Who killed Sega?

Too little too late? --Nah. Too much too soon...

Sorry, no pictures for this article, but open for discussion!

What was it that made Sega so intimidating? Was it the hard-core, in your face commercials? Was it the hardware add ons? Or was it their line of ‘mature audience’ games? Whatever it was, the public rejected Sega for some reason. I’d like to cover that and open it up for discussion.

Sega flew under the gaming radar for many years. When the world was indulging in the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega created the “Master System.” Superior graphics, sound and overall game play over the NES (if you ask me,) but their titles were far behind the mainstreamed NES. Most people don’t even know the Master System existed. I was lucky, my cousin down the street had it and we would play it non-stop!

The argument between NES and Sega has been covered 100x, so I will not exhaust this article with this argument. The SEGA Genesis unveiled in 1991. Sega was smart this time and launches a massive ad campaign. This console looked like the “future.” It took a slow start when it was first introduced with the game Altered Beast (which is a great game in my opinion) but it took flight when they released Sonic the Hedgehog. Finally Sega had a mascot, much like Nintendo’s Mario. Sonic seemed more enticing to us… He was cool looking, fast, and had an attitude!

Sega Genesis obviously did very well. It even stood up to the Super Nintendo! The two systems battled it out for years… The winner is determined by individual’s likes/dislikes. This was my favorite time of the video gaming years. Two great systems, each had their own personalities, but you couldn’t HATE either one!

Sega made some moves to keep everyone’s attention by unveiling the Sega CD. This was an ad-on to the Genesis, but was pretty expensive at the time. Nintendo struck gold with the Game Boy and Sega would soon retaliate with the Game Gear. A back-lit, colored screen with great sound did fairly well, but never measured up to the Game boy. Sega was also the first to offer 32-bit games in cartridge style with the 32x. This wasn’t taken by the public very well either. Sega then released the Sega Channel through Time Warner Cable. It struck gold in my heart, but was never released to the masses. At this time, Sega also released the NOMAD. This was a handheld version of the Genesis. The Genesis cartridges slid right into the back on the NOMAD. This required 6 AA batteries which died within an hour, and add-ons (battery packs, wall charger, etc) which were very pricey for that era. Sega Saturn was also released around the time Playstation 1 (PSX) was released… It was pushed out fairly quickly by Nintendo 64 and Playstation.

Sega seemed to have made a good move with the Dreamcast. My favorite game was the Taxi game from the arcades. The “worlds” in dreamcast seemed never-ending. Dreamcast also failed in the eyed of consumers.

So what did it? Sega always seemed to be ahead of everyone else. Sony struck gold with the PSP…. Was the NOMAD a hard concept to grasp in 1996?? PSX and PS2 have struck gold with games on CD… what about the Sega CD and Saturn?? The Sega Channel offered 50 games a month for $14.95 in the comfort of your own home!! This was like having Netflix in 1995! What happened?? Why did all of these concepts fail and take flight in later years by other companies??

Comments

I still have a sega dreamcast, anyone els say I.

sega is the best company in the world, no one should insult them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to the guy bove me sony better not it's my fav company!

There's been a bunch of articles that covered this (not on RetroJunk though) It's REALLY interesting though, (if your interested I could send it to you) but with the Sega CD, Nomad, Sega Saturn, and the Dreamcast (first home console with the abilitiy to go online) I think sega ultimately failed because the technology, or at ideas behind this technology were ahead of it's time. And we saw this with the sega CD, where developers would just sell the same game, but with added content, or crappy fmvs. They never really took a chance to explore it's potential.

Sadly, I think Sony might follow in segas footsteps with the playstation 2 (HDD, Online Gaming) and 3, simply because developers can't seem to keep up with this demand for technology. The industry, like hollywood, has turned into more of a market based around ideals, rather then an industry based around creative. Nintendo seems to be the only one, to have taken a step back and realize this by releasing the wii. Because the truth is, you don't necessarily have to have the highest specs in order to have good games. And there's still so much more room for creativity in 2D game design. Maybe that's why the Sega Saturn chose to base it's system around 2D game design (though I have to admit it did a horrible job, ram cateridges?)

(there was this hour long advertisment for the sega saturn released only in japan, which would've been great for this article)

Jake.. we all know WHY they failed... the point I was trying to make is that Sega (somewhat) paved the way for the technology we have today. Nomad(portable genesis console), Sega channel (online access to games), Saturn (cd based games), etc. I wasn't trying to say that SEGA was the mack-daddy of everything.

also might I piont out that the saturn failed because of its limited game library in the U.S. most of its good games like Bubble Symphony,Gradius collection pack.Salimander collection pack,megaman 8 (which included cutman and woodman side bosses),and a variatie of others never saw light in the U.S .the biggest reason the saturn failed was because sega failed to bring its maskot charactor sonic into 3D on time.At the time of the 3D consoles mario was flawking around in the bewtiful world of 3D but sonic didnt evolve at all he didnt even have a pimped up 2D high speed game like on the genesis.they just ported 3D blast off the genesis and called that there sonic lanch title.

the guy who wrote this article acks as if everything sega made was flawless.The sega nomad didnt succeed because it wasnt very well desighed(its a crude comparasion to the PSP)as you said it only lasted 1 hour and was not very portable.the CD failed becuase as the guy before me said it was to early for CD gaming and most of the games for is werint that good.the 32X failed because it was unfinished broke down easily and released at the same time as there next console which wasnt very smart,they would have been better off not releaseing it.

Dude..I still have my Sega Genesis in my room, and play it on a regular basis...call me old fashioned...or cheep but that's the only game system I've ever owned.LOL...My brother on the other hand has had every system out there...but I remain loyal

Marvel vs.Capcom 2 on the dreamcast is still on of the top 10 best 2-d fighters around.

That's the thing cropsy13! Reputation! Sega ruined their reputation so that even if they did bring out a new console most gamers would be quite weary...Unless it used CD-Rs again^^.

The Dreamcast today stands as one of the most underrated consoles EVER.

Sega lost it's fanbase with the Sega CD, it was nice concept (It was too soon for CD gaming IMO) but it had alot of poor games (Night trap, sewer shark)and was Expensive so the buyers were left cheated (me included).

Sega releasing the 32X was a huge blow.

- It was a pointless add on that was rushed through production
- Games were too rushed and were left with bugs and were unfinished (Doom is an example)
- It was expensive
- Released a few months before the Saturn (Why release a rushed overpriced peice of crap near too your big Next gen console)

Sega made alot of dumb decisions and lost alot of it's fanbase, shame the Dreamcast was caught up in Sega's bad reputation because it was a great console and if it was given a chance could have been sega's revival.

The dreamcast was an amazing system that was just way too pirate friendly. It is still the tournament standard for many fighting games like Capcom vs SNK 2. It had power and inovation, but a pretty crappy controllor. I've only recently retired mine. I burned all kinds of crap onto it including mame that I could never not get to not lag. When there were 2 other viable systems out there there was no reason for game developers to make games on the system that they would lose part of their profits to pirating. I mostly burned games I couldn't find here in the US, but a friend of mine was going to blockbuster renting them, ripping, burning, making himself a library of games, and selling them for $5 bucks at school.

LOL at the guy who didn't know you could burn dreamcast games. That is pretty hard to believe. Maybe you were too young or didn't have a good internet connection at the time?
Oh, and the character cast in cannon spike was awesome.

The sega dreamcast in my oppinion competes with the Wii.I have a Wii and a dreamcast and haveing and extreme amount of fun on both systems.

Sega produced some of the most memorable systems from my childhood. The Mega Drive, Sega CD, Saturn, and Dreamcast are some of my favorite consoles to date. It was inevitable though that Sega has been pushed out of the console market. The loop hole of CD-R games running on the dreamcast, and just the fact that Sega has always been an Underdog company is the key to the crumbling of it's foundation in the console market. It had it's popular camps but nothing could compare to Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. I will always have a place in my heart for Sega. Being a strong supporter of the Mega Drive and the Saturn I for some reason didn't buy a DC. I just knew that it wouldn't last in the US. Especially since it was quickly rushed when Sega US / Sega Japan were feuding about the release of the system.
A few years after it's demise I picked one up for $20. Now the DC gets the most play out of my consoles because It has some of the best games ever released. I, being a fan of japanese games(Shmups/RPG/Adventure) couldn't be happier. As far as Shmups go, you couldn't be happier with any other console. Ikaruga, Border Down, Giga Wing, and Gunbird 2 all get steady gameplay on the DC. If you find one for cheap, buy it. You won't be disappointed.

Culturally overprideful??? Games aren't released outside of Japan if there isn't deemed to be a market for them. For example, the game is based on an anime that is unknown outside of Japan. Therefore, if a game is about shooting zombies in the head, it is more likely to be relased in the West, hence Resident Evil, House of the Dead and Zombies Revenge...Killing zombies is something we can all relate to. I know I can!

Not true. Sega failed because when they released the dreamcast, Japan was culturally overpridefull, and didnt release any of thier top titles in america. Not too long ago I was looking at some sort of top 20 DC games, and 15 of them werent released in america. The only 3 on there I heard of was Sonic, Resident evil code:veronica, and soul calibur. All of which I owned.

@ Smtars post. If the online downloading was done in such mass as you say it was, then theres absolutly no way possible that I wouldnt have known about that and done it myself. So I seriously doubt this was done on any kind of large scale, especially since the system was active for a good 2 years.

Im sorry but its not too hard to figure out why Sega is no more.....After producing Dreamcast, people beat the system by downloading the games off the internet and since there was no mod chip in the Dreamcast...One could just burn a cd with the game on it and play on the Dreamcast....And since video game companies lose money making systems, bet on game sales for their income... This is why Sega is no more....went bankrupt after extreamly low sales for games.. Ur welcome

Personally, I never really got into SEGA games. The only exceptions being Sonic and maybe ToeJam and Earl. Still, it was sad seeing them go out like that.

Good article. I'm not cool enough to comment on it, though.

If you were looking for discussion, this might have been better placed in the forums. That said, I too was sad to see Sega go. I owned Genesis, Sega CD and later Dreamcast. It was Sega that introduced me to one of the best RPG series I've ever played--the Lunar series. Dreamcast, lack of a reset button and crappy bulky controllers notwithstanding, was an awesome piece of machinery. I still power mine up from time to time.

part of the reason sega went out of busness was because they ended up making alot of bad desisions that made them lose alot of money,like the 32X and the sega CD add on for example,and although they added some new ways to play games they really wearn't needed since the console alone was doing so well,and another reason was because they could never uphold the hand held market which nintendo had already done,if they had an hand held at the time the dreamcast was going down hill that was as good at the game boy or a franchise as adicting as pokemon for there hand held they might still be in bussnes today.

Except for the Genesis and Dreamcast Sega never backed any of their systems with a huge campaign ad. Everyone rememebers the Blast Processing, Genesis Does, and the 9-9-99 (Dreamcast) commericals. Who remembers the comericals for the Sega CD or the 32x? Also how can one gameing company specialing in consoles support three different systems that compete against each other. The Genesis, 32x, Sega CD, and Saturn at one point were releasing new games at the same time. With a limited marketing budget there are going to be products that consumers will not be aware of.

Sony didn't "blow SEGA CD" out of the water due to their reputation as an electronics giant vs. SEGA being known as a video-game giant... that makes no sense at all. If anything, the public would be hesisitant about a "newcomer" because they have no past history of video games.

First of all, it was the SEGA Saturn which killed the SEGA CD, and it was the Playstation which ultimately beat the Saturn because of all the support it recieved as well as exclusives that appealed to a broader audience. SEGA's retaliation was the Dreamcast, which was overshadowed by the hype of the Playstation 2, which was starting to become well known even before the Dreamcast's official launch on 9/9/99... Sony eventually killed SEGA, but for the wrong reasons you mentioned, GUEST.

SHNAG: I think that Space Channel 5 has pretty nice graphics^^. I have Star Gladiator for the DS as well though and that looks like the worst PSX fighter with the added bonus of blurry N64 textures!

GUEST: I agree with you on the graphics and controller issue on the Megadrive. Even though nowadays the graphics are no big deal as every current system has great graphics, back when SNES and the Megadrive were the top consoles lack of Mode 7 and limited colour pallette also limited the variety of games available on the Megadrive. The 6 button controller that Sega created for SFII wasn't as good as the SNES one either in my opinion.

Making unneccesary accessories like the so-called 32 bit add-on killed Sega.

what killed sega? hmm...graphics were a big issue, lack of a 6 button controller like the snes, and prices for the equipment. at a time when games were well over the 50 dollar range of most "new releases" in today's market, it didnt help to have to fork over more money to play some of the newer features, sega cd, game gear, and nomad. simple economics my boy. plus, it doesnt help that sega was the gobot as nintendo was the transformer. the reason sony blew sega cd out of the water was due to sony's reputation. sony is an icon with myriad eletronics whereas sega was just a specified brand for one purpose-video games.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive is the best system ever made, It had awsome graphic and plenty of games to play. Today games suck, most of them. Remeber Sonic games, Streets of Rage series, all Disney games for kids like Aladdin, Lion King and many more. What ruined Sega was releasing systems too early.

The Genesis came out in 1989.

Check the correct article first, http://vgrebirth.org/articles/segabase.asp.

This has the correct history. Genesis came out in 1988.

They released too many things at once, at bad times...
at least their still in the business making games!!

God... I miss Sega systems.

Another well written article. Good work.

The dreamcast kind of fell due to the games being written on cd-r's which means you could just look a game up online burn it to cd-r and play. No boot disk needed. Piracy was one of its biggest downfalls.

SEGA was an adult themed game system with more violent games than the SNES and the kids are what really control the gaming market in the 80's and 90's and a hefty pricetag of $400 and little to no games that were released in it's first year for Dreamcast really killed SEGA and because the system was overpricy parents would not buy it in favor for the less expensive PS! for 250 but now those kids are grown and like myself still gamers and willing to blow $600 for PS3's and Xbox360's

sega died because they released systems non-stop. way to many freaking systems. they had the hardware, but not the software. i disagree with you on sega having better game play.

what makes people afraid is if sega can become just a software provider, what about nintendo? nintendo takes risks, which is good and bad.

if anyone says dreamcast looks as good as xbox games, obvisously hasn't played many xbox games.

The Playstation 2 is what killed the Sega Market, dirty bastards.

I will tell you EXACTLY what killed sega.
They released the sega dreamcast, which was an EXCELLENT System. They released the right system...At the wrong time. They released it just before sony launched the PS2. It doesnt take an expert to figure out what happened then.

It seemed to me that a big problem with Sega was that they always brought out a console which was ground breaking at the time, but would be blown out of the water less than 12 months later by another company with a far superior console with a better library of games.

I owned the Mega CD. But, at least in Australia, the games were all over $100 and most of them were FMV games like Road Avenger, Time Gal or Night Trap where you simply pressed the buttons at the correct times in order to progress through the game. For people who liked platform or driving games, this was rubbish! Having said that, Sonic CD and Ecco CD were great games but they were little more than expanded versions of the Mega Drive games, not really 'next generation' titles.

Next the Virtua games were really taking off. The 32X came along as another add on for the Megadrive but again, the game library was too limited to justify the price tag.

The Saturn was always more popular in Japan than the N64.

I still own my Dreamcast. I played Soul calibur to death! I recently picked up Space Channel 5 for about $10 and the graphics are as good as anything on XBox or PS2.

But perhaps the limited life span of the Dreamcast was due in part to people being weary of Sega always bringing out 'cutting edge' consoles which are superceded within a few months.

A typical conversation between me and my friends always goes along the lines of:
'Have you seen Sega's new Console? Looks awesome!'
'Yeah, but Nintendo/Sony's new console is coming out next year and it has such and such a feature and such and such a company will be making games exclusively for it!'
'I'll wait till that one comes out then...'

Nintendo definately 100% did NOT buy SEGA. SAMMY bought into SEGA & became Sammy/SEGA. Get your facts straight, dalmatianlover. Nintendo has an agreement with SEGA along with NEC to bring out games for the virtual console on the Wii with its classic Genesis & TurboGrafix games, but that's about the extent of it.

The glaring omission of this article is the Dreamcast, which is a system that stands the test of time today. Some of the games graphics are better than modern PS2 & X-Box games of '05 & '06. I was saddened that Dreamcast closed shop, but it was at that point when I bought the system & was able to snag a bunch of games as they became affordable. I got a decent variety, and a lot of them are more fun than other systems because they're based on SEGA franchises (Sonic Adventure, SEGA Bass, Crazy Taxi... etc).

Top 3 Games for Dreamcast

3. NFL Blitz 2000
2. Crazy Taxi
1. House of The Dead

1. I think the Sega Genesis was released in 1989.
2. Game Gear sucked.
3. Sega Saturn didn't do well in stores at all.
4. NOMAD was cool, but it did have a short battery life.
5. The reason why Sega doesn't make its own games anymore is because Nintendo bought it. When Microsoft entered the competition in 2001 along with Sega, Nintendo and Sony, things got out of control, and one of them had to go, so Nintendo bought the rights to Sega.

Umm, you're talking about yourself.

I had a Sega Master System and Genesis. Had Saturn for a few years then sold it.

By h8bumblebee On 03/02/2007
Ninja_Turtle, Genesis never made any good sports games!? Are you crazy!? What about NHL hockey 93,94 etc. Joe Montanas talking football

Dude, All american football games sucks. The game stops constantly no one wants to play that crap.

Dreamcast was definatly the best of its era against Sony and Nintendo. Sega had them all beat but the world took Sony and Nintendo instead, even though game cube totally sucked. I played dreamcast more than any other system at the time, and I didn't even own it. My friend had Dreamcast while I had PS1 but I still went to his house and played Tony Hawk 2 on it everyday for 7 months straight until I almost flunked out of school. Dreamcast was WAYYYYY better.

I loved the Sega Channel it ruled and The Dreamcast *I miss it so much* *Cries really hard* but besides that Sega rules.

My Dreamcast still gets more play than any of my other consoles. Including the more recent ones (360, Wii)

But SEGA CD was NOT better than the "Genesis" nor was the Saturn.

LOL, I think part of what sold as many Saturns was that cartrige input that was on the back of the system that had everyone fooled into thinking that you could play Genesis games.

I remember me and a buddy of mine rent "Night Trap" and "Kriss Kross MAKE MY VIDEO" we had a ball. Its the first time I have ever seen live action interactive VGs.

Ninja_Turtle, Genesis never made any good sports games!? Are you crazy!? What about NHL hockey 93,94 etc. Joe Montanas talking football game (I can't remember the exact name). FIFA soccer. NBA jam.
Just to name a few...
Doom for the 32X was AWSOME, as well as Star Wars.
I always thought it was cool that SEGA never made you buy a brand spankin' new system, they offered add-on's to make your Genesis better.
W.T.G

i preferred NBA Jam on the Genesis... although Genesis did have Shaq-Fu...... lol

When I was a kid I used to own Sega Genesis(still do to this day)over Super Nintendo. The only time I got to play Super Nintendo was when I went over to my friends house because a couple of them in my complex owned a Snes system. But IMO I think Genesis has better games than Super Nintendo but Snes has Genesis beat over sports games. SEGA never really made any good games for sports.

I remember getting the sega cd. The coolest game was night trap, but it had been ban from toy stores because it had a rape scene in it. I had a friend at a toy store, she got me a copy, it was great!!!!