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Earlier this evening there was a chat on IRC EFnet channel #SEGAView with
Sega producer Steve Hutchins. Steve has been producing/creating PC and videogames since 1990, starting with
games for the TGX-16. He has previously worked with Mindscape and has been at Sega for the past 1 1/2 years.
The games for the Saturn that he has produced includes: NiGHTS, Fighting Vipers, Virtual On, Virtua Cop 2,
Die Hard Arcade, Fighters Megamix, Last Bronx and Quake.
He didn't really reveal any really monumental facts, but a lot of hints and vague comments were made with regard to the Saturn's future and Sega's next gaming system. He stated that Sega has a lot of killer stuff coming out for the Saturn in 1998, including both coin-op ports and more great RPGs. With regard to RPGs, it appears that Sega was pretty impressed with the sales of Shining the Holy Ark and feel that RPGs are definitely a genre that they plan on supporting into 1998. In addition to Panzer Dragoon Saga, game's like Shining Force III, Grandia and possibly others seem likely for release on the Sega Saturn in the US in 1998. Also, he said a big announcement would be made soon about these "type" of games. With regard to the 4 meg RAM Cart, he said that it doesn't seem likely that it will be brought out in the US, they have a reluctance to sell games with hardware included because of inventory problems. When asked about TCP/IP support for Netlink games, he said he didn't think it would be effective with the type of games that are currently for the NetLink, but said that new stuff will likely have TCP/IP support. But, he went on to say that "new stuff" meant non-Saturn stuff. According to his comments throughout the chat, Sega's next system will have a modem, it just hasn't been decided whether it will be with the system or sold as an add-on. When asked about a Saturn version of Virtua Fighter 3, he responded "VF3 can't be done properly on Saturn...no way." So for those of you hoping for a Saturn version, it doesn't seem like it will ever happen. Also, the Saturn will be supported by Sega at least through the summer of 1998 and the release date of the system isn't known at this time, 1998 and 1999 are both possible.
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