EA Sports boss Peter Moore has shed some manly tears of ”reminiscence and nostalgia” for his past love, the Dreamcast console. He claims it beat XBL and PSN to the punch.
It’s not ”an overstatement” that Sega’s Dreamcast and its online network ”laid the ground for what we all take for granted today”. It was Sega Japan, not Sega America that ended the dream.
”I trust my employers here at EA will allow me the indulgence of reminiscence and nostalgia on this day, 09/09/09, the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Dreamcast here in North America,” began Peter Moore’s blog entry.
”It certainly doesn’t feel like a decade has gone by since this innovative console ushered in the era of online gaming, albeit through a 56K modem, and thus changed the face of interactive entertainment forever.” It was the little white box that could, we know.
”I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that the Dreamcast and it’s online network laid the ground for what we all take for granted today - online game play, linking innumerable gamers from around the world to play, compete and collaborate, as well as enabling new content to be delivered in addition to that which was delivered on the disc,” he continued.
”As rudimentary as those first dial-up game play experiences were, we proved that it could be done, and that gamers were clamoring for competition that extended past whomever was sat next to you on the couch at the time.” EA’s reluctance to play with Dreamcast sticks with Moore.
”Over the years, I have been asked many times whether EA’s decision not to develop and publish games for the Dreamcast was a major contributing factor in its early demise. That we will never know,” he offered.
The EA top executive also reveals it was ”with a heavy heart that I hosted the conference call on January 31st, 2001, announcing that Sega was ceasing manufacturing of the Dreamcast console.”
”The call on the decision was made by SOJ. The conference call to announce the decision was conducted by SOA.” So don’t shoot the messenger, it was Sega Japan’s decision.
Do you have fond memories of the Sega Dreamcast? Did you game online with it?
Peter Moore, formerly of Sega America
