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"Segas Announcement!"

E3 2004 will surely be remembered as the year of the portable gaming device. With Sony's PSP announcement and Nintendo's DS unveiling, this year's show has already had more than its fair share of portable goodness - but Sega's shock revelation that it is developing its own device must top the lot.

However, according to Yuji Naka, who unveiled the machine to shocked games industry representatives at a Sega E3 press briefing held just half an hour ago, with their new creation (code-named 'Prometheus') Sega are not attempting to directly compete with either Sony or Nintendo. 'Prometheus' is instead being billed by Sega as "the videogame equivalent of the iPod", and with the machine's pearl-white colour scheme it is obvious to see that the company wish to invoke the design-chic of Steve Jobs' ultra-popular music-playing machine. The similarities do not end there, however: rather than purchasing games from their local GameStop, gamers will download 'Prometheus' titles (called 'gamebits') from a special Sega online service which, Sega said, will operate in a similar way to Apple's iTunes software. With the use of a supplied USB cable (also white) users may then transfer up to twenty 'gamebits' on to their 'Prometheus' system's 15GB hard drive for play any time, any place.

The 'Prometheus' is roughly the same width as a CD case, and half the height. It will operate on a rechargeable battery (as yet unconfirmed as being lithium) which Sega say will last up to twenty hours. In a surprising move, in order to conserve battery power, the 'Prometheus' screen will not be backlit: a decision which we believe likely to alienate many gamers, and one inexplicable in lieu of recent technological developments which should negate such problems. Nevertheless, with the power, according to Sega, of "the Dreamcast, plus a little extra", and a genuinely innovative and cost-effective approach to game distribution, the 'Prometheus' certainly shows promise - and if the jubilant cheers and applause from the assembled journos are anything to go by, Sega's return to hardware is more than welcome.

Expect more tomorrow at the official Sega press conference where we hope to see at least footage of several potential launch titles

LOL!

Do they make tablets for laughing fits then?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Okay, I'm really done this time.

I thought April's Fools Day was last month...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

/Breathes

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

I'm done.

Plus, downloading games, I don't fancy that at all. I also heard a rumour that Sony are going to try and do that with the PS3 at some point, you'll have to download all of your games from the net instead of buying them in the shop. I think that's a really stupid idea, firstly because you'll probably need Broadband for that, and secondly, most stores make their money from Playstation games.

So from their point of view it wouldn't be worth keeping stores open just to sell X-Box 2 and N5 games as they probably won't be as popular. So there's a possibility that all games will have to be downloaded in future, which would indeed suck. Or of course I could just be getting ahead of myself.

:)

Why would they want to release their own handheld when we can buy their games on the GBA?

It will fail. Sega have had their time.

I read that SEGA were to make a big announcment the other day and that no-one would be able to guess what it was. I guessed that they would either be bringing out another console or a handheld.

Search on Google = nowt.

*prepares to look silly*

Heh, I hope they're not superstitious - Prometheus was a Greek tragedy.