Sega announces re-entry into hardware with the Vision
Inexplicable announcement of the day, sure to elicit a cranium-bursting WTF: Sega is getting back into the hardware game.
According to Register Hardware, Sega's new handheld will be called the Vision, and it will primarily be a PMP, with a built-in television tuner combined with video and musical playback support. It'll play games too, but that's clearly not the device's thrust... in fact, the Vision's leaked feature sheets lists "games" in a desultorily second-to-last place, only behind e-books.
It's a bit of a befuddling announcement. If I were to speculate, I would say the Sega Vision was primarily aimed at a Japanese market, which is about the only place on Earth where portable television enjoys a thriving marketshare. But Reg Hardware claims the Vision will make a UK debut sometime next year.
By releasing a DAP outside of Japan, then, Sega is going to be going head-to-head with an entrenched market leader (Apple), just like they once went head-to-head with Nintendo, and lost. You'd think, if they were going to re-enter hardware, they would have taken full inventory of the mistakes of the past.
Even weirder: while there's been no firm release date announced for the Sega Vision, it's available in London now for any one willing to plunk enough quarters down the coin slot of a claw-grabbing arcade game, along with a handful of last-gen iPod Nanos. A serious iPod competitor indeed!
Sega to launch PSP beater in 2009 [Reg Hardware]
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It's a wonderful illustration about the importance of remembering where you came from. It looks like the capability of this thing really is just an unheralded value-add, something expected from any portable media player.
But you're Sega, Sega! You can't just slap a picture of a joystick second-to-last!
Not quarters. Ten bob bits or Quids.
Which arcade is this in? I haven't really frequented the arcades since Williams pinball died.
Must be Namco or the Troc?
As an aside if anyone knows of any pins in London other than the Casino on Goodge street please tell!
Oh god, I hope they make the later ones look like a dreamcast. That alone would set the blogs on fire.
You know, I seem to recall most sega hardware having been consistantly more advanced than it's competitors.
Simeon, there's underground lanes on Queensway, in Bayswater (W2).
Does anyone remember the TV tuner you could get for the Sega Game Gear? I loved that thing, many nights of watching TV in bed, surfing for breasts on SBS aka Serious Booby Station to any 11 year old boy.
Excellent, there's an image! (although lacking the breasts I remember so fondly).
Hey where'd my link go? I said lacking the breasts!