Gone But Not Forgotten Video Game Developers/Publishers Lost 2000-2017 - SegaSoft

Gone But Not Forgotten Video Game Developers/Publishers Lost 2000-2017

With their headquarters in Redwood City, California, SegaSoft was a joint venture between Sega Enterprises and CSK Corporation who were the majority stakeholders in Sega at the time. The company was set up to develop and publish single player and multiplayer games for the PC market and the Sega Saturn, the company operated primarily in North American market during their five years in operation.

Isao Okawa who is the ex chairman of Sega Enterprises was a key figure in SegaSoft, CSK Corporation also known as CSK Holdings was Okawa’s company who he had been with since its formation in 1968 with CSK taking a majority share of Sega in 1984, Okawa was also key in the development of the Dreamcast with Okawa providing over US$40 million, Okawa sadly passed away from Heart Failure in March of 2001 aged 74.

In 1996 SegaSoft expanded their publishing efforts with the company now publishing for all viable platforms and not just the PC and Saturn, by the end of 1998 the company had released and estimated 24 games in total, one of their earliest titles released back in 1996 was a title called Rocket Jockey developed by Rocket Science Games and published by SegaSoft. 

The game was a combination of think horse racing meets wipeout with players flying around on a rocket sled using grappling hooks on either side to steer, the grappling hooks can also be used to pick up objects such as mines, sporting equipment, bodies, they can also be connected to create a clothesline across the track, the game was initially earmarked for a Playstation release but hardware limitations resulted in the game only releasing on PC.

Rocket Jockey a cross between Horse Racing and Wipeout with a few other games thrown in as well

Initially the game was well received by critics and was hyped up by SegaSoft themselves however the steep hardware requirements and late patch to add LAN support would eventually hurt the game, the game currently suffers from a common theme with older games software rot with the game suffering compatibility issues with modern systems that is if you can even get the game to work.

Obsidian not to be confused with the developer was an adventure game developed again by Rocket Science Games and published by SegaSoft and would be one of the last games that SegaSoft would be involved and would also be one of the last games developed by Rocket Science Games who closed their doors in 1997 like previous SegaSoft published games it had bugs one major one which prevented the player from completing the game.

 Like previous SegaSoft published titled they proved popular with critics to this day Obsidian sits at a highly respectable 85 on metacritic with Four Fat Chicks and Just Adventure awarding the game the full 100 score, sadly as with previous games critical acclaim does not equal sales with the game failing to meet expectations.

SegaSoft also produced an online PC gaming system called Heat.net which proved popular for hosting not just first and second part games but also third party games with major titles such as Baldur’s Gatem Diablo, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Quake 2, Unreal Tournament and Warcraft II Tides of Darkness using the system.

Heat.net also ran a collegiate gaming league called HeatCIGL (College Internet Game League) with 1100 registered schools playing Quake II and Unreal Tournament in teams representing their respective colleges with the winning team taking away $5000.

The system was not without major issues however Heat.net used a degree system which would pay players to play games with players receiving one degree for each hour played towards the end of Heat.net’s life this system was highly abused with players leaving the games running overnight and easily making $4 a day from the system Heat.net did try to bring in measures to prevent this suck as parking police and reducing the value of degrees by 80% however by this time the damage was done add in the advancements in game development which saw games having their own matchmaking systems as a result Heat.net was surplus to requirements.

SegaSoft ceased to exist in 2000 unlike previous companies I have covered SegaSoft did not get closed down or go bankrupt instead the company was restructured and renamed as Sega Games Co., Ltd.