Bring Back Sega Channel

Added 08/05/2004 by Stephen Webster

The internet is a very powerful tool. It brought you to this text. So why are companies with massive libraries of classic games not thinking along the same lines? Smart money says they are.

The internet, since Al Gore invented it (natch), has become one of the most vital hubs of human commerce, exchange of information, education, and entertainment. The World Wide Web is now fully capable of delivering feature length movies on demand, stream new release 3D games while playing them, and provides a venue for interactive entertainment’s fondly remembered past. Newgounds.com has made Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man X, and more available for play through a web browser window. The technology is simple, the games are fantastic, and the bandwidth is there.

And then I get an unsurprisingly vague press release from Sega.

Since the firm partnered with Sammy Japan and launched the Atomiswave platform to usurp the Neo Geo (God Bless SNK), buzz has worked up to a fervent pitch. Will Sega/Sammy release the Atomiswave in North America? I certainly hope not. It would be a disaster. However, according to the United States Office of Copyrights, since June 26, 1996, Sega, Inc. held the rights to three separate electronic content streaming technologies. In the days of the Genesis, the preamble to this technology was incorporated into a unique service called Sega Channel. At the time, the only infrastructure that could support such a radical idea was the North American cable television network, a literal spider’s web of bandwidth that reaches over 90% of the country's households. The firm seized upon this, but many of America’s cable providers were skeptical. Roughly 30% of content centers adopted the Sega Channel program. It was advertised by Sega on public broadcasting, major networks, and POG's, which was simply brilliant given the era. Regardless, after three years of amazing, near-free games (only 25 cents a download), and hours of thumb-numbing fun, Sega Channel was retired.

With two "failed" consoles, Sega Japan would be foolish to leap back into the hardware market. American consumers have been rubbed the wrong way by the firm's systems, exceptional software notwithstanding. With the technology and know-how the company has under its roof, a re-launch of Sega Channel could only be a dream come true.

Yes, I said re-launch Sega Channel. You listening, Sega?

Dream with me a few moments. Sega takes all the Sega.net ISP servers now unplugged and stashed away in a warehouse somewhere and turns them back on. A service is established via Sega.com and is ported to Microsoft’s Xbox Live, giving the Live service its first genuine content channel like Microsoft promised. Instantly, a library of hundreds of games is available to people who have not had the chance to witness this type of media for the better part of ten years, if at all. A Sega Channel portal disk is released for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube that sells for $49.99 and comes with six months of free Sega Channel. All of the sudden, Sega has their own Gameboy Advance-like platform to recycle old games, sans portability.

Unless ...

Sega and the largest cellular content providers in the United States, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Cingular and Verizon, partner for the service. It becomes available without a subscription fee absolutely free for six months with the purchase of a phone capable of 16-bit gaming. Honestly, the technical requirements are almost moot at this point. One-third of working cellular devices support gaming in America; even gaming in 3D! Worldwide, the fraction is even more skewed toward interactivity. With this service in place, and wireless firms in America looking to continue to expand the cellular gaming market, Sega could become one of the most sought-after gaming companies practically overnight. The funny thing is this company still has enough progressive thinkers to pull something like this off.

There is very little hard evidence to support fervent hypothesizing of this breed. It is simply an idea among many, tossed into a hat, waiting to be plucked by whatever muse it is that stands smiling behind every great game.