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[Geometric-Crusher]

I think modern Sega is doing well with the best games since the Genesis/Mega Drive era.


What is your opinion?


The poll has three options, yes, no and maybe.

 

[Digital-Aftertaste]

This poll is wrong. Dreamcast was positive, Saturn was not.

 

[MiguelItUp]

This poll is wrong. Dreamcast was positive, Saturn was not.

This. Dreamcast was awesome and ahead of its time in a lot of ways. There were a lot of variables that led to its downfall, unfortunately. It deserved so much more.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Remember the fucking OUYA?

 

[nial]

It's been 24 years, man. Need to let it go already.

 

[Hideous Snake]

Dreamcast was wicked and ahead of its time. Unfortunately there were things that led to its downfall

 

[EverydayBeast]

Dreamcast kept sega's legacy alive, if momentarily. Don't forget it introduced online gaming to consoles, and of course good graphics.

 

[ReBurn]

I don't think the failed consoles have any bearing on the image of modern Sega. I believe Sega's strength was always their games. They were in the right place at the right time with Genesis/Mega Drive hardware because a lot of people wanted more than the NES could offer and Sega was pulling in some great ports of their arcade games.

 

[Nydius]

I don't think many people other than us old farts think about the Saturn or Dreamcast, positive or negative. An entire generation (age, not console), only knows of SEGA as a game publisher and doesn't even remember a time they made hardware.

Alas, I should apologize because I'm probably part of the reason the Dreamcast failed. The confluence of learning how easy it was to bypass their security check to use bootleg game copies and getting first generation cable high speed internet around the same time? I had SO many duped disks. I think I maybe bought 3 games legitimately.

I'm sorry SEGA.
Not really sorry.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

An entire generation (age, not console), only knows of SEGA as a game publisher and doesn't even remember a time they made hardware.

That's my fear, that they'll lose interest in Sega's products because of the Dreamcast and Saturn, which, as we know, weren't Sega's best.

 

[marquimvfs]

Remember the fucking OUYA?

I remember Zeebo

 

[Plies]

Sega has always had an amazing image and fan base.

Too bad SoJ screwed up their console business, though.

 

[cartman414]

This poll is wrong. Dreamcast was positive, Saturn was not.

How dare you sir.

 

[Loomy]

As other have pointed out, the Dreamcast was a good system. It's unfortunate that it followed the Saturn and had to exist alongside the PS2 though.

I don't think the failed consoles have any bearing on the image of modern Sega. I believe Sega's strength was always their games. They were in the right place at the right time with Genesis/Mega Drive hardware because a lot of people wanted more than the NES could offer and Sega was pulling in some great ports of their arcade games.

Which is why the launch of the Saturn was so disastrous. Launching a sega console without a Sonic game in the 90s is just crazy. Add to that barely anything else, and a console that was clearly not ready for launch, and you have the beginning of the downfall of Sega consoles right as it was getting good.

Sony really spooked Sega into shooting themselves in the face.

 

[f~N_CH_1:3:3:3_SushiBoat]

Remember the fucking OUYA?

First run backer with the bronze special edition and four controllers. In fairness, i got a lot of good times playing bomb squad.

I figured it could be a hard flop, but im always down to support a new player in the space.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Sega's identity today is not related to the hardware they had in the past. We're long past those times.

Dreamcast was very much ahead of its time though, but the rise of Playstation and the failure of Saturn in the US made people very wary of Sega. Much like what has happened now with Xbox and PS. However the Saturn library never reached the heights out here that it did in Japan. Many of the best games released on Saturn never came to the US, but I don't think that would have mattered much since their hardware out here was very much tied to IPs like Sonic, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and other games that were apart of that arcade 2D era.

Playstation kind of symbolized the future of gaming at the time and despite the Saturn having some very competent 3D games as well, their reputation for abandoning their own hardware became pretty notorious (Sega CD, 32x). They kinda hit a wall and didn't really start to adapt until the Dreamcast. By then though it was too late. Everyone wanted a PS2, it was even the first DVD player for many people. So it attracted an audience that didn't even really play games as well.

 

[Little Chicken]

I dont think Sega's legacy is respected as much as it should be because of Nintendo's dominating presence in the US. Outside of the US, they had a pretty big and important presence.

They were always ahead of the curve imo. Released a lot of hugely influential games, especially at the dawn of commercial 3D.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I think people are just hoping that Sega gets the fucking message and rereleases the ton of good games those systems had, instead of keeping on trying to make Sonic a success again. When it comes to their legacy, Sega seem to think they only released one console, plus a handful of Dreamcast games.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

I dont think Sega's legacy is respected as much as it should be because of Nintendo's dominating presence in the US. Outside of the US, they had a pretty big and important presence.

They were always ahead of the curve imo. Released a lot of hugely influential games, especially at the dawn of commercial 3D.

Ultimately it was Playstation that became the main competition for Sega in the rise of the 3D era, not Nintendo. People buying sports games, RPGs, Racing, Horror, etc. flocked to Playstation for those experiences. N64 by comparison did not have the breadth of variety that Playstation offered.

 

[Dacvak]

Dude, there is no "modern sega"

 

[March Climber]

I think people are just hoping that Sega gets the fucking message and rereleases the ton of good games those systems had, instead of keeping on trying to make Sonic a success again.

I think with last year's announcement:

They are carefully dipping their toes back into their other franchises, following the Capcom-strategy of having big, safe franchises(Yakuza, Persona, Sonic) being used as a way to bolster the company's profits while they experiment from time to time with AA or below titles as a gauge for interest.

Namco has been doing it too (Tekken, Naruto, Fromsoft), Konami is starting to do the same (and I'm betting that they are trying to figure out the best way to revive Metal Gear as safely as possible without Kojima), but Square Enix are still a bit behind, taking huge monetary gambles on random projects and vastly different sequels.

 

[No BBC=Anger]

Dreamcast was the Y2K aesthetic in a box. Which has been making a sort of come back over the last few years. Like how 80s stuff was popular again in the 00s.

 

[Alan Wake]

I like that Sega is finally doing something with its rich heritage instead of hiding it. There are great games and franchises on both the Saturn and the Dreamcast, although Dreamcast was a console ahead of its time and deserved so much more.

 

[Hudo]

People still port and develop shit for Dreamcast. We've very recently had threads about ports of GTA 3 and Vice City to Dreamcast, that were running quite well. Can't say the same about PS2, the OG Xbox or the Gamecube.

 

[yurinka]

What happened, happened. Most people playing nowadays aren't affected by them, and probably never heard about them.

I had a Dreamcast and not a Saturn. They were beasts for 2D games, had a number of great games, but missed many big ass AAA hits that were in PS, which back then were dominating the market and highly expanding it with PS1 and PS2.

They were difficult times, back then there were many brands releasing their consoles and as usual each new generation saw a big budget increase for games and was a technical challenge for devs. And at the same time the arcades pretty much died outside Japan, hurting Sega because it was an important business to them.

The competition was fierce. Sega consoles didn't survive, but after an adaptation, now as multiplatform publisher is maybe better than ever.

People still port and develop shit for Dreamcast. We've very recently had threads about ports of GTA 3 and Vice City to Dreamcast, that were running quite well. Can't say the same about PS2, the OG Xbox or the Gamecube.

Well, it's way easier to develop for Dreamcast.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

People still port and develop shit for Dreamcast. We've very recently had threads about ports of GTA 3 and Vice City to Dreamcast, that were running quite well. Can't say the same about PS2, the OG Xbox or the Gamecube.

maybe because these companies are still in the market making new hardware
That's the impression I have

 

[Alexios]

Well, it's way easier to develop for Dreamcast.

Its not magically easier, it's easier because enough interest was there for some people to take great pains to develop and release versatile and capable homebrew SDK (with very recent breakthroughs on that front being what enables some of the ports discussed here, they definitely weren't at all possible some years ago). With how many PS2 dev kits were out there I imagine it's way easier for those interested to gain access to the official SDK and with how supported the system was for that SDK to also be of much higher quality than DC's was, with it being so short term on the market as common complaints were about the lack of tools/still in dev tools they had to use back then. And if not, then I guess there's not as much interest for that. Anyway, another shitty nothingburger Sega thread by GC, if you think people talk/care about these too much, start by STFUing about it all...

Nowadays you program stuff for older consoles in your PC, (no oficial devkit, testkit or SDK needed) using just C and some unofficial SDK made by someone in the interwebs.

Literally what I said happened for DC, yes, folks on the interwebs made some great SDK and tools with years of ongoing hard work, not "easy" (for games that actually take advantage of the hardware as there are lighter 2D stuff too). Very few DC homebrew use Windows CE & PS2 had Linux

 

[Horseganador]

Sega was always a beast as a software developer. In the 80s and 90s, with its arcade games, it was way ahead of the competition and released many new quality IPs... BUT, it was a company that was very poorly managed and that didn't know how to capitalize on those good games in hardware sales.

 

[diffusionx]

Dreamcast and Saturn have almost no relevance to modern Sega. Outside of the upcoming crazy taxi and jet set radio they barely touch the big games on those platforms. They focus much more on genesis and new franchises and games from studios they bought like atlus.

 

[BlackTron]

It's negative for Sega as a hardware maker which they are never trying again.

Just because MS can't sell consoles doesn't mean they can't sell games all day long, why should Sega be any different

 

[yurinka]

Its not magically easier, it's easier because enough interest was there for some people to take great pains to develop and release versatile and capable homebrew SDK (with very recent breakthroughs on that front being what enables some of the ports discussed here, they definitely weren't possible some years ago). With how many PS2 dev kits were out there I imagine it's way easier for those interested to gain access to the official SDK and with how supported the system was for that SDK to also be of much higher quality than DC's was, with it being so short term on the market and common complains about the lack of tools/still in dev tools they had to use back then. Anyway, another shitty thread of nothingness...

I'm a game programmer, who also happens to program to older consoles too (I'm programming a Mega Drive game right now).

Nowadays you program stuff for older consoles in your PC, (no oficial devkit, testkit or SDK needed) using just C and some unofficial SDK made by someone in the interwebs.

Dreamcast had a more traditional (PC like) hardware and even had a Windows CE. It also has more and better emulators, and it's to run there pirate games in the original consoles (you don't even need to buy a dongle or flashcart). All this did help to make a good SDK to make games today, in a way easier way than for PS2.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Sega used to be a force in the industry, now they're a footnote. Selling Visual Concepts was probably their biggest mistake, but they really narrowed their focus when they went 3rd party and the result wasn't a positive one. I don't think any franchise has been nurtured well from them in the last 20 years other than Persona and maybe PSO.

 

[StereoVsn]

This poll is wrong. Dreamcast was positive, Saturn was not.

I would argue that Saturn's library was very strong if you include Japanese releases.

And overall I think it's great that folks are discovering Saturn and Dreamcast libraries and building up that SEGA history.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

forgetting about these consoles is better for the fans, I mean, every conversation we know how it ends, to me it's time to let the Dreamcast rest.