Genesis 3 appeared in North America in 1998 as a very compact and inexpensive revision of Sega Genesis. It was manufactured by Majesco under licence from Sega and retained the use of Genesis cartridges, but considerably simplified the hardware and removed some connections and functions found on earlier models. Because of those simplifications, it does not offer the same compatibility with certain expansion accessories in the Genesis/Mega Drive family. Its existence reflects the continued commercial life of the 16-bit catalogue in the US market while Sega was already preparing for the arrival of Dreamcast.