I see Super Smash Bros. was already confirmed for a release outside Japan. OTL, there was no news on an American release until after the game was out in Japan.
It came out in Japan in December, so it would be listed in the January 1999
Nintendo Power.
Duke Nukem Forever listed for Spring '99? Will it actually not take forever to get released?
Believe it or not, it is indeed coming out in 1999!
StarCraft and WarCraft? StarCraft I'm assuming it's the original game and Brood War. But WarCraft? It's too early for 3, so is it an enhanced version of the first two games/expansion pack, or is it the ill fated adventure game featuring Thrall?
They're both the original games. Actually Nivek said it was the first two so uh....we'll figure that out I guess. I planned just a port of the original but I didn't tell him yet
There's Star Wars Episode I Racer as in OTL, but where's Factor 5's Rogue Squadron?
Butterflied, but there will be another Star Wars game before the end of the year.
Half Life for Ultra... I'm assuming this is a Gearbox port like OTL?
Correct.
And another Prince of Persia game? Is this one going to be tied to the first two games, or not? Or is it going to be a reboot? Is it this timeline's attempt to shift to 3D?
A little bit of both. It'll be 3D, but it WON'T be as good as OTL
Sands of Time, that's all I'll say.
So... I guess anything with 3Dfx is not going to be mentioned for now?
Right.
Oh... something I should have asked earlier, but is Taito going to bring
Bubble Symphony and
Bubble Memories?
Not yet. We'll get some kind of fifth-gen
Bubble Bobble game though.
I'm no legal expert, but would Nintendo/Sony's dominance of the market warrant an anti-trust suit? They no longer use those anti-competitive licensing practices.
That's why the news report said it was unlikely.
Ballmer's foaming at the mouth for one, Gates considers it but by summer 1999 he's moved on from trying to go after Nintendo/Sony in that particular way.
Am I right in picturing the TTL GBC looking like it's OTL counterpart, but with the color options of the OTL Game Boy Pocket? The translucent plastic trend would only have just been starting now, and this timeline's GBC would have been too early for that. But the GB Nova would DEFINITELY have been hit by the translucent plastic trend (which, OTL starts with the iMac and starts a trend for consumer electronics starting in 1999 and into the early 2000s.
Oh, the Nova absolutely has some translucent variants and the GBC has some alternate colors, yes.
That might be one possibility, though the partnership with Sony might change things.
I believe I must apologize somewhat for getting a bit defensive on the subject of Sega, especially with them getting trounced in '98 and Microsoft eyeing the market. This TL has awakened the dormant Sega fanboy within me so my emotions get the better of me, hence the "RARGH! Nintendo must fall!" reaction when I hear about Sega's troubles. It does not change my sentiment that I believe that Nintendo and Sony need to make a miscalculation to make things a bit more believable, in my opinion.
Adding to this sentiment is the Tom Kalinske vignettes, one of the things I love about this timeline (along with Polly Klaas) is how they bring a human element to it. Especially how Tom and Sega are trying so hard but constantly coming up short, especially in 1997-8. I really want them to succeed and expect some sort of payoff. Conversely, Whenever I read the Ken Kutagari, Howard Lincoln, other anyone associated with Nintendo or Sony, they come off as
invincible heroes that Sega can't even touch. Though I consciously know that the successes of
Goldeneye 007, the Dreamers, Temple of Time, and
Pokemon are good things. I find it hard to believe it on a visceral level hence why I keep agitating for a setback. Sega's like Rocky Balboa and the Mighty Ducks from the original film and Nintendo Apollo Creed and the Hawks. That is how I see it as a reader.
Oh no, you're right in criticizing the success Nintendo and Sony are having ITTL. Honestly, Nivek and I have been looking for things to throw at them but with all the games they'd have on their systems, it'd honestly be tough for them to fail in any major way by this point in time, and we want to try to be realistic and not randomly screw Nintendo/Sony or have them mess up in the ways that Sega did IOTL.
I will say this. We do have....some kind of setback planned for Nintendo in the next couple years. I won't say anything but sometime before 2001, something will happen. Don't try to wheedle it out of us, and we won't respond to any guesses about it, but it is coming. That's all either of us will say
Great update, I will comment further later. I just wanted to say that you made one little mistake. As awesome as it would be for Kubrick to make Apocalypse Now it was Francis Ford Coppola. I realize I probably got Kubrick stuck in your head.
Blegh, another brain fart. THanks for pointing it out, went back and edited the post
Nice update. One thing: I'm guessing Doom: Inferno will be the equivalent of our timeline's Doom 64?
Correct. Won't be the exact same game, probably will have a vastly different plot in general, but we do need a nice 3-D fifth-gen
Doom game.
Doom did SO damn well on the SNES-CD (look back at the chart and how many copies it sold) that id would be crazy not to do at least one for the Ultra.
A nice wrap up to 1998. It certainly seems that Sega's cut their work cut out for them. The massive layoffs were bound to happen given the roaring success of the UNES and the inability to take it down a peg. Still a shame that Kalinske couldn't do more to dethrone it just yet; guess they'll have to wait for the Katana to take a better swing. I do think that Sega's acquisition of Bandai is something that will ultimately pay off for them. When times are tougher and leaner in the future it will allow them to have some sort of cash to fall back on to offset costs they may run into. The anime-producing sections may not bring in the big bucks/yen, but the toy-manufacturing parts should certainly help. At the very least it'll leave them in a better state than just hemorrhaging money like they were at this point OTL.
The acquisition of Bandai will be a boon for Sega in one way or the other.
My only question at this point is: who replaces him?
Well, IF Kalinske is replaced at some point, I have someone in mind but it's another massive spoiler.
I'm glad Electric Monk brought up Satoru Iwata as that's another question that will be hovering in the background of Player Two Start. Who's going to succeed Yamauchi as president? Obviously it's still way too early to tell but I do agree that Iwata would be better suited for a less business-oriented role. The man had a wonderful personality and presence but I think he was the wrong choice to lead the company. That said, it still would be nice if he could host alt-Nintendo Directs or act as a major E3 spokesman in the future.
That question will certainly come up as well, Nivek and I have some thinking to do about that one though!
Looks like System Shock 2 has been butterflied away ITTL. I'm not sure if anything can save Looking Glass Studios at this point, honestly, even if Junction Point somehow more successful. I do wonder if they're still handing the StarCraft port to the Ultra, though, similar to the N64 OTL.
Right-o. And Junction Point is probably going to be one of the year's top PC games. Can it contend with the awesome console stuff coming out in 1999? We shall see...
So Valve has made the choice of putting Half-Life on the Ultra (along with the slew of PC ports it's receiving). I figured that was going to be the case as soon as it was mentioned back in one of the E3 updates they were toying with either the Ultra or Saturn+Ring. Valve's always favored architecture closer to computers and they'd certainly be attracted to Kutaragi's work for that reason. One wonders if that partnership will continue into the future.
Well, there's always the Ultra's successor in that regard, we've been discussing that with some people already. Half-Life should be a major hit, though it probably won't be a
Goldeneye-sized one.
I wish I could comment a bit more on the original games that are coming out but I do admit I get most excited seeing the butterflies for OTL's stuff. Pokemon Sun and Moon has me pretty excited for their update (great job imitating a typical AngelFire site from this era, by the way). Is Sonic 5 going to be the equivalent of Sonic Adventure here? Unless I've misread what's been written, Sonic 4 was like Sonic Rush, right?
Correct, Sonic 4 was meant to be like Sonic Rush, and Sonic 5 will be a lot like Sonic Adventure (which, IOTL, didn't exactly age well...). Believe it or not, I HAD one of those old Angelfire sites. Those were the days, anyone here from the 90s should be getting some serious nostalgia at that Angelfire site
Original games will play a big role this year, though most of the big hits will be OTL games. Hopefully people have a decent idea already what the big original hits will be. One of them is coming up in January...
Sony and Nintendo's future may not be bright given their eventual stumbling but at this point I think they're going to be sticking with one another. The time for them to (successfully) split is long since past and I feel that they're going to continue relying on one another even when we get our third player into the console video game space. Pokemania is in full swing and both companies share the IP together. I can't see either one of them willingly giving up their 50% to the other even if times get tough (though since Sony owns Game Freak they could try to force some ultimatum, I suppose). But the sixth generation does seem appropriate for them to start having serious difficulties; DVD-based storage media and Internet connectivity do seem like the most obvious choices to have them be deficient in in comparison to their competition, ala the GameCube. Also as someone brought up Kutaragi's penchant for cell-based architecture may well hurt them sooner than a PlayStation 3/Wii equivalent given that he's been a big wig for two major joint ventures (and likely a third in the form of the Game Boy Nova). That'll make porting a pain...
But I'm not too worried about Sega in the long term. By being forced to play the underdog it gives them opportunity to observe what others are doing and try to play the long game. DVD playback and online gaming services would certainly be a big step towards evening the playing field but there are other avenues too. I posted a while back the patent they'd made for the Dreamcast that looked eerily similar to the Wiimote and I think it wouldn't be unreasonable for them to try catching lightning in a bottle similar to the Wii with motion controls. Nintendo's conservative nature, to me, suggests they will still stick with more traditional controls given that they will be unlikely to try and as out of the box like OTL. They will probably still be in either the number one or number two spot depending on the generation (so the 'Sony' of this TL's future).
Whether or not the Katana has DVD playback or not will probably play a big role in whether it succeeds enough to give Sega a fighting chance. We're still discussing that as well. I have no doubt the Ultra's successor will have it, though online is still up in the air. Motion controls for the Katana are another interesting road to explore. Our plans for the Katana are complex and extensive, hopefully you guys enjoy what we've got in store!
Off-topic, did either of you happen to read my proposal?
A combination of real life, Fallout 4, and work on this TL has kept me from some of my PM backlog, so I'll try my best to get to it sometime today. I also need to take a look at that interview that just got posted!
