Marketers love dates with with matching numbers. This year, the Beatles take advantage of the digital alignment of 09/09/09 to sell a new videogame, digital re-issues of the band's catalog and a slew of other merchandise.
Ten years ago, 9/9/99 belonged to Sega. That's when the company's Dreamcast console launched on North American shores, kicking off a console generation. Tough competition lead Sega to discontinue their innovative gaming platform in 2001, but fans have kept hope alive through homebrew games. Publisher redspotgames announced today that they're taking pre-orders for their new Dreamcast game Rush Rush Rally Racing, which is due in October.
The second coming of the Dreamcast has long been fantasized by fans, but always considered incredibly unlikely; likewise is the revival of the classic indie games website, the Gaming Intelligence Agency. Today, the GIA came back online for a brief period, announcing that the Sega has plans to make a Dreamcast 2.
Also appearing on the site are fictional stories of a Japan-centric videogame future that never came to pass, including a dominant PlayStation 3, a living Sega and a Square Enix that never came under the creative control of Tetsuya Nomura. Also, Rock Band: Led Zeppelin.
Speaking truthfully, former Sega of America CFO Peter Moore told Next Generation that this anniversary is a "bittersweet" one: "The Dreamcast had a profound and lasting impact on the world of videogames," he said.
That's why people are still making Dreamcast games, why fans are still playing them and why cranks and fans continue cooking up hoaxes around the console. We may be ten years out, but there's still something about the Dreamcast that won't let us just walk away.
Image: Wikipedia
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