When news broke yesterday of Jet Set Radio releasing to iOS, I knew something sounded familiar about Dreamcast games on iOS, so I did some digging. Turns out back on July 16th, 2008, almost four years ago to the date, SEGA of America's then president Simon Jeffery had the following exchange with Kotaku:
Jeffery: Why people play those crappy games on their mobile phones, I'll never understand. I'll never understand it personally... The iPhone changes that completely. You're playing Dreamcast quality games on this tiny little device that you just had.
Kotaku: That's a funny thing that you said that. I heard someone say something about comparing the iPhone's processing power to the Dreamcast.
Jeffery: Yea, it's right there.
Kotaku: It's...so they match?
Jeffery: Yea, it's pretty impressive.After this interview, Dreamcast fans speculated that we would perhaps soon be seeing Dreamcast games on the iOS. I mean, Simon Jeffery said it himself: the two are a match in terms of power. After a while, this possibility seemed more and more less likely, as Dreamcast games DID get rereleases via the Dreamcast Collection, however they were contained to HD consoles and the PC. Meanwhile, the closest iOS came to Dreamcast ports were Rayman 2 (not a SEGA title) and Chu Chu Rocket (not a direct port, nor a true showing of the Dreamcast's power).
So I found it very interesting that yesterday, SEGA finally did what Simon Jeffery stated was possible four years ago: Jet Set Radio is releasing to iOS devices this Summer. Now I wonder if we'll be seeing NiGHTS into Dreams... and other SEGA Heritage releases on iOS? It's entirely possible!
