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[Elder Legend]

This was true maybe 10 years ago, now id argue they are actually making moves to revitalize old franchises, I'm pretty sure within the next year or two both a Crazy Taxi and Jet Set reboot are supposed to be announced given that leak from a year or so ago.

I'd like a new House of the Dead with PSVR2 or just VR in general.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

It's not even just that, though the lack of money and experience certainly helps. It's the fact that we already have 3 major platforms with all the mindshare and market share (PC, Nintendo, Playstation)
Even if Sega were to enter in full force, they'd still sort of end up like MS where they're the straggler that doesn't succeed much. The brand of being attached to the failure dropout Sega doesn't help much, either.
There are far more desirable options for entering the gaming space in 2023, such as streaming or ofc going third party. Making a brand new console with hardware and constant exclusives to keep in mind is just too taxing when you can shit out a subscription or place your games on Steam and PS store, call it a day. less effort than making hardware, games and marketing for a brand new hardware box that people may or may not be psyched to plug into their tv.

Yeah it's a maddening balancing act of hardware R&D, keeping 1P titles coming consistently, arranging 3P deals, maintaining online services and infrastructure, marketing etc. not to mention losing a lot of money on the hardware at least initially.

I do think there are gaps in the market another platform holder could satisfy, demand that's maybe gone unanswered to some degree. But it'd probably be in a joint home console/arcade (FEC) type of venture, so a lot of capital and resources would still be required. More than Sega have on their own, and by many magnitudes.

ok fuck all 3. Sony & Nintendo have no interest and Microsoft are clearly insane.
Hear me out here, partnership with Nvidia.

Arcades would need amazing looking games to stand out. Like games that make Forbidden West look like redfall, level of graphical superiority. Who else to provide the hardware for these machines than a joint partnership between Sega & nvidia. The former makes the games, Nvidia creates the hardware. It'd be one set, and the games would be purely optimized to run on that machine. Imagine ONE SINGULAR GAME being devoted to take as much advantage and squeeze as much power out of the power of say, 2 4090s. With all the DLSS, RT acceleration and AI, they can make something groundbreaking.

Nvidia in the past has been a harder partner to work with because of their high prices. But high prices don't really matter when you're producing high power arcade machines that are expensive to manufacture anyways. a 1000 dollar GPU doesn't mean shit when the entire machine is 20k to manufacture. Not to mention that arcade machines simply do not sell as well as consoles for obvious reasons. A lot less stock to order and keep up with. lower manufacturing costs for both parties involved.

Not to mention that while these are still video games, they're arcades. They're meant to have a few short pieces of content that are endlessly replayable. The budget for them would cost way less than your average 40-60 hour AAA RPG, and they'd look just as good too. I'm convinced that a lot of the gaming industry's issues with budget and dev time is due to game length and content. Imagine how quick and easy it would be to pump out games when said games are meant to be at most 30 minute arcade experiences.

The idea of short (but highly replayable) arcade games using top-of-the-line CPUs & GPUs to deliver something just not doable on home consoles is quite tempting. Again though, I still think you need consoles in the equation somewhere, part of the business model and in a way where operators & chains can get kickbacks. So, such an arcade game would have to either be scoped with weaker consoles in mind, or there'd have to be a lot of paring down to the console.

And of course, the home versions would need a lot more content with those ports. Like I was saying earlier, I've spent some time over the past 3-4 years just writing out and brainstorming ideas for what a new business platform tightly integrating the home & arcade/FEC market could look like, and what it could do. No way to apply any of it or test any of it in the real world, sadly, but it's been fun toying with those ideas and refining them. I don't know if the modern-day arcade/FEC market would be receptive to yet more machines costing $20K or such, or if that's the best approach to drive growth of that market forward again.

But the idea of having 4090-tier systems with games specifically targeting that spec, not bogged down with the need to have dozens and dozens of hours of content (or in most cases, even complex scripts, lore, Hollywood-level VAs & writers, etc.) could result in some amazing spectacles from a graphics POV.

Sega will save gaming as they always have.

Props for stepping up from booth babes to pole dancers. Next step: strippers.

 

[Gojiira]

Not really OP, the death of Sega lead to the Playstation and arguably the greatest library of games ever made…
PS1/2 era was so full of revolutionary games and Sega was behind none of them. Gaming got so much better without them.

 

[cartman414]

As an OG Sega fanboy... Sega was an absolute disaster.

They had a golden run of a few years in the home market... but it was mostly just embarrassment.

Then a little bit longer in the arcade market.... just as arcades were dying.


They did go out on their shield with Dreamcast though. They gave it a try. Pretty good effort after the absolute gong show of SegaCD, 32X, Saturn. Oof that was an ugly run.

Sega CD and 32X perhaps, but Saturn was successful in Japan.

 

[cartman414]

Not really OP, the death of Sega lead to the Playstation and arguably the greatest library of games ever made…
PS1/2 era was so full of revolutionary games and Sega was behind none of them. Gaming got so much better without them.

You got the order wrong.

They folded during the PS2.

Also, Saturn and Dreamcast had many quirky and important games.

 

[BlackTron]

I stopped gaming seriously when the Dreamcast died. Playing PSO are some of my fondest gaming memories.

There was really nothing like being there for the first few months of PSO version 1 as it happened, when everyone you were meeting were also doing everything for the first time.

 

[Ozzie666]

Sega is the perfect example of why you never want to meet your heroes. As a console manufacturer, they were terrible and more lucky than good. Their track record is terrible. As an Arcade manufacture, they were industry leading and defining. They had that experimental quirky nature, which would not fly now unless they were under the right conditions. Sega would have benefited from having Nintendo as their publisher and focusing on 1 system. A wealth of IPS at their disposal. Rose coloured glasses when it comes to Sega at home vs Sega in the Arcades. There is a reason they left the business, too many to list. But part of it is, their games didn't sell well enough.

 

[fart town usa]

Saturns are going for around $130 for the NA model, JP models are a good bit cheaper. Sexy TV you have, I am very jealous. I came across a 32in Sanyo CRT that I have my PS2/GC/N64 connected to. It's a solid TV, certainly not as good as a Wega, but is solid, works, and most importantly, was free lol. It has two composite connections, S-video and two component connections if I recall correctly. I have a switch on the component connection to switch back and forth for the PS2 and GC since the TV stand with that bg ass TV isn't the easiest to move around and access the back. The thing that sucks is I don't have much access to it ATM, since all of my wife's shit is on the floor in front of it that she needs to go through and get rid of lol. What can ya do?

How does S-Video compare to using retro vision via component with the Saturn? Whenever I do get this rolling I was planning on using S-video for the Saturn, but if there is a significant enough of an improvement for going with something like retrovision it may be something to consider further down the line as well.

Nice. Awesome set up.

Saturn looks fantastic with S-Video. It looks better with HD Retrovision but S-Video is by no means a scrub image on the Saturn. Best bang for your buck and the nerdiest of YouTubers agree, lol. I wouldn't sweat it, optional purchase as far as I'm concerned.

 

[LakeOf9]

Not really OP, the death of Sega lead to the Playstation and arguably the greatest library of games ever made…
PS1/2 era was so full of revolutionary games and Sega was behind none of them. Gaming got so much better without them.

What?

 

[Kururi]

IT is Time! Revive Working Designs and make it like the Monolith Soft of Nintendo. Lunar: the silver star storys Blew my mind back in the Sega cd days. Those guys are Geniuses.

 

[Come On Tars]

All my old consoles got a nostalgia to me. The Dreamcast has a special flavor to it.

 

[abstract alien]

Sega was always ahead of their time, to their detriment. They tried to pair future ideas, with current design philosophies. The result was almost always functionally conceptual, instead of viable and transformative. Perhaps better software would have helped push their ideas, but unlike Nintendo, they failed to marry the true merger of games, advanced hardware and marketing as a unified vessel.

 

[abstract alien]

Regular Show knew what's up

 

[Blood Borne]

Nostalgia is exactly that, nostalgia.
Sega made just one good console, Genesis/Mega Drive, everything else was either trash or questionable.

Game Gear had good tech, but it was super chunky and expensive to play due to its excessive battery consumption.

32X, Sega CD were unnecessary and confused gamers. There were some games that required both 32X and Sega CD plus a Sega Genesis console to run. Just dumb.

Sega Saturn was trash. It had CD and cartridge and an abysmal amount of games. They didn’t even have a 3D Sonic game if I remember correctly.

Dreamcast was just garbage in comparison to the competition. One analog stick, 1GB disc, 2 shoulder buttons. Seriously, WTF.

Sega had an awful strategy and execution. It’s like their strategy was “there’s a new tech, let’s use it. Doesn’t matter if it’s expensive, alienates and segments our fans and confuses developers. All that matters is that there’s a new tech and we have to use it”. They had an inordinate amount of attachments and peripherals.

Sega’s demise is free market in its truest form. Gamers and developers voted them out due to their dumb decisions. Good riddance.

I say this as an ex-ardent Sega fanboy. Preferred them to Nintendo back in the day because they really had some innovative games.I still play Revenge of Shinobi and Streets of Rage 2.

 

[cartman414]

Nostalgia is exactly that, nostalgia.
Sega made just one good console, Genesis/Mega Drive, everything else was either trash or questionable.

Game Gear had good tech, but it was super chunky and expensive to play due to its excessive battery consumption.

32X, Sega CD were unnecessary and confused gamers. There were some games that required both 32X and Sega CD plus a Sega Genesis console to run. Just dumb.

Sega Saturn was trash. It had CD and cartridge and an abysmal amount of games. They didn’t even have a 3D Sonic game if I remember correctly.

Dreamcast was just garbage in comparison to the competition. One analog stick, 1GB disc, 2 shoulder buttons. Seriously, WTF.

Sega had an awful strategy and execution. It’s like their strategy was “there’s a new tech, let’s use it. Doesn’t matter if it’s expensive, alienates and segments our fans and confuses developers. All that matters is that there’s a new tech and we have to use it”. They had an inordinate amount of attachments and peripherals.

Sega’s demise is free market in its truest form. Gamers and developers voted them out due to their dumb decisions. Good riddance.

I say this as an ex-ardent Sega fanboy. Preferred them to Nintendo back in the day because they really had some innovative games.I still play Revenge of Shinobi and Streets of Rage 2.

You totally missed the import scene.

 

[Gojiira]

You got the order wrong.

They folded during the PS2.

Also, Saturn and Dreamcast had many quirky and important games.

Not really, Sega started folding during the Saturn, which allowed Playstation to take much of the market.
PS2 was just the final nail in the coffin.

Aldo dont misconstrue my meaning, they absolutely did have good games, but every major advancement or genre defining experience happened elsewhere.

 

[GamesDontSuck]

Never going to happen however I would love if Sega came back with a new console. Same specs as ps5 or series x. Try to inject arcade style games. But never gonna happen.

 

[Team Andromeda]

Sometimes people overstate what SEGA did and forget what the likes of Atari and NEC did for console gaming.

I miss SEGA Hardware but even if the DC or Saturn had taken off with the cost of consoles, SEGA would have needed to look to Hitachi, Panasonic, MS to help develop and R&D costs given GPU development was costing over a billion on its own
For me, SEGA started to lose its magic and the old SEGA way when SOJ made Hayao Nakayama step down. Nakayama-san was SEGA to the core and bled blue blood


I'm just happy that SEGA Japan is still going and doing well and Sammy is now forced more on big budget AAA games rather than mobile.
I also really miss the days of SNK too. The Saturn and Neo Geo CD were such awesome consoles with some of the best sports games and shooters ever made.

 

[SunStarry]

I never said Sega has no games. I'm just not interested in a Sega console without Sonic. Just as I'm not interested in a Nintendo console without Mario. It's just not cool anymore. That we compare Sonic to Pac-man at Namco these days shows how far he's fallen. Sonic was made as a Mario-killer, and once succeeded at that, now he's "nothing more than a mascot character" likened to Pac-man. Brutal.

Sega is the Sonic publisher and nothing more. This is why they failed.

 

[BlackTron]

Sega is the Sonic publisher and nothing more. This is why they failed.

They failed for many reasons, but one major one is likely that they were everything but the Sonic publisher.

 

[6502]

Why on earth don't they put out an arcade subscription service? So many games, opportunity for premium controller sales too... they are leaving money on the table.

I wont buy Yakuza for a rom embedded at some point, but I'd pay £10 a month for their arcade back catalogue if they added online / multiplayer / leaderboards to their most popular racers etc.
They can keep it fresh by rotating console back catalogue.

 

[RAIDEN1]

Sega had nobody to blame but themselves.....it is the civil war in the early 90s that put paid to where they are now....and they are lucky to be "alive" otherwise they could have easily ended up like Atari, Commodore, and 3DO... irony being they were at the forefront on the arcade scene but then on the domestic scene they misjudged badly.....they were a one-hit wonder -that hit being the Genesis that's why they bring out countless game collections of it, or mini-consoles, compared to ever bringing out a Saturn mini or Dreamcast mini...

 

[cartman414]

They failed for many reasons, but one major one is likely that they were everything but the Sonic publisher.

Sonic's significance beyond the Genesis' success is incredibly overstated.

Sega had nobody to blame but themselves.....it is the civil war in the early 90s that put paid to where they are now....and they are lucky to be "alive" otherwise they could have easily ended up like Atari, Commodore, and 3DO... irony being they were at the forefront on the arcade scene but then on the domestic scene they misjudged badly.....they were a one-hit wonder -that hit being the Genesis that's why they bring out countless game collections of it, or mini-consoles, compared to ever bringing out a Saturn mini or Dreamcast mini...

Ugggh, no

It's because there isn't a SoC powerful enough to emulate either of them, silly.

 

[Emedan]

Haven't read the whole thread and don't want to derail it but I lived through the Nintendo/Sega battle of the 90s and Sega and their Mascot Sonic were just trash compared to Nintendo and their offering, don't know whether that's a hot take but man the proof is in the pudding, if Sega was so great they'd still be around.

 

[cartman414]

Haven't read the whole thread and don't want to derail it but I lived through the Nintendo/Sega battle of the 90s and Sega and their Mascot Sonic were just trash compared to Nintendo and their offering, don't know whether that's a hot take but man the proof is in the pudding, if Sega was so great they'd still be around.

They make it sound like Sonic was the only thing they had going on.

Plus, Sonic didn't have a fraction of the consistency Mario has had.

 

[SunStarry]

They make it sound like Sonic was the only thing they had going on.

Plus, Sonic didn't have a fraction of the consistency Mario has had.

Sonic was the only thing they had going on.

 

[cartman414]

Sonic was the only thing they had going on.

Shining Force, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Phantasy Star, and Streets of Rage among others say you're wrong.

 

[Fat Frog]

https://x.com/zackreese/status/1705800456327540973?s=20

Sega and the others...

 

[Ceadeus]

I was too young to pick up and encourage my favorite system back then but I would have certainly go Sega at the time. I remember renting a dreamcast and it was incredible and special compared to ps1 and n64.

There was so many games I wanted to try and hope to get one day but they went bankrupt before I could get my first job. Otherwise I would have gotten all their accessories crap , seaman game and 15 vmu and tattoo a swirl on my forehead.

 

[trent_the_gent]

I wont buy Yakuza for a rom embedded at some point...

Yeah, you should be buying Yakuza because it is probably the best long-running game series of all time.

Just download the roms of whatever retro game you'll play for 10 minutes before getting bored and moving on to more current stuff.

 

[6502]

Yeah, you should be buying Yakuza because it is probably the best long-running game series of all time.

Just download the roms of whatever retro game you'll play for 10 minutes before getting bored and moving on to more current stuff.

I was a big fan Shenmue 1 & 2 and heard good things about Yakuza, but I prefer arcade games these days as I am time limited, in the day normally 10 / 20 min blasts.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

As a kid who was given a Genesis and loved playing it, I can say with confidence that I love the idea of Sega, but don’t care for the reality. I wish my parents got me a Super Nintendo instead.


I was too young to encounter this problem at the time, but if I was older and had disposable income to buy their consoles and handhelds, I would have felt burned like no other. The sheer amount of systems and add-ons they experimented with and outright abandoned is appalling. They simply threw everything at the wall to see what stuck, but showed a complete lack of planning on the software side - giving no real reason to choose a Sega console over Nintendo or PlayStation. Abandoning their releases within 2 to 3 years did not help matters.


If we look at Sega today, they have some good releases every so often but few of their core franchises are mainstays. And even the ones that are, they mess up often. Look at how they treated Sonic for years. While I am alright with the Yakuza games, the pace of releases feels like Sega’s console business mismanagement once again. They bought Atlus and have Persona, but what has Sega brought to the table themselves?


I’m not sad to see Sega’s hardware go, and even now with only software to worry about I see similar mismanagement of their IPs encouraging them to milk their most successful ones, which number few. I enjoy some of their games but it would be a terrible idea to invite them back into the hardware business, when even Microsoft seems to be struggling with output. Sega would be eaten alive in record time, with Nintendo and Sony so dominant.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Dreamcast was amazing but needed more games. Sony outmarketed them on that console and piracy killed it.

Still have mine. Amazing machine.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Sega's problem in the past was that its games had quality but didn't sell as well as needed. This is a point that Sega pacified with Sonic Frontiers, Persona 5, Total War, Alien isolation, Yakuza. Yes, today they are planning to return to the market and, through a new console (preferably hybrid to facilitate sales in Japan), revive the franchises we love: Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter, Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi and streets of rage. But those who will pay the bills and guarantee the platform's existence for at least 5 years are the games I mentioned first. Sonic Frontiers is almost finding the perfect formula for Sonic in 3D, namely the open world.

 

[GamesDontSuck]

It's a shame the dreamcast was a failure. Would have been nice to have an acade style console that the dc did Best.

 

[PanzerCute]

Sonic was the only thing they had going on.

Stop making a fool of yourself

 

[digdug2]

Sega put out two of my favorite consoles of all time, Genesis and Dreamcast. The amount of quality games on the Genesis was just nuts! And I'm still bummed that they gave up on Dreamcast so early into its lifespan. They hadn't even unlocked its full potential yet but made the rash decision to just throw in the towel.

 

[MagnesD3]

As a not really huge fan of Sega just seeing this thread keep popping up just makes me wish more and more that Sega was still in the console race, with sony and microsoft heading in poor directions it would be nice to see a smaller console similar to nintendo with quality Single Player IP coming to it, but its just a pipe dream.

 

[John Wick]

Sega were a great games company. I'll always fondly remember their arcade games. The home consoles were good and Sonic became the mascot they always needed. Unfortunately all of Sega's great talent have gone or are too old. I miss AM1 AM2 and AM3. Sega should have been bought by either Sony or Nintendo. That was a huge missed opportunity.

 

[Little Chicken]

My problem with games media is that you have an entire generation of gaming journalists from the US that really don't care much for Sega because they all grew up playing on Nintendo systems and deify Nintendo IP.

Meanwhile, Sega spent most of the 90s putting out hit after hit, always pushing the envelope and innovating in both console and arcade spaces. Sega was full of gaming visionaries and some very important people who created some very important software that doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Sega put out two of my favorite consoles of all time, Genesis and Dreamcast. The amount of quality games on the Genesis was just nuts! And I'm still bummed that they gave up on Dreamcast so early into its lifespan. They hadn't even unlocked its full potential yet but made the rash decision to just throw in the towel.

They didn't give up on the Dreamcast early, in fact in September 2000 the console virtually unsold
for 3 months, so Peter Moore suggested that the best thing to do was to become third party because the console was already dead. It was the right choice, Sega had no credibility in that time, they released a new console every year or two from the SG-1000 to the Dreamcast, there were many mistakes, fortunately the Sega brand survived almost intact and is in its best phase since 2001, so we we can nurture this hope of return

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

What makes me anxious, euphoric and sometimes distressed, is not knowing how to show them that we, the fans, are still alive and able to buy their new console, whether for 299, 249, 349.
These are very conservative prices for a nice return.

A hybrid console called Saturn would be very good for all .

 

[Unknown?]

What makes me anxious, euphoric and sometimes distressed, is not knowing how to show them that we, the fans, are still alive and able to buy their new console, whether for 299, 249, 349.
These are very conservative prices for a nice return.

A hybrid console called Saturn would be very good for all .

Nah, call it the Jupiter!

 

[RAIDEN1]

Not sure if I mentioned it here already, but even one of the founders of the company a certain Mr David Rosen, always thought that Sega would have been better off a game publisher/developer from day one, rather than trying to compete on the hardware front

 

[Sorcerer]

Sega Saturn was trash. It had CD and cartridge and an abysmal amount of games. They didn’t even have a 3D Sonic game if I remember correctly.

Saturn was technically not a cartridge system, it used a cartridge slot for save slots and more ram. Would have been pretty cool if they could have used that slot for backwards compatibility for Geneisis and Master system (probably with an adapter for Master system).
An amazing 2D system. If only they could have gotten it out instead of the Genesis during the Snes/Genesis era, it might have been a different story. Imagine having all 2D Genesis games developed on the system, plus the added (really rough albeit) 3D for other games. The devs could have come to grips with 3D on the system and have the tools and knowledge for 3D on the next., I think it would have been something special.
I think they could have avoided the Sega CD and The 32x in this scenario. From what I understand Sega could have simply made cartridges with the 32X chips built in. The 32x was unnecessary. I get the cartridges would have cost more, but make a few experiential carts, and then forget about it. Not a ton of money lost on an entirely new system.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Sega being in the market now would not change a thing. They did the right thing to say goodbye when they did.

 

[cireza]

Saturn was technically not a cartridge system, it used a cartridge slot for save slots and more ram. Would have been pretty cool if they could have used that slot for backwards compatibility for Geneisis and Master system (probably with an adapter for Master system).
An amazing 2D system. If only they could have gotten it out instead of the Genesis during the Snes/Genesis era, it might have been a different story. Imagine having all 2D Genesis games developed on the system, plus the added (really rough albeit) 3D for other games. The devs could have come to grips with 3D on the system and have the tools and knowledge for 3D on the next., I think it would have been something special.
I think they could have avoided the Sega CD and The 32x in this scenario. From what I understand Sega could have simply made cartridges with the 32X chips built in. The 32x was unnecessary. I get the cartridges would have cost more, but make a few experiential carts, and then forget about it. Not a ton of money lost on an entirely new system.

No way the Saturn could have been released instead of the MegaDrive in 88. This is purely science-fiction. Nobody cared about 2D and Genesis/Master System anymore, so BC wasn't of much interest. It was too difficult to include on top of everything else anyway.

You absolutely cannot replace the 32X by chips either. The 32X has two powerful processors and its own VDP, offering a ton of new colors on screen. This is outside of the realm of a simple chip inside a cartridge, unless your cartridge as its own AV out.

 

[Sorcerer]

No way the Saturn could have been released instead of the MegaDrive in 88. This is purely science-fiction. Nobody cared about 2D and Genesis/Master System anymore, so BC wasn't of much interest. It was too difficult to include on top of everything else anyway.

You absolutely cannot replace the 32X by chips either. The 32X has two powerful processors and its own VDP, offering a ton of new colors on screen. This is outside of the realm of a simple chip inside a cartridge, unless your cartridge as its own AV out.

Its's a fantasy scenario of course. I just think what might have been for Sega, had it been possible.

I remember hearing a podcast (sorry can't remember anymore) and the podcaster worked at Sega at the time.
He argued with Sega to put the chips in the cartridges and thought the 32X was a mistake and foresaw the disaster incoming. So, if he is to be believed it was certainly possible, maybe lower spec?
Not saying it's possible or not, just stating what I overheard from an insider who worked at Sega at the time.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

I respect opinions, but to say that Sega Saturn was trash, I just consider such an opinion to be a hater's opinion, that is, a worthless opinion. The Sega hater's opinion is worthless to me.

wonderful console for fighting games, controller with 6 front buttons, great in 2d games, inferior to the ps1 in 3d but we cannot rule out games like Dead or Alive, Nights, Power slave, Daytona CE and Panzer dragoon Saga.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Everytime I go back to emulate the Dreamcast it blows my mind that a 3D console has a controller that has 2 less buttons than the Sega Saturn and there's no second analog stick, that's the decision making that was going on at Sega and I would not want them in the console market.

But you like the PSP, DS, 3DS, N64 and Wii, don't you?
simply some of the most successful consoles in the history of video games