The war of the Consoles has been going strong for quite a while, it now seems that we may have the first casualty.
In the long and sometimes dirty race to market domination the three main competitors, four with the coming addition of Microsoft, have each had their moments in the sun. SEGA can only look at those times as a distant memory however, following their reported losses for the April-September period of 17.98 billion yen ($153 million) and the companys' expected report of a loss of $22.1 bilion for it's fouth loss-making year in a row.
Considering these facts the story reported in many Japanese newspapers, that Dreamcast production will cease in March, begins to make sense. Announcements such as that made in November, that Sega is preparing five PlayStation 2 titles and two more for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance coupled with the reported losses make such a move seem the natural conclusion to the Sega Console making days.
The Sega US denials were quick to come but on closer inspection their comments are not necessarily contradictory to the report. Their reassurance on Sega's continuing devotion to the continuation of the Dreamcast format, do not mean that production will continue.
Even if Dreamcast production stops in March, it is expected to remain in the market for quite some time before stocks run out. It is becoming painfully obvious to Sega that they are more likely to achieve financial success as a software developer rather than a console producer and as a result they are more likely to move in that direction rather than invest the large sums needed in order to develop a Dreamcast successor.