of media altogether. Wii VC (and soon WiiWare), Xbox Live Arcade, PS Network, Steam, prove it can be done. Getting rid of optical media (and physical game distribution) would drastically lower the production costs, the console's size, and game cost for end users. Just have a few gigs of built-in flash, and add USB HDD support, and let people download games.
Another thing is an episodic/modular approach to games. They could jump in front of the trend and make all games entirely modular. People could buy (only) the levels, maps, chapters they want to play, or get the entire game (at a bulk discount Â ).
A console like that would have a good chance on the market.
All current consoles pretty much take for granted that we all have broadband Internet access at home, be it game downloads or online multiplayer. And judging by the success of Steam, it seems enough people don't mind downloading their games. An HDD would be an additional cost, but many people have them at home already, and overall people don't like unnecessary hardware forced on them, or being forced to buy official hardware when they could resort to cheaper alternatives (read: third party crap, but stillÂÂ ). Of course there could be an official HDD option, but only an option, and not forcing it on people.
An average gamer wouldn't buy that much games in the first place. One "big, serious" game a month? Several short ones? And if the Dreamcast 2 focused on MMORPGs, that would mean buying one game and then never buying another game again
Your "dreamcast 2" is sounding an awful lot like what the phantom was promising...
I doubt sega will be launching anything hardware wise anytime soon. Even if they make some major profits and the console market dies down, Sega seems to be content at the moment as a third party dev. Also, with the release of their auto Lip Synching software, hardware seems to be the least of their concerns.
