TOKYO (10-31-95) - Computer giant Fujitsu Ltd. has teamed with games leader Sega Enterprises to provide network services in Japan to users of the Saturn game machine.
The services, slated to appear beginning March of next year, will enable users of Sega's Saturn video game player to access Nifty-Serve, a Fujitsu joint venture and one of Japan's largest on-line services, officials said.
The deal is a sign that Fujitsu, the world's second largest computer maker, is betting that powerful game machines like the 32-bit Saturn will become the preferred way for home users to access the Internet and on-line services.
Through Nifty-Serve users will be able to send e-mail and access bulletin board services. Sega will sell a CD-ROM disk that through the game machine projects a point and click keyboard onto a television screen.
In addition Saturn users will have access to Habitat, an area on Nifty-Serve in which users take the role of a graphical character and interact with other users on-line.
Also available on CompuServe, under the name WorldsAway, Habitat is being developed by a US-based Fujitsu subsidiary.
The partners want "PC communications and e-mail to be accessible to a larger group of people not just in terms of cost but also in terms of simplicity," a Fujitsu spokesman said.
Long a major supplier of semiconductors to Sega, Fujitsu excepts that the partnership will expand in future to include a range of yet-to-be- developed network entertainment, shopping and educational services, the spokesman said. Meanwhile Sega, which by year end expects to have an installed base of 2 million Saturn users, is said to be planning a number of projects designed to provide its users with network access including an agreement with Sun Microsystems Inc. over Sun's Java programming language. With the Java technology Sega would be able to offer games over the Internet to Sega users.
Sega is also believed to be working on an Internet appliance device designed as an inexpensive terminal for accessing the Internet.
Separately, Sega announced yesterday that sometime next year it will port two of its game titles to the Windows 95 platform.
Fujitsu, in Tokyo, can be reached at +81-3-3125-5236. Sega is at +81- 3-5736-7037.
[Copyright 1995 IDG News Service, International Data Group Inc. All rights reserved.]