Since this is a translation of an overseas article, there may be some mistranslations.
https://hothardware.com/news/nvidia-sega-30-year-partnership-rtx-spark
Nvidia and Sega Renew 30-Year Partnership to Power RTX Spark Games
Sega executives are smiling as Jensen unveils a new virtual fighter title running on RTX Spark.
While Windows on Arm may someday become a mainstream platform, it's not there yet. That's why Nvidia RTX Spark is a unique platform.
Unique hardware isn't usually ideal for games. But if you create games specifically tailored to the hardware, it can deliver some of the best performance in the market. That's why Nvidia's collaboration with Sega to bring "all of Sega's games" to RTX Spark is exciting.
Jensen is shaking hands with Suzuki Yu, the father of Virtua Fighter and Sega AM2.
This was according to Nvidia vice president Deepu Talla, who confirmed it at a gathering held at GiGO Akihabara 3, the former site of Sega's Akihabara arcade. CEO Jensen Huang met with Sega veterans Suzuki Yu (Virtua Fighter developer) and Irimajri Shoichiro (former president), as well as current CEO Sato Haruki and COO Utsunomi Shuji, in the arcade to announce this new collaboration.
They were surrounded by arcade machines running Sega's classic arcade hits, particularly Virtua Fighter Crossroads, the next title announced for this collaboration.
So why this collaboration? If you don't know Nvidia's history well, it might be hard to understand. Let me share an anecdote. As a lifelong Sega fan, I was incredibly excited when I first heard about Diamond Edge 3D around 1996.
This graphics card allowed you to play Sega Saturn games on your PC! Wow! Of course, it wasn't exactly accurate, and the story of Edge 3D and Nvidia NV1 is too long for this article. But the fact that we could play Virtua Fighter Remix, Panzer Dragoon, and Daytona USA versions using a Sega Saturn controller plugged into the card was true.
Diamond Edge 3D. This was the lowest model with 1MB DRAM.
That card was developed in collaboration with Sega and used rendering technology similar to that of the Sega Saturn console, powered by Nvidia's first graphics processor, the Nvidia NV1. Without the contract between NV1 and Sega, Nvidia as we know it today might not exist.
Irimajri Shoichiro, mentioned earlier, approved a $5 million investment in Nvidia. Jensen Huang, who co-founded the company in 1993, has always spoken fondly of Sega, so this collaboration isn't really that surprising.
Some concerns surrounding RTX Spark as a consumer product included worries about the chip's gaming performance. Since these parts use Arm CPUs, running almost all Windows PC games would require a translation layer, which could slightly reduce performance. However, this announcement suggests that at least some of the latest generation games will receive native Arm Windows ports, potentially allowing us to see the true power of RTX Spark.
Jensen is signing Sega Lindbergh arcade machines, which use NVIDIA graphics hardware.
Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what this agreement means. Does it mean that Sega will release Arm native versions of the games they are planning to launch, or does it simply mean that the RTX Spark platform has been validated? We also don't know which games besides Virtual Fighter Crossroad will be included.
The title is scheduled for release next year, and it is unknown whether the RTX Spark version will be available on launch day or later. It's also unclear when systems with RTX Spark will be available for purchase; "this fall" is the best we know so far.
▶ Original source: https://hothardware.com/news/nvidia-sega-30-year-partnership-rtx-spark
