[UPDATE] ‘Dreamcast 2’ Reportedly Under Development, Could Be a PC-Console Hybrid

But don't get your hopes up
By Jack Phillips
December 22, 2015 Last Updated: December 22, 2015
Screenshot/Projectdream.co

There’s been excitement over a possible sequel to the SEGA Dreamcast, dubbed the “Dreamcast 2,” 17 years after the console made its debut. The project seeks to bring a PC-style Dreamcast 2 console to the market.

UPDATE as of Tuesday evening: Kotaku spoke with Patrick Lawson, who said his group hasn’t yet made contact with SEGA yet.

“We are gathering backers,” he told the site. “We’re looking for one million to help fund the upcoming [Kickstarter] and will be revealing some surprises as well as some big proposals to Sega in Japan.”

The site then adds:

The proposal they plan to make to Sega, Lawson says, is called “Ringedge Zero” after the Ringedge arcade board. “I think it’s because SEGA hasn’t put out a console in so long,” he said when I asked where people had gotten the idea of a “Dreamcast 2.”

“We chose the Ring name, because people would immediately know who licensed and manufactured it by hearing that word.”

It’s unlikely that Sega will ever re-enter the hardware business, but if they do, I’m excited to see what the Facebook Trending Topic looks like. Sega has yet to respond to a request for comment on all this.

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Original article follows:

Patrick Lawson, a member of the SEGA Dreamcast 2 group that aims to revive the brand, said there’s been some progress in the project. He said there’s a group has the help from some “SEGA of Japan interns and independent OEM designers,” CinemaBlend reported. 

However, as some have noted, the projectdream.co website associated with the project isn’t associated with SEGA.

The plan is to bring a PC rig to the market that can run SEGA’s old and new games, and it would be a competitor to Steam Machines or even Alienware and Cyberpower, the report said. The shell of the new device will look similar to the old Dreamcast but will be modified and updated. A mock-up was being shared on Twitter and Facebook:

 

He wrote about the progress on Dec. 21, according to the Gaming Ground website:

“I’m truly excited about the Crowdfunded prospect for SEGA RingEdge Zero/RingWide Elite. There’s virtually no competition in the PC rig business and most PC gamers are left having to spend heavy budgets on building the perfect rig as Alienware is both expensive and just doesn’t offer Quality for its less expensive rigs. The design and spec build we’ve chosen has Intel Core i5 Haswell, the most popular and strongest quality performing CPU among PC gaming enthusiasts.

“Quality” and “Quality Control” is something missing in-game hardware brands now in days. And is something SEGA had with all of its consoles.

If we can get just a million backers worldwide, our upcoming KS could be funded in record time and with SEGA licensing it could have it out on the market in less than a year!”

Lawson and the other group working to resurrect the Dreamcast said that SEGA officials in Japan are in involved. And they are now planning to host the Kickstarter to get the hardware and designs finalized, CinemaBlend reported, which said that the “idea that a new console could be out by the end of 2016 almost sends chills down my spine.”

For those unfamiliar, the Dreamcast was SEGA’s final home console and was a fan favorite , but it couldn’t compete with the likes of the Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox, and the Nintendo Gamecube, which all came out after the Dreamcast was released. As a result, the console became a commercial failure and crushed SEGA as a maker of consoles. Many of the games on the Dreamcast were considered quite innovative and received critical acclaim, including Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, and Jet Set Radio. Many also praised the Dreamcast controller, while some reviled it as being bulky and ugly.

Evan-Amos
Evan-Amos/Creative Commons

 

The Project Dream website has a countdown timer that could lead to a revelation about when the Dreamcast 2 may be released, as Tweaktown notes. The site speculates that the system may be a PC-console hybrid, and it might use x86 architecture while sporting a NVIDIA GTX 740 GPU, an Intel i5 4460 at 3.4GHz, and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. The new system will have WiFi controllers. Tweaktown adds that the Project Dream website is more of a “what if” scenario.

SEGA has not officially said anything about the Dreamcast 2 hardware.

The author of the Gaming Ground article, Robin Elk, stated, “I got blown away by the fact that our Dreamcast 2 article had become a huge hit (it was the first thing that I saw when I checked my phone), and the SEGA community seems to be really excited and thrilled about” Project Dream. Elk was the one who obtained Lawson’s statement and organized them.

Lawson added, per The Gaming Ground:

Genesis Neo/Dreamcast Evolution I’m even MORE hyped for. This is the chance for SEGA to do something really innovative,cutting edge and NEW. This was SEGA back in the day, pioneering and always trying something completely new and original! Ahead of their time!”

“Part of our goal is for SEGA to price either product for an affordable,cheap price. Part of the magic about SEGA is that being primarily and Arcade Amusement company, they have the resources and ability to sell a Home Consumer Product at far better price points than Sony,Nintendo and Microsoft because they never built consoles from scratch and instead use Arcade Machine parts and accessories.

All SEGA consoles were/are based off Arcade hardware and all except Dreamcast were sold at profit including Sega Saturn. The reason why DC was sold at a loss was because it was priced $50 too cheap. Its original price was supposed to be $250(because its BOM price was $175) and SEGA did not have enough supply for its NAOMI Arcade counterpart for mass production due to the fact that its SH-4 Katana motherboard was mainly used in Hybrid Cars.

 He elaborated more on SEGA’s advantages:

SEGA can also do what not even PlayStation can: They have the technology to sell developers SDKs at cheaper prices and can cut budget and development costs on console games.”

 “Miku,Yakuza,Aliens,Hero Bank,Samurai and Dragons,Crazy Taxi,Ecco The Dolphin,Virtua Cop,Virtua Fighter,Border Break,Bayonetta,Shinobi,Total War, Company of Heroes,Phantasy Star,Skies of Arcadia,End of Eternity,Sands of Destruction,Valkyria,Shining Force,Billy Hatcher,Nights,Panzer Dragoon,Fighting Vipers,NY Gunblade,L.A. Machineguns,Operation GHOSTS,Dream Raiders,Let’s Go Island, SEGA Bass,SEGA Rally,Daytona USA,Under Night in Birth,Demon Tribe, Shenmue, Code of Joker. SEGA has far more viable and superior 1st party IPs then Sony that would be able to sell at a more diverse base of consumers: Particularly Casuals,PC games and Veteran gamers. People who don’t own PS4 or care for it.”

“Sega’s current Arcade boards are RINGEDGE 2 and Nu from 2012-2013. SEGA should be unveiling some new Arcade hardware at AOU in February. We have SOJ interns involved. They will present the ideas to SEGA of Japan next Quarter. SEGA will revive its old IPs.”

“Yuji Naka himself just accepted FB request. We have asked Joanne to translate in Japanese for us. If Naka gets involved, it’s going to make headlines and catch SEGA Holdings attention.” 

Editor’s note: Lawson’s last name was incorrectly spelled as “Lawsen” in the original article. This has been changed.