It would have been reasonable to assume that Sega's Japanese leadership made the decision to surrender the console wars, but Moore took credit for the decision in an interview with The Guardian.

"On January 31, 2001, we said Sega is leaving hardware--somehow I got to make that call, not the Japanese. I had to fire a lot of people; it was not a pleasant day," Moore recalled.

In Moore's mind, the alternative was Sega taking one last gamble on a console and facing bankruptcy--not an attractive option after the failure of the Saturn and Dreamcast systems. "So we licked our wounds, ate some humble pie and went to Sony and Nintendo to ask for [development] kits," he explained.