If you played video games in high school, then you might remember the rivalry between the kids who had Nintendo and the kids who had Sega. You didn’t just dislike Sega’s system if you owned a Nintendo. Sega was the enemy. And the same held true for Nintendo if you owned a Sega system.

Well, the long rivalry seems to be over. Sega has officially thrown in the towel on the system wars. With flagging sales of the Dreamcast in both the U.S. and Japan, Sega announced on Jan. 30 that they will no longer be manufacturing new Dreamcast systems, and will instead focus on developing software for their erstwhile competition.

Sega has also announced a decrease in the MSRP for the system in order to move their remaining stock quickly. Starting Feb. 3, the price of the system will drop from $149.95 to $99.95, which means they should already be available at the lower price.

So, what does this mean for those of you who have a Dreamcast, those who want one, or those who have or want another system? Several things.

First off, while Sega will not make any more Dreamcasts, and probably never another system, the company will continue to release games for the Dreamcast throughout 2001. There are about 100 Dreamcast games slated for release in 2001, including sequels to the arcade-style driving game Crazy Taxi and the realistic role-playing game Shenmue.

Many of the games slated for release are exclusives, as well. Besides upcoming games, the Dreamcast also has a strong library of current games, like the skating/graffiti game Jet Grind Radio and the RPG Skies of Arcadia.

Sega also plans to continue to support and expand their ISP, SegaNet, which means Internet-ready Dreamcast games like the recent Phantasy Star Online and Quake III: Arena should continue to be playable online.

Secondly, it means that whatever new system you’re planning to get, be it Sony’s PlayStation 2, Nintendo’s Game Cube or Game Boy Advance, or the Microsoft X-Box, chances are that you’ll be able to play Sega games on them. Already confirmed for PS2 are the fourth installment in the Virtua Fighter series and a sequel to last year’s dancing game Space Channel 5. Game Boy Advance games announced so far include Sonic the Hedgehog Advance and puzzle game Chu-Chu Rocket.

Release dates have not yet been specified.

The third and possibly most important consequence is that with Sega out of the running, Sony will face almost no direct competition for the PS2 until around the holiday season this year, when Nintendo and Microsoft are set to release their systems in the U.S.

With no one to challenge the PS2, Sony could easily gain an even bigger head start than they already have, if they can meet the huge demand for their new system.

But even if they don’t meet the demand for the system, they still have an advantage with big-name titles like Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Squaresoft’s Final Fantasy X on the way for the holidays.

Sega has always been a top-notch game developer, even as their consoles have invariably been outsold by the competition. But choosing to reinvent themselves as a software developer may be the wisest choice they could have made in the increasingly competitive video game market, and they have a golden opportunity now to take advantage of this competition by playing on all sides.

Let’s hope they use it well.

Related links:

www.videogames.com

www.sega.com

www.gamerevolution.com