They never dreamed it would come to this. Last week Sega Corporation of Japan announced that it will stop making the Dreamcast video-game console on March 31. It just didn't score big enough bucks for Sega.

Dreamcast was the first game machine to link to the Internet. It was introduced in the U.S. in September 1999. Its sales couldn't keep up with faster systems from Nintendo and Sony. The Sonic the Hedgehog series and other Sega games won't be disappearing though. While Sega won't be making machines, it will create games for Dreamcast, Palm computers and for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo systems-its former rivals.

"The world of games is changing," said Sega executive Hideki Sato, "so Sega must change too."

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February 9, 2001 World Report