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An employee of a "small specialist electronics manufacturer" has posted on Reddit that they suspect Sega might be looking to release a low-cost handheld games console.
SeraphHS reveals that the company they work for received a quotation request from "a company that’s done licensed Sega hardware before," citing the Genesis / Mega Drive Mini as an example. "Not Sega directly, but definitely in that orbit – think Tectoy, AtGames, etc."
(AtGames has released Sega handhelds in the past, including the extremely disappointing Mega Drive Ultimate.)
SeraphHS adds that the pitch turned out to be "extremely interesting and seemingly significant" for a device that hits the following beats:
+ Low-cost handheld gaming device
+ Low-power ARM processor, not x86
+ 5" OLED panel (same form factor as the Vita), aggressive cost-cutting elsewhere to accommodate this
+ Seemingly pretty limited internal storage
+ Removable game cartridges
+ No mention of 3D acceleration beyond basic UI/compositing
+ References being designed for “modern 2D titles” and “pixel art presentation”
The cart design is the "most interesting" element of the whole pitch, as it's "not the usual high-capacity consumer NAND you'd expect of a modern handheld," explains SeraphHS. "[It] looks like low-capacity industrial eMMC modules - these are readily available and not caught up in the AI memory price inflation." This would mean a smaller storage capacity, which SeraphHS speculates could target 2D games.
"The wording makes it sound less like a retro emulation handheld and more like a dedicated 2D platform with physical media," SeraphHS continues. "We often see pitches like this that never end up going anywhere, but I would put money on this being from Sega."
The concept isn't a million miles away from what Blaze is doing with its Evercade and Super Pocket handhelds (and it's worth noting that Sega is yet to collaborate with Blaze on an Evercade collection). Sega's last handheld venture was the puzzling Game Gear Micro.
This may well lead nowhere – or it could be totally made-up. A pinch of salt is almost certainly called for here, but if Sega or one of its hardware partners did produce such a device, would you be interested in picking it up?