The Sega Dreamcast was released in North America on September 9, 1999. Its predecessor the Saturn was an over expensive piece of hardware while the Dreamcast employed more conventional technology to reduce its cost. The Saturn itself had almost as poor of a reputation as the Genesis add-ons Sega CD and 32X, landing Sega in an unfavorable position of public perception. It was the first console application of Windows CE, intended to port PC games to the platform or produce homebrew games. This Sega/Microsoft connection is what gave way to the original Xbox later in 2001, just a few months after the Dreamcast’s discontinuation. The original intention was to have cross-platforming between both, but the mighty Sony PlayStation 2 wiped out the Dreamcast before it could come to light, leading to its discontinuation on March 31, 2001. Sega has remained strictly a software publisher ever since, many of their games being released on Nintendo platforms and finally giving way to crossover between the Sonic and Mario franchises.