Sega's Next-Generation Plans Outlined

**AGES** · 07 Mar 2010, 10:30 AM

http://seganewswire.webs.com/apps/blog/

WORLD EXCLUSIVE : SEGA's Next Generation Arcade/Console Plans Unveiled Posted by Zach Morris at 08:11 AM on March 07, 2010 comments (0)

Recap

As we have previously reported, SEGA SAMMY plans on moving on from LINDBERGH/RINGEDGE development to the next generation of technology in 2011. We exclusively reported that both Hiroshi Yagi and Yu Suzuki are heading the research and development team tasked with the creation of the new platform. We were also the first to break the news that the new board shall have a console counterpart that shall see a consumer release in 2012 aproximately one year after the debut of it's arcade cousin, designed to compete with the next generation of XBox and PlayStation. Like we previously reported SEGA plans a one year lead on both MS and Sony as due to the introduction of Natal and Arc neither have any hardware refresh plans prior to 2013.

Further developments

Today we can exclusively reveal that SEGA has signed with Imagination Technologies of the United Kingdom to provide, to quote our source "a very high end next generation graphics chipset" for exclusive arcade and console use.

If we were to take an educated guess we would have to say that this emplies the in development PowerVR Series 6, the successor to the PowerVR SGX5XX Series.

Regarding other technicalities nothing is yet known. Thus information such as Ram Configuration, Ram type, CPU, CPU provider etc... currently remain a mystery.

In an earlier article we stated that Sony had chosen PowerVR for next generation, however, according to our source Sony decided against the design in favor of a cheaper solution from AMD or nVidia. Apparently after the loses made with PS3, Howard Stringer the CEO of the company wants a sub $300 price/performance system for the next round.

Stay tuned for further details on SEGA's next generation plans as and when we get them.