Hello all,

The last week has been very quiet overall as the holidays reach their end. Over on the site I've updated the release dates for the Saturn and Dreamcast. Adding a few titles, and moving others around as dates slip etc. Notably, Sega will be releasing House of the Dead 2 for the Dreamcast in Japan on March 18th. The game will come in two versions, one with the gun and one without. The Magic Box is reporting that Sonic Team is working on their next Dreamcast game, a sequel to Nights. The game will not be called Nights 2 because of the awkward Japanese pronunciation of the title. The game will use a full freedom 3D environment unlike the Saturn version which was on 'rails.' Coming on the 14th, Sega Rally 2 is finally on its way. Not much information has been released in the way of images for a while, but its quite certain that lots of work has been done. As earlier stated on dEX, the game's network mode will support up to four simultaneous players. Sega plans to make the network play (via their server I assume) free after one year. It will be interesting to see if 3rd parties begin setting up their own (free) DC network gaming servers. Days ago, I posted the latest screens from Shen Mue for the Dreamcast. The source this time around was Sega of Americas PR agency, AccessPR. Thus, it brings little question of whether or not the game is planned for release in the English language. The only question is, when will it happen?

There are rumors now that Sega's President Shoichiro Irimajiri may be leaving Sega. Centaur Communications, a UK based trade publishing group, has reported that the executive has been in talks with American auto company, General Motors. Prior to joining Sega, Irimajiri had been working for Honda on the McClaren F1 team. Thus his experience in the auto industry does leave some possibility to the rumors. Sega's PR department strongly denies the rumors. Hopefully if the rumors are true, Irimajiri will choose to stay with Sega, as a departure by a key figure such as him is a major blow to Sega. I will keep you posted regarding this issue as more information becomes available.

As many companies move to support Sega's Dreamcast, one major company will not be doing so. Square has elected to forgo developing for the DC, choosing instead to continue development exclusively for Sony with Sony's next console. In announcing that they had a few projects in the works for the PSX2, he was asked if the company had plans for the DC. He stated that while the DC was attractive especially for its network abilities, they have no intention to develop for the DC. His statements leave little mention of a reason behind the decision, however there are two possibilities: a) the PSX2 is much more impressive to Square, or b) Sony reached into the bank and made a 'donation' to Square Corp. Each position has its supporters and detractors, I will let you decide as to what to speculate upon.

With the new year, only about six months of Saturn titles from Sega are left. In November, Sega stated that development would end in 1998, and that software production would wrap up during the middle of this year. Looking at the current release list, which runs through February, the list of titles is pretty slim, with seven titles set for release in the next two months and three more with unestablished ship dates. Of those games, three will be Saturn Collection games. Check out the release lists for more information.

That's all for this week, hopefully there will be more news in the following days. That's for reading, see ya!

-Greg