Has Sega Tied the Knot?

Sources close to Sega of America have indicated that the company's fourth-generation console choice has been finalized. Sega now plans to go full speed ahead with the Black Belt, the prototype console developed in America by engineers from SegaSoft, Microsoft, and 3Dfx, as opposed to relying on the company's Japanese-developed prototype codenamed Dural. Developers were offered glimpses at the new machine's abilities during E3.

According to one source, "Sega's Japanese OS team has an awful history of developing poor operating code for Sega platforms. When Sega came to review the two prototype machines side-by-side, they were not looking to see which machine had more raw horsepower. They wanted to see which one could have games up and running more quickly, and the Black Belt was definitely that machine."

With an operating system developed mostly by Microsoft, the Black Belt will let developers gain easy access to many of the machine's graphics and audio functions, largely removing the problems that plagued the developer-unfriendly Saturn. An American-designed OS will also have the side benefit of full English language compatibilty from the get go, eliminating some peskier technical documents that have made coding for Sega's CD-ROM, Saturn, and Genesis frustrating at first.

When contacted, Sega of America said, "No hardware was shown at E3."