Pointing out the reason why the Dreamcast didn’t work is not a very simple task. As a result of numerous misguided decisions on the part of Sega, that console deserved better luck and over the years we have discovered some behind-the-scenes details of a time when the Japanese company was on the brink of a precipice.
Credit: Reproduction/Obsolete Tears
Who decided to tell a little about his frustration when working with the old console was Mark Subotnick, then a producer at Sega of America. By participating in the recording of
The Retro Hour Podcast ), the game designer explained what led one of the most promising games for the Dreamcast to be cancelled.
Baptized as Geist Force , the project was shown to the world during E3 1998 and was seen by many as Sega’s answer to the classic
Star Fox
. Being the first game of the North American division for the console, the idea would be to put it in stores as soon as the video game was released on this side of the world, but as we know, that never happened.
What was said at the time was that development had been canceled due to disagreements between the development team, non-compliance with deadlines and even skepticism regarding the quality of the game. However, Subotnick claims that the problem went beyond all that.
Admitting that the game was a clone of Star Fox, he assured that despite the title not bringing new ideas, it had a nice narrative. The producer then did not hesitate to appoint a person directly responsible for the project being shelved.
Subotnick then said that apart from who was part at Visual Concepts and was developing the NFL2K and the
NBA2K, only five of their engineers were working on a 128-bit console in the United States. Soon, knowing the storm to come, the group decided to take advantage of the job offers that were coming up and left Sega.
A from that moment on the development of
Geist Force
was in a terrible situation. With a proprietary engine in his hands, but without qualified people to run the project, the producer had to hire, which took up precious months and as he still needed to train those people, the game’s creation stagnated.
The executive even asked the people of Visual Concepts for help, the only North American studio with knowledge of the Dreamcast, but as they were very busy creating their own games, there was no other option than canceling development.
Although a playable version appeared on the internet a few years later, only somewhere between 65 and 70 % of the game has been completed and that’s why you can’t even call it a beta. That situation would still make Mark Subotnick leave Sega of America, with him going to work at Microsoft and having helped in the launch of both the first Xbox and the Xbox 360. Today the guy runs the games area created by Intel.
Even though cancellations are common when it comes to game development and that just one game wouldn’t be enough to save the Dreamcast, it’s sad to see that something as interesting as this “
Star Fox from Sega” did not see the light of day. If fate had followed another path, maybe that game would have given rise to an interesting franchise, but that’s something we’ll never know.
As for Yuji Naka, I have already declared my respect for his work, with a portfolio full of titles that I enjoyed a lot, but it is undeniable like his career has declined over the years. I also understand that in the case of
Geist Force he may have made a decision thinking about the good of the company, but listening to Subotnick’s report, how can you not think that the Japanese man treated the situation in a very arrogant way?
It’s that old story of the less we know about the professionals we admire, the better.
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