SEGA wanted Dreamcast to be compatible with original Xbox

Rumors abounding for years state that at one time, Microsoft planned to buy SEGA. Being gamers, most of you have heard this rumor.

What you may not have heard, though, was that at one time, SEGA wanted its Dreamcast games to be compatible with the original Xbox.

Ahead of its time back in 1998 with dial-up capabilities, PS2 came along and stole the show, and Dreamcast fell by the wayside.

To try and help counter the system's demise, SEGA Chairman Isao Okawa paid several visits to Bill Gates, in order to persuade Mr. Microsoft to let Dreamcast games be compatible in his new system, Xbox.

This last ditch effort to save the console failed when talks between the two fell through due to Okawa wanting his games to have online capability, but Microsoft only wanting its own games to have the service.

According to former Microsoft executive Sam Furukawa, to help keep the SEGA afloat, Okawa, forked over $900M of his fortune before he passed away in March 2001 - the same year Japan told then chairman Peter Moore to pull the production plug on the failing console.

SEGA has since focused solely on development and publishing since production of the console ceased.

And the rest, as they say, is bittersweet history.

Thanks, Kotaku.