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Looking ahead to the Christmas 1998 selling season, Sega--with a likely assist from
Microsoft )--is developing "Dural," a video game system that will very likely run
the Redmond, Wash., software giant's Windows CE operating system, according to CMP's
Windows Magazine. The full report can be found on the publication's Web site at
www.winmag.com/news/.
"We're really excited about the possibility of working with Sega on this," a source on Microsoft's Windows CE team told Windows Magazine. "It's premature to announce anything, but we've had a continuing relationship with Sega for the last four years, and there was a deal back then on the Saturn device. We're very interested in moving CE into other consumer product spaces. We've focused on WebTV for the past few months, but video games are a natural fit." According to several independent video game Web sites, Dural is slated for release next fall for about $300 to $350. The system will offer optional support for a modem, keyboard and mouse, and will run on Hitachi's 200MHz SH-4 microprocessor and NEC's PowerVR2 graphics chip. The PowerVR2 chip supports Silicon Graphics' OpenGL, a 3D computing standard that Microsoft publicly praised in recent weeks. OpenGL should let developers more readily port PC games to Dural, and vice versa. Given Dural's design specifications, some insiders say the hybrid video game system may gain some WebTV-like features. It could also bolster Microsoft's Windows CE initiative, which has so far yielded mixed results. Analysts say WinCE-based Handheld PCs (HPCs) have sold a modest 200,000 to 300,000 units so far, but Microsoft hopes to broaden the operating system's appeal by embedding it in WebTV, pocket PCs and automobiles, among other platforms. Dural could also reenergize Sega. The company's Genesis console cornered the 16-bit video game market earlier this decade. However, Sega's 32-bit follow-up, the Saturn console, didn't keep pace with Sony's Playstation or the Nintendo64. Ironically, many video game developers embraced the Sony platform because commodity Windows 95 or Windows NT desktops support Playstation software development. A lower-end version Sony's developer's kit, called the Net Yaroze, went on sale earlier this year. While Microsoft and Sega are still hammering out the final details on Dural, neither company would officially comment on the project. "We haven't announced anything publicly," a Microsoft spokesman told Windows Magazine. "Just because something's posted on the Internet doesn't mean it's actually going to happen." Sega representatives declined to comment.
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