Don’t get your hopes up for a Dreamcast 2 announcement next month, Sega fans. The company has stated that it won’t be publicly commemorating the 10th anniversary of its last console in any way.
For years Sega faithful having been waiting for 9/9/09 with more anticipation than apocalypse nuts for 2012. You see, on September 9, 1999, Sega released the Dreamcast, its final (and perhaps finest) console. It would stand to reason (insane fanboy reason, I mean), then, that the company would set the date for its triumphant return to the console space, the Dreamcast 2, for ten years later: 9/9/09.
Sorry to dash your hopes, Dreamcast 2 faithful, but unless Sega is pulling something genuinely crazy, it’s not going to happen. You know that already, deep in your hearts, like you know there’s no Santa Claus. But not only are Sega refraining from releasing a Dreamcast 2, they’re refraining from commemorating the anniversary in any way, shape or form.
“Generally we won’t be doing anything that’s official,” Sega’s Mike Hayes told Kotaku. “The main reason is that Sega has reinvented itself as a software company. And it’s important for us to focus on the other platforms that are alive and current.”
While there won’t be any official celebrations at Sega HQ, there might be some unofficial partying going on. “Informally, because there are people in the company who were involved in the Dreamcast launch, there will be celebrations,” Hayes said. “But as a company, publicly, that’s going to be something we’re going to be pretty low key about for obvious reasons. We’re effectively a different company.”
That’s a damn shame, but understandable. And it’s not like Sega’s abandoning the Dreamcast altogether. In fact, it seems that there might be a future for Dreamcast games, even if there isn’t one for Dreamcast hardware. “But we are very keen to bring [Dreamcast games] to players in the way we’ve done with Genesis games,” Hayes said. “We want to do it, but it’s hard work to get there. Hopefully we can build on that quite soon.”
So on 9/9/09, whip up a Dreamcast cake, pull out your “I Have a Dreamcast” jpegs, and play some Space Channel 5. If Sega won’t remember the Dreamcast in style, we will.
