Culture

Sega to whip up 10 titles for GameCube

The company, which scrapped its own Dreamcast game console earlier this year, will create 10 game titles for Nintendo's upcoming GameCube.

Feb. 7, 2002 1:29 a.m. PT

Sega, which scrapped its own Dreamcast game console earlier this year to focus on software development, says it will provide 10 game titles for Nintendo's upcoming GameCube.

Sega, which is forecasting a loss for the fiscal year that ended March 31, is now concentrating on developing software for one-time rivals such as Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox, which will go on sale Nov. 8 in the United States. The GameCube will go on sale in Japan on Sept. 14 and in the United States on Nov. 5.

Tokyo-based Sega is developing ''Super Monkey Ball,'' an arcade game, and the soccer game ''Virtua Striker 3 Ver.2002'' for the GameCube, successor to the Nintendo 64 console. It will also deliver ''Phantasy Star Online for GC,'' a network role-playing game originally developed for Sega's own Dreamcast.

''The GameCube is making our job easier,'' said Yuji Naka, leader of Sega's Sonic team, the creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog. ''It took us only a month to make the 'Phantasy Star Online version 2''' for the console.

Sega joins a growing list of game developers designing software for Nintendo's new machine. Lucasarts Entertainment said this week it will develop ''Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II'' for the GameCube. The flight action game is a follow to Lucasarts' hugely popular ''Rogue Squadron,'' which was developed for the Nintendo 64.