At the dawn of the new millennium, PlayStation was sitting pretty
Sony's first video game system surprised everyone in the 90s, leapfrogging Nintendo and Sega to become the best-selling home console of the decade
Feel a little like your days are numbered? By offering more sophisticated 3D games with more mature imagery and themes
PlayStation had changed the reputation of video games from what was mostly still seen as a juvenile pastime into truly mainstream entertainment for all ages
Sony was now ready to launch its successor, the PlayStation 2, but there was no guarantee that lightning would strike twice
I think the key word for the next generation PlayStation is emotion. Despite birthing classics like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, and GoldenEye 007
the four-year-old Nintendo 64 was in a distant second place behind PlayStation
Nintendo's decision to go with expensive cartridges for the N64 instead of cheap discs like the competition
had pushed away many third-party publishers, leading to software droughts. And Nintendo's overall kid-friendly image was starting to feel quaint, next to the edgy
cooler PlayStation and Sega brands. Would you rather be at home shooting a bazooka
Or watching a chick flick? Chick flick, bazooka. Chick flick, bazooka. But despite the struggle Nintendo did have complete dominance of the handheld market and had a plan to give its family image a significant makeover Sega Dreamcast was only a few months old in the U and had an early hit with Soulcalibur but most of its best games had yet to arrive Over the next 12 months Sega would play its hand
almost perfectly in its efforts to sell the Dreamcast, but still failed to survive. So what
went wrong? The year 2000 would see the launch of the best-selling console ever and many of the
highest-rated games ever. It was an exciting time that felt like gaming was about to explode with
new innovations, but some beloved companies would struggle to adapt to the changing times
This is why the year 2000 was one of the most important years in the history of video games
At the start of 2000, PlayStation devs were starting to get nervous. The PlayStation 2 was
just two months away from its release in Japan and 10 months from its holiday release in North
America, but North American developers still couldn't get their hands on dev kits
According to Next Gen Magazine sources, no US studio had a full PS2 development kit going
into the new year. One executive told the magazine, I need a launch title, and if I don't get a dev kit
soon, I'm screwed. Now we're thinking even more about doing Dreamcast games, stating that if they couldn't get PS2
software ready for launch they would throw their support behind Sega instead One of the few studios to have a PS2 dev kit was Insomniac who are now known for their record Spider series but at the time was known as the Spyro the Dragon creators
Alex Hastings, VP of software at Insomniac, told NextGen, the raw horsepower is unbelievable
even on these preliminary systems. Whenever you get a new console, you start thinking, okay, how can I get the system to the absolute maximum that it can do? With a system this complex
and powerful, it's an overwhelming task. People like me have to change our perspective a little
bit and not say, how can I get this to run 100%, but how can we come close
Sega, on the other hand, had decided to set the Dreamcast apart from PlayStation and Nintendo
with its online capabilities. To that end, Sega launched a new company, SegaNet, which would be a full internet service provider
And in a shocking move, it offered gamers a free Dreamcast if they signed up for two
years of the SegaNet service. This offer was even retroactive. If you already owned a Dreamcast, Sega would mail you a check for 200 bucks
Do you accept cash? Sega delivered the first must-have Dreamcast game of the year on February 2nd, Crazy Taxi
The arcade version of the frantic passenger delivery game released the previous year was
already a huge hit, and the Dreamcast port was even better. IGN called it the closest thing to a digital drug we ever seen Think of it as gaming crack We gave it a 9 Not only was it addictive it was also a graphical showcase for the Dreamcast that ran at a smooth 60 frames per second
As of January 11th, one and a half million Dreamcasts had been sold in the United States
but if any game was going to sell more Dreamcasts this year, it was going to be Crazy Taxi
Nintendo, hoping to give the now four-year-old N64 sales a jolt, introduced six new color variations in February
Alongside the original charcoal color, gamers could now choose from smoke, grape, ice, jungle, fire, and watermelon
Nintendo 64's six new colors are so amazing, choosing a favorite might be somewhat of a struggle
But new colors weren't enough to alleviate frustrated gamers who were upset with the trickle of games being released for the platform
In April, NextGen Magazine asked the question, is Nintendo 64 doomed? Doomed
Now today may seem like an odd question to ask, given the machine was about to receive the gifts of Perfect Dark, The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, and Banjo-Tooie
But 1999 had been a lighter year for Nintendo, with perhaps less exciting releases like Donkey Kong 64, Mario Golf, and a port of Resident Evil 2
While first-party software usually sold well, third-party publishers were reporting falling software sales on the platform
Acclaim, publisher of games like Turok and South Park, Chef's Lovecraft