The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
In the annals of great business rivalries, the battle of Bay Area video game titans may rank alongside such epic bouts as Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Reebok or McDonald's vs. Burger King.
It pits Electronic Arts, the undisputed heavyweight champion of gaming (Gosh Darn them), against Sega of America, the storied creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, a company on the comeback trail after ditching the Dreamcast, its unprofitable game console.
The battle will be joined -- in classic American sports tradition -- over football. It is the single largest category within sports, the most lucrative segment of the $9.4 billion console gaming market. Sega is counting on its NFL 2K3 title to grab market share from EA's wildly popular Madden NFL Football franchise.
Both companies have loads of promotional cash to pitch their $50 games -- about $75 million pledged for television and print advertising -- and not an inconsiderable amount of prestige riding on the outcome.
And there's plenty of trash talk, too. EA corporate spokesman Jeff Brown last week described Sega as ``the Burger King of video game sports -- they can brag about extra pickles, but they'll always be the second choice.''
Sega's corporate spokesman, Charles Bellfield's retort was to send Brown a Burger King burger -- a kind of ``eat your words'' gesture.
Sega's president and chief executive is no stranger to David vs. Goliath challenges. Peter Moore is a former Reebok executive who used to face off with Nike.
``When fighting Nike, the first goal is to get them to pay attention to you and refer to you in everything they say,'' Moore said. ``We have certainly achieved that. . . . Everything Jeff Brown says refers to Sega. We're inside their heads.''
Taunting an opponent is one thing. Snatching victory from the overwhelming favorite is another.
EA's Madden game dominates the football category -- with more than a 65 percent share across seven game platforms, according to SoundView Technology Group, a Connecticut investment banking firm. NFL 2K2, Sega's football offering, captured about 11 percent of football game sales.
Nonetheless, Sega hopes the strength of game play and reviews will enable it to more than double that share to 25 percent of the football game business. If Sega succeeds, it will come at the expense of EA, its Redwood City rival.
``It's a measuring stick we will apply against ourselves toward our ability to start stealing market share,'' said Moore. ``This is not an immediate turnaround. We're not saying we're going to be No. 1 immediately.''
In January 2001, San Francisco-based Sega, a subsidiary of Japan's Sega Corp., announced it would leave the hardware business. It abandoned the struggling Dreamcast console -- and 15 years of tradition -- to do what it does best: develop great games, albeit for one-time rivals.
Difficult end
Moore recalls the painful decision to break with Sega's hardware heritage, which brought arcade-quality gaming to America's living rooms a decade ago with the revolutionary Genesis console.
``There was this incredible roller coaster in that room,'' said Moore, describing the meeting when the decision was made. ``We walked into the room as a hardware company and walked out of there as a software company. We had put an awful lot of emotional currency into the Dreamcast. Fought hard against Sony. And now, we had to make them our friends.''
Only one other company in the game industry -- 3DO -- has attempted such a feat -- to mixed success.
Sega wrote off $700 million in costs associated with leaving the hardware business, laid off the staff, and threw the full weight of its 1,200 developers into making games for one-time competitors in the console business -- Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment.
``People I previously called the Antichrist welcomed us,'' said Moore.
Within 10 months, Sega introduced games for all three next-generation consoles: Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft's new entrant, the Xbox. And it emerged as the largest independent game publisher for GameCube earlier this year -- buoyed by the popularity of ``Sonic Adventure 2'' and ``Super Monkey Ball.''
Sports holds the key
Sega's confidence in its ability to become a top independent game developer is reflected in the company's comments to analysts. It expects video game revenue for consoles other than the Dreamcast to grow to 92 percent from 48 percent, according to Lisa Spicer, an analyst for ING.
Sports games hold the key. Sports games account for 55 percent of Sega's sales in the United States, its largest market. And while Sega plans to publish 27 different sports titles this year -- including tennis, hockey and baseball games -- the two most anticipated are NFL 2K3 football and NBA 2K3 basketball.
Sega had encouraging sales of last year's football and basketball titles -- with sales of 347,000 and 486,000 games respectively -- even though the games shipped late in the season.
This year, it will meet EA head-on. Sega shipped NFL 2K3 before the NFL season opener to match the launch of Madden 2003 last week. It also made a deal with ESPN to capture the look of the broadcasts within its game and it pledged $15 million for an ad campaign.
``This is going to be the ultimate litmus test,'' said James Lin, managing director of Jefferies & Co., a Los Angeles investment bank. ``It measures whether the transition is going well. They don't need to overtake Madden this year. All they have to do is establish themselves as that firm No. 2 behind EA Sports.''
Ready for contest
EA has faced such challenges before. In the 13 years since EA produced the first Madden game for Sega's Genesis, it has survived retail challenges from Sony (``NFL Gameday''), Midway (``NFL Blitz''), Acclaim (``Quarterback Club'') and Microsoft (``NFL Fever'').
``We've faced a lot of competition over the years,'' said Frank Gibeau, EA's vice president of marketing. ``We're not troubled by it. In fact, we like competition. We're a competitive organization -- and there's nothing like having someone pick a fight with you to get you fired up and focused.''
If early reaction from retailers is any indication, EA won't have to worry about losing its top slot. GameStop, a specialty retailer that operates FuncoLand and Babbage's, announced record advance sales of Madden NFL 2003.
``This is the first time that reservations have ever hit 50,000 for a sports title. As such, our initial order for this title has reached an all-time high,'' said Dan DeMatteo, GameStop's president and chief operating officer.
It pits Electronic Arts, the undisputed heavyweight champion of gaming (Gosh Darn them), against Sega of America, the storied creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, a company on the comeback trail after ditching the Dreamcast, its unprofitable game console.
The battle will be joined -- in classic American sports tradition -- over football. It is the single largest category within sports, the most lucrative segment of the $9.4 billion console gaming market. Sega is counting on its NFL 2K3 title to grab market share from EA's wildly popular Madden NFL Football franchise.
Both companies have loads of promotional cash to pitch their $50 games -- about $75 million pledged for television and print advertising -- and not an inconsiderable amount of prestige riding on the outcome.
And there's plenty of trash talk, too. EA corporate spokesman Jeff Brown last week described Sega as ``the Burger King of video game sports -- they can brag about extra pickles, but they'll always be the second choice.''
Sega's corporate spokesman, Charles Bellfield's retort was to send Brown a Burger King burger -- a kind of ``eat your words'' gesture.
Sega's president and chief executive is no stranger to David vs. Goliath challenges. Peter Moore is a former Reebok executive who used to face off with Nike.
``When fighting Nike, the first goal is to get them to pay attention to you and refer to you in everything they say,'' Moore said. ``We have certainly achieved that. . . . Everything Jeff Brown says refers to Sega. We're inside their heads.''
Taunting an opponent is one thing. Snatching victory from the overwhelming favorite is another.
EA's Madden game dominates the football category -- with more than a 65 percent share across seven game platforms, according to SoundView Technology Group, a Connecticut investment banking firm. NFL 2K2, Sega's football offering, captured about 11 percent of football game sales.
Nonetheless, Sega hopes the strength of game play and reviews will enable it to more than double that share to 25 percent of the football game business. If Sega succeeds, it will come at the expense of EA, its Redwood City rival.
``It's a measuring stick we will apply against ourselves toward our ability to start stealing market share,'' said Moore. ``This is not an immediate turnaround. We're not saying we're going to be No. 1 immediately.''
In January 2001, San Francisco-based Sega, a subsidiary of Japan's Sega Corp., announced it would leave the hardware business. It abandoned the struggling Dreamcast console -- and 15 years of tradition -- to do what it does best: develop great games, albeit for one-time rivals.
Difficult end
Moore recalls the painful decision to break with Sega's hardware heritage, which brought arcade-quality gaming to America's living rooms a decade ago with the revolutionary Genesis console.
``There was this incredible roller coaster in that room,'' said Moore, describing the meeting when the decision was made. ``We walked into the room as a hardware company and walked out of there as a software company. We had put an awful lot of emotional currency into the Dreamcast. Fought hard against Sony. And now, we had to make them our friends.''
Only one other company in the game industry -- 3DO -- has attempted such a feat -- to mixed success.
Sega wrote off $700 million in costs associated with leaving the hardware business, laid off the staff, and threw the full weight of its 1,200 developers into making games for one-time competitors in the console business -- Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment.
``People I previously called the Antichrist welcomed us,'' said Moore.
Within 10 months, Sega introduced games for all three next-generation consoles: Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft's new entrant, the Xbox. And it emerged as the largest independent game publisher for GameCube earlier this year -- buoyed by the popularity of ``Sonic Adventure 2'' and ``Super Monkey Ball.''
Sports holds the key
Sega's confidence in its ability to become a top independent game developer is reflected in the company's comments to analysts. It expects video game revenue for consoles other than the Dreamcast to grow to 92 percent from 48 percent, according to Lisa Spicer, an analyst for ING.
Sports games hold the key. Sports games account for 55 percent of Sega's sales in the United States, its largest market. And while Sega plans to publish 27 different sports titles this year -- including tennis, hockey and baseball games -- the two most anticipated are NFL 2K3 football and NBA 2K3 basketball.
Sega had encouraging sales of last year's football and basketball titles -- with sales of 347,000 and 486,000 games respectively -- even though the games shipped late in the season.
This year, it will meet EA head-on. Sega shipped NFL 2K3 before the NFL season opener to match the launch of Madden 2003 last week. It also made a deal with ESPN to capture the look of the broadcasts within its game and it pledged $15 million for an ad campaign.
``This is going to be the ultimate litmus test,'' said James Lin, managing director of Jefferies & Co., a Los Angeles investment bank. ``It measures whether the transition is going well. They don't need to overtake Madden this year. All they have to do is establish themselves as that firm No. 2 behind EA Sports.''
Ready for contest
EA has faced such challenges before. In the 13 years since EA produced the first Madden game for Sega's Genesis, it has survived retail challenges from Sony (``NFL Gameday''), Midway (``NFL Blitz''), Acclaim (``Quarterback Club'') and Microsoft (``NFL Fever'').
``We've faced a lot of competition over the years,'' said Frank Gibeau, EA's vice president of marketing. ``We're not troubled by it. In fact, we like competition. We're a competitive organization -- and there's nothing like having someone pick a fight with you to get you fired up and focused.''
If early reaction from retailers is any indication, EA won't have to worry about losing its top slot. GameStop, a specialty retailer that operates FuncoLand and Babbage's, announced record advance sales of Madden NFL 2003.
``This is the first time that reservations have ever hit 50,000 for a sports title. As such, our initial order for this title has reached an all-time high,'' said Dan DeMatteo, GameStop's president and chief operating officer.
Tut tut tut.
You've been making other posts as well today that have been very well written, and stuff.
They may very probably be copied too, and I wouldn't bet against it.
You've been making other posts as well today that have been very well written, and stuff.
They may very probably be copied too, and I wouldn't bet against it.
www.xboxcorp.com/news/EpFpkAVFpEeBNssgbG.html
In the annals of great business rivalries, the battle of Bay Area video game titans may rank alongside such epic bouts as Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Reebok or McDonald's vs. Burger King.
It pits Electronic Arts, the undisputed heavyweight champion of gaming (Gosh Darn them), against Sega of America, the storied creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, a company on the comeback trail after ditching the Dreamcast, its unprofitable game console.
The battle will be joined -- in classic American sports tradition -- over football. It is the single largest category within sports, the most lucrative segment of the $9.4 billion console gaming market. Sega is counting on its NFL 2K3 title to grab market share from EA's wildly popular Madden NFL Football franchise.
Both companies have loads of promotional cash to pitch their $50 games -- about $75 million pledged for television and print advertising -- and not an inconsiderable amount of prestige riding on the outcome.
And there's plenty of trash talk, too. EA corporate spokesman Jeff Brown last week described Sega as ``the Burger King of video game sports -- they can brag about extra pickles, but they'll always be the second choice.''
Sega's corporate spokesman, Charles Bellfield's retort was to send Brown a Burger King burger -- a kind of ``eat your words'' gesture.
Sega's president and chief executive is no stranger to David vs. Goliath challenges. Peter Moore is a former Reebok executive who used to face off with Nike.
``When fighting Nike, the first goal is to get them to pay attention to you and refer to you in everything they say,'' Moore said. ``We have certainly achieved that. . . . Everything Jeff Brown says refers to Sega. We're inside their heads.''
Taunting an opponent is one thing. Snatching victory from the overwhelming favorite is another.
EA's Madden game dominates the football category -- with more than a 65 percent share across seven game platforms, according to SoundView Technology Group, a Connecticut investment banking firm. NFL 2K2, Sega's football offering, captured about 11 percent of football game sales.
Nonetheless, Sega hopes the strength of game play and reviews will enable it to more than double that share to 25 percent of the football game business. If Sega succeeds, it will come at the expense of EA, its Redwood City rival.
``It's a measuring stick we will apply against ourselves toward our ability to start stealing market share,'' said Moore. ``This is not an immediate turnaround. We're not saying we're going to be No. 1 immediately.''
In January 2001, San Francisco-based Sega, a subsidiary of Japan's Sega Corp., announced it would leave the hardware business. It abandoned the struggling Dreamcast console -- and 15 years of tradition -- to do what it does best: develop great games, albeit for one-time rivals.
Difficult end
Moore recalls the painful decision to break with Sega's hardware heritage, which brought arcade-quality gaming to America's living rooms a decade ago with the revolutionary Genesis console.
``There was this incredible roller coaster in that room,'' said Moore, describing the meeting when the decision was made. ``We walked into the room as a hardware company and walked out of there as a software company. We had put an awful lot of emotional currency into the Dreamcast. Fought hard against Sony. And now, we had to make them our friends.''
Only one other company in the game industry -- 3DO -- has attempted such a feat -- to mixed success.
Sega wrote off $700 million in costs associated with leaving the hardware business, laid off the staff, and threw the full weight of its 1,200 developers into making games for one-time competitors in the console business -- Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment.
``People I previously called the Antichrist welcomed us,'' said Moore.
Within 10 months, Sega introduced games for all three next-generation consoles: Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft's new entrant, the Xbox. And it emerged as the largest independent game publisher for GameCube earlier this year -- buoyed by the popularity of ``Sonic Adventure 2'' and ``Super Monkey Ball.''
Sports holds the key
Sega's confidence in its ability to become a top independent game developer is reflected in the company's comments to analysts. It expects video game revenue for consoles other than the Dreamcast to grow to 92 percent from 48 percent, according to Lisa Spicer, an analyst for ING.
Sports games hold the key. Sports games account for 55 percent of Sega's sales in the United States, its largest market. And while Sega plans to publish 27 different sports titles this year -- including tennis, hockey and baseball games -- the two most anticipated are NFL 2K3 football and NBA 2K3 basketball.
Sega had encouraging sales of last year's football and basketball titles -- with sales of 347,000 and 486,000 games respectively -- even though the games shipped late in the season.
This year, it will meet EA head-on. Sega shipped NFL 2K3 before the NFL season opener to match the launch of Madden 2003 last week. It also made a deal with ESPN to capture the look of the broadcasts within its game and it pledged $15 million for an ad campaign.
``This is going to be the ultimate litmus test,'' said James Lin, managing director of Jefferies & Co., a Los Angeles investment bank. ``It measures whether the transition is going well. They don't need to overtake Madden this year. All they have to do is establish themselves as that firm No. 2 behind EA Sports.''
Ready for contest
EA has faced such challenges before. In the 13 years since EA produced the first Madden game for Sega's Genesis, it has survived retail challenges from Sony (``NFL Gameday''), Midway (``NFL Blitz''), Acclaim (``Quarterback Club'') and Microsoft (``NFL Fever'').
``We've faced a lot of competition over the years,'' said Frank Gibeau, EA's vice president of marketing. ``We're not troubled by it. In fact, we like competition. We're a competitive organization -- and there's nothing like having someone pick a fight with you to get you fired up and focused.''
If early reaction from retailers is any indication, EA won't have to worry about losing its top slot. GameStop, a specialty retailer that operates FuncoLand and Babbage's, announced record advance sales of Madden NFL 2003.
``This is the first time that reservations have ever hit 50,000 for a sports title. As such, our initial order for this title has reached an all-time high,'' said Dan DeMatteo, GameStop's president and chief operating officer.
It pits Electronic Arts, the undisputed heavyweight champion of gaming (Gosh Darn them), against Sega of America, the storied creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, a company on the comeback trail after ditching the Dreamcast, its unprofitable game console.
The battle will be joined -- in classic American sports tradition -- over football. It is the single largest category within sports, the most lucrative segment of the $9.4 billion console gaming market. Sega is counting on its NFL 2K3 title to grab market share from EA's wildly popular Madden NFL Football franchise.
Both companies have loads of promotional cash to pitch their $50 games -- about $75 million pledged for television and print advertising -- and not an inconsiderable amount of prestige riding on the outcome.
And there's plenty of trash talk, too. EA corporate spokesman Jeff Brown last week described Sega as ``the Burger King of video game sports -- they can brag about extra pickles, but they'll always be the second choice.''
Sega's corporate spokesman, Charles Bellfield's retort was to send Brown a Burger King burger -- a kind of ``eat your words'' gesture.
Sega's president and chief executive is no stranger to David vs. Goliath challenges. Peter Moore is a former Reebok executive who used to face off with Nike.
``When fighting Nike, the first goal is to get them to pay attention to you and refer to you in everything they say,'' Moore said. ``We have certainly achieved that. . . . Everything Jeff Brown says refers to Sega. We're inside their heads.''
Taunting an opponent is one thing. Snatching victory from the overwhelming favorite is another.
EA's Madden game dominates the football category -- with more than a 65 percent share across seven game platforms, according to SoundView Technology Group, a Connecticut investment banking firm. NFL 2K2, Sega's football offering, captured about 11 percent of football game sales.
Nonetheless, Sega hopes the strength of game play and reviews will enable it to more than double that share to 25 percent of the football game business. If Sega succeeds, it will come at the expense of EA, its Redwood City rival.
``It's a measuring stick we will apply against ourselves toward our ability to start stealing market share,'' said Moore. ``This is not an immediate turnaround. We're not saying we're going to be No. 1 immediately.''
In January 2001, San Francisco-based Sega, a subsidiary of Japan's Sega Corp., announced it would leave the hardware business. It abandoned the struggling Dreamcast console -- and 15 years of tradition -- to do what it does best: develop great games, albeit for one-time rivals.
Difficult end
Moore recalls the painful decision to break with Sega's hardware heritage, which brought arcade-quality gaming to America's living rooms a decade ago with the revolutionary Genesis console.
``There was this incredible roller coaster in that room,'' said Moore, describing the meeting when the decision was made. ``We walked into the room as a hardware company and walked out of there as a software company. We had put an awful lot of emotional currency into the Dreamcast. Fought hard against Sony. And now, we had to make them our friends.''
Only one other company in the game industry -- 3DO -- has attempted such a feat -- to mixed success.
Sega wrote off $700 million in costs associated with leaving the hardware business, laid off the staff, and threw the full weight of its 1,200 developers into making games for one-time competitors in the console business -- Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment.
``People I previously called the Antichrist welcomed us,'' said Moore.
Within 10 months, Sega introduced games for all three next-generation consoles: Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft's new entrant, the Xbox. And it emerged as the largest independent game publisher for GameCube earlier this year -- buoyed by the popularity of ``Sonic Adventure 2'' and ``Super Monkey Ball.''
Sports holds the key
Sega's confidence in its ability to become a top independent game developer is reflected in the company's comments to analysts. It expects video game revenue for consoles other than the Dreamcast to grow to 92 percent from 48 percent, according to Lisa Spicer, an analyst for ING.
Sports games hold the key. Sports games account for 55 percent of Sega's sales in the United States, its largest market. And while Sega plans to publish 27 different sports titles this year -- including tennis, hockey and baseball games -- the two most anticipated are NFL 2K3 football and NBA 2K3 basketball.
Sega had encouraging sales of last year's football and basketball titles -- with sales of 347,000 and 486,000 games respectively -- even though the games shipped late in the season.
This year, it will meet EA head-on. Sega shipped NFL 2K3 before the NFL season opener to match the launch of Madden 2003 last week. It also made a deal with ESPN to capture the look of the broadcasts within its game and it pledged $15 million for an ad campaign.
``This is going to be the ultimate litmus test,'' said James Lin, managing director of Jefferies & Co., a Los Angeles investment bank. ``It measures whether the transition is going well. They don't need to overtake Madden this year. All they have to do is establish themselves as that firm No. 2 behind EA Sports.''
Ready for contest
EA has faced such challenges before. In the 13 years since EA produced the first Madden game for Sega's Genesis, it has survived retail challenges from Sony (``NFL Gameday''), Midway (``NFL Blitz''), Acclaim (``Quarterback Club'') and Microsoft (``NFL Fever'').
``We've faced a lot of competition over the years,'' said Frank Gibeau, EA's vice president of marketing. ``We're not troubled by it. In fact, we like competition. We're a competitive organization -- and there's nothing like having someone pick a fight with you to get you fired up and focused.''
If early reaction from retailers is any indication, EA won't have to worry about losing its top slot. GameStop, a specialty retailer that operates FuncoLand and Babbage's, announced record advance sales of Madden NFL 2003.
``This is the first time that reservations have ever hit 50,000 for a sports title. As such, our initial order for this title has reached an all-time high,'' said Dan DeMatteo, GameStop's president and chief operating officer.