Pace and Sega announce Dreamcast joint venture Published: 29th Jan 22:59:45 | Permalink | Printable Pace Micro, the company which now owns the rights to RISC OS and bought Acorn's former head office in Cambridge, has caused a great stir by announcing plans of an alliance with Sega.
Sega, the ailing games company which has a history in console design, recently announced that it was not to produce a successor to its Dreamcast product.
The two companies announced this morning that they would be working together to produce a 'TV home gateway', a device to extend the capabilities of the digital set-top box. Pace had already released plans of its forthcoming set-top box which allows users to record live TV broadcasts on an internal hard disc rather than on traditional video tapes.
 | "Pace's vision is to change the way in which consumers interact with digital TV technologies." Andrew Wallace, Marketing Director |
The new set-top box is due to be launched this year by a 'major UK broadcaster', but details are currently sketchy. The alliance with Sega will allow Pace to integrate the game retailer's graphics engine into its future set-top boxes. The hybrid solution of digital TV decoder, games console and video recorder will certainly be a unique product however it is thought that games will be downloaded on a pay-per-play basis. Interestingly, the Pace box is unlikely to have a CD or DVD drive.
"For Sega, integrating games into set-top boxes expands its market potential beyond conventional games consoles. Existing users now have a new way to access games, and new users will be attracted since anyone with the HDD enabled home gateway box will have access to Sega's own extensive and licensed games portfolio."
It has been obvious for some time that Sega, once the undisputed leader in game console manufacture, has lost its way since Nintendo and Sony released their powerful games machines, the N64 and PlayStation. Sega's Dreamcast has failed to sell as well as the company was expecting and the possibility of a Dreamcast 2 was recently rulled out.
Have Sega sold themselves short or is this just good news for Dreamcast fans? Are Pace leading the way in set-top box design or are they losing focus? Have your say in the Drobe Launch Pad Forums.
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