I would say have negotiations start in 2000, and then Nintendo purchases Sega in the summer of 2001 just after Sonic Adventure 2 releases (and proves the Dreamcast is truly dying) but right before the GameCube launches in Japan. The Dreamcast would probably linger until the end of the year when the two companies merge, and the Dreamcast would be axed.
The timeline doesn't work for this. Sega announced they were pulling out of the console market in January 2001 and Melee was released in November 2001. Even if merger and acquisition terms are agreed to in record time, there just isn't enough time to add a brand new character to Melee in a scant few months, while still having the time to do proper bug-testing and finish it up for the holiday season— especially since Melee already faced a gruelling crunch session near the end of its development IOTL! The only way to get Sonic in Melee is to delay the game, and there's little chance of that happening when it was Nintendo's big holiday release.
As hex say, when 2000 didn't showed it, the DC did have their days numbered and that is the time to start negotiations, as GC is done at the time, the hardware would be the same(maybe a little uped specs if possible for future games), but mostly the same console as OTL.
Yeah but is pausable as Melee was a literal high speed march..but is low,like 10-20%chance for happen so i agree with this
Plus, it was Nintendo's big launch title internationally. Sure, Luigi's Mansion was there to stand in for Mario, but nothing sells like Smash. So delaying Melee is like Nintendo putting all of its eggs in one Poltrgust-shaped basket, and that... wouldn't go well.
I think that Sega may be able to convince the Big N to incorporate some sort of online mode into the GC, using their existing tech that would die with the Dreamcast.
Well with the news today...and Sakura was deader that fire emblem at the time, i think they might push it very well.
There will be one, they got good money of PC..a shame the old games were just localized in russian.
