Fri, Feb 15, 2013 | 16:39 GMT

Sega returns to the hardware market with retro-themed netbooks

Sega has been out of the hardware game since it folded up Dreamcast, but now it’s back in Japan thanks to a new line of Sega-themed netbooks, which will be distributed by Japanese PC retailer Enterbrain.

Dubbed the Sega Note PC, each of the four netbooks comes with four interchangeable Sega-themed decals, from the 16-Bit Mega Drive, right up to the Dreamcast.

Enterbrain has a list of the specs for each of the netbooks right here if you’d like to check out the technicalities.

Retrocollect reports that Sega has no plans to release these netbooks internationally, and they are really expensive too, coming in at ¥99,750 – ¥194,250, which is between£700 to £1,300.

What do you make of the news? Should Sega come back to console development, or has that time passed?

Thanks NeoGAF.

23 comments

Deacon
15/02/13, 8:56 am

I have no need for a netbook, but I’d still buy one of these given the chance. Probably that bad-ass looking Megadrive one!

Dave Cook
15/02/13, 8:57 am

@1 Yep, that’s the one I’d get. So good.

Gadzooks!
15/02/13, 9:15 am

Oh hell yes. SEGA should definitely return to the console market. I’d support the crap out of them!

psxman
15/02/13, 9:35 am

I think the Saturn edition will under-perform and SEGA will be left scratching their heads as to why.

Dave Cook
15/02/13, 9:40 am

@4 HISTORY REPEATING :O

LordSkyline
15/02/13, 9:44 am

Judging by those specs, can they really be called netbooks? (small, portable, long battery life, good for students, cheap) those seem like “normal” Laptops, or well, pretty darn good (spec wise) Laptops, SSDs, I7s 8gb ram, quite good, still expensive though.

GwynbleiddiuM
15/02/13, 10:16 am

They have decent specs as well.

@6 Exactly, wouldn’t mind getting one myself. :d

GameStunts
15/02/13, 10:26 am

I think these laptops(they are not netbooks) are nothing more than a novelty and don’t bring anything special to the table. If they had a really cool feature like official emulation support for the Dreamcast and Megadrive etc then I could see why these would be unique. As it stands they’re just another PC laptop.

The console market is going to get pretty crowded in the next twelve months with OUYA, PS4, XBOX, Wii U, and GameStick, but as we’ve seen before it’s not the specs, it’s what you can get on the platform.

Sega has become quite a big publisher again, and would have the power to bring some good titles to a platform it made. Not to mention the hardware market has changed significantly since it was last making consoles. More off the shelf options are available without having to make your own proprietary hardware, which was proven with the first Xbox basically being a 700mhz Pentium with 64mb ram and a Ge-force 3.

Sega could put out a console with little R&D money, the question would be could they attract publishers to port yet another version of a game to another platform? If they went down the AMD route along with the suspected specs of the Sony and Microsoft offerings, then they could minimise the fuss in porting a game to their console and have a chance.

On a side note, I loved Sega consoles. I think the Dreamcast was a pinnacle of technology and a beautiful concept released at an unfortunate interval in the console cycle and deserved much better than it got. I’d love to see Sega come back in to the console game.

Moonwalker1982
15/02/13, 10:36 am

Dreamcast was incredible. I remember the impressive graphics, and then PS2 came out and was said to be more powerful but the exact opposite was true. It’s sad what happened to Dreamcast, fantastic console.

#10

friendlydave
15/02/13, 10:39 am

These are lovely looking, have to agree that megadrive one is the best looking!!!

@8 I don;t think they will ever come back. They are right now pulling out from physical media for costs, can’t see them spending on a console.

#11

Moonwalker1982
15/02/13, 10:47 am

I can’t exactly remember what happened anymore, but didn’t all developers go straight to PS2 when it came out and ignored Dreamcast? I know alot of people blame Sony for it.

#12

friendlydave
15/02/13, 10:54 am

@11 Yeah, that’s pretty much what happened. Dreamcast had a good half year run then that was it.

#13

silkvg247
15/02/13, 11:05 am

It would be more sense if they each came with an emulator and selection of games.

#14

absolutezero
15/02/13, 11:08 am

Custom start up and shut down jingles with the Dreamcast logo please.

#15

manamana
15/02/13, 11:09 am

Oh how I wish Sega would make a new console. Just because they where all so great. Ah, I’m full of nostalgia now

#16

friendlydave
15/02/13, 11:12 am

@14 Would be great if they had start up sounds, would love to turn on my laptop to just hear “SEGA” with sonic swooshing past.

*Blue Dreamcast logo would of been nice too, not a fan of the orange//red

#17

TheWulf
15/02/13, 12:41 pm

I was baffled by that, too. Everyone claimed that it was supposed to be more powerful, but the specs were actually inferior to those of the Dreamcast, so I was always iffy. When the thing came out, it looked worse than the Dreamcast, and the Dreamcast ports looked markedly worse on the PS2 than they did on their home console.

So yeah. That it was more powerful was just marketing spin. All you had to do was compare the two machines to see that. It would be kind of like SEGA saying that the Saturn was more powerful than the PSone (though they never said that, they tend to be a bit smarter than Sony in that regard).

Not only that, but the Dreamcast had some fabulously and wonderfully quirky games available for it. Plus, it had Skies of Arcadia, which pretty much made it hands-down the best console of that generation. Still, things like Medal of Honour are always going to outsell anything genuinely interesting, hence the Dreamcast’s failure.

The Dreamcast had good games, just not well marketed ones, or mainstream popular ones.

#18

TheWulf
15/02/13, 12:43 pm

Also, this could be a sign that SEGA’s chosen platform is now the PC. Didn’t Sonic Generations sell better on the PC than any other platform, too?

#19

friendlydave
15/02/13, 1:05 pm

@18 hmm, wouldn’t surprise me, specially as they bought Relic in the THQ auctions aswell.

#20

The Dude
15/02/13, 2:34 pm

Man, I’d love for Sega to throw its hat in the console ring once more. I don’t see how that could happen now though, sadly