Too much of anything is never healthy, but it'd be nice to see some publishers actually show some pride in their work, rather than just in the number of sales or sequels they can wring out of it. Cleverly, Sega Europe have kept mum during the whole debate, thereby not letting on that there isn't actually any European online plan to be keep secret about. Presumably this apparent shrewdness is all in the mind because last week Euro big cheese JF Cecillion let on that no such deal would be occurring on his turf. But there's a key difference in the markets, in that US customers are used to paying a subscription charge for Internet access, which obviously isn't the case here. With the current telecom regulations in Europe it's not financially viable for Sega to do this.
Regulations can change.
Chu Chu Rocket is on its way. Well actually, probably a lot of people were hoping that you'd know JF, but never mind. So it seems that yet again Europe is getting stiffed on both new console and Internet innovations. Many retailers have been pulling their hair out at the thought of selling PSX games with an RRP of less than a tenner, while publishers seem split on whether this is a good idea or the beginning of the end of times. We just want the market to expand, we're not trying to squeeze the profitability of the business or mess up the economics of software development for premium titles.