DVDs. In fact, this has made this console It has become a product that is bound to succeed. Sony has successfully tied this game console to the huge and incredible chariot of DVD.

Defeating them is impossible.

This is something Jester has known for a long time. Sony will definitely occupy a place in the next generation battle. It is precisely because he wants to defeat them that Jester decided to use the big killer weapon of somatosensory.

But whether it can succeed or not is still unknown.

In fact, Microsoft's XBO so-called unified home entertainment terminal idea was just an expansion of Sony's original PS2 idea. They thought Sony won with PS2, but here there is indeed a tendency to unify entertainment terminals. Sometimes, their XBO can also win.

In fact, the reason why PS2 was able to win in the end was that, in addition to its own advantages that Sony added to it, more importantly, it was indeed the best game console of its generation.

The DC sales boom is sensational.

After all, players are looking forward to both the new console and Shenmue.

On just the first day of release, Sega broke their single-day console sales record, selling 600,000 DC units in one day. This is really an amazing number. Their SS sales in one day were only this. A little more than half the number.

And Shenmue really lived up to expectations. Amid high expectations, nearly 400,000 units were sold on the first day.

And, soon, both IGN and GS gave it very high evaluations.

Call it a well-deserved masterpiece. Since The Hero, it is the most outstanding game of the same type and the most tasteful game of this type. It is a game worthy of all game players to experience in detail.

Even Jester posted an unprecedented post on the forum.

The content of this post is very simple, a photo of the Shenmue game board, and then a photo of the Shenmue game content.

Added a very brief paragraph.

A game that's like a work of art.

Jester's comment was also echoed by many people. Indeed, Shenmue is as precious and rare in their eyes as a work of art.

His music, his painting style, and what he wants to express all need to be savored carefully.

However, many people say so.

Everything about this game is good, but there's one thing that it's not interesting enough.

Indeed, although Shenmue has learned many settings from The Hero and many ways to increase playability, Shenmue is still a game that Yu Suzuki wants to use to express his thoughts, that kind of tranquility The peaceful game atmosphere is actually incompatible with this type of game.

Although Yu Suzuki wants to make Shenmue fun, he also wants Shenmue to be Yu Suzuki's Shenmue, rather than a game that is called The Hero second. Therefore, when designing this When playing the game, he still insisted on some game design ideas that he thought were suitable. This is a very Japanese game design thinking.

Of course, Suzuki Yu's persistence is, in the eyes of game developers, a sublimation of the game.

For players, the game is good, but not interesting enough. (~^~)