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[Jubenhimer]

Sega is one of the most recognizable brands in the video game industry. Aside from their flagship property Sonic the Hedgehog, the company was known among game fans for its innovative and excellent arcade titles. Today, Sega remains a rather solid third party publisher, but long ago, the company was once one of the major platform holders in the console space, right alongside Nintendo and Sony.

The Genesis (Mega Drive outside the US) is their most famous and successful console. A 16-bit powerhouse that finally gave Nintendo some actual competition in the console market. But things went downhill with the release of gimmicky add-ons like the Sega CD and 32x, and the botched handling of the genesis successor, the Sega Saturn, a console that for most of its life, may as well not have even existed in the public eye. Sega tried its hand at the console space one last time with the Dreamcast, a cult favorite for its innovative technology and games, it wasn't enough to save the company from financial ruin. Sega discontinued the Dreamcast in March of 2001, and reclassified itself as a third party publisher, releasing games for all consoles, a status they still retain today.

But what if it played out differently? Let's say the Dreamcast was successful enough to quickly turn a profit for Sega, allowing the company to continue making game consoles alongside Nintendo, Sony, and newcomer Microsoft. How would Sega survive among the big 3, and what direction would they have taken? Honestly, even if the Dreamcast ended up profitable enough for Sega to keep making consoles, I don't think it would've dominated the market. The PlayStation 2 was too much of a beast, and Microsoft was quietly rewriting the book on console design with the original Xbox, At best, I think it could've been a solid first-party centric niche platform like the GameCube.

If Sega were to continue making consoles after the Dreamcast, they would've had one of two options.

A) Go all in on competing with Sony and Microsoft in the HD arms race, a move that would've costed millions and could potentially doom them.

B) Go the Nintendo route, and skip the hardware wars altogether, focusing instead on innovative technology, and older, flexible hardware, which would risk alienating long-time Sega fans who were hoping for a more powerful system.

Both options had their pros and cons, but ultimately, it was probably for the best that Sega abandoned platform development. The console space is highly competitive and risky, and I don't Sega would've had the resources and funding needed to continue making game platforms.

 

[nial]

Sometimes I think an HD-supported Dreamcast 2 could have been released in late 2005 alongside the Xbox 360. It would have been pretty cool.

 

[lh032]

Yuji Naka might still be around making games and not going to jail i guess.

 

[lachesis]

I would probably buy one and it would take HDMI 1 slot.

 

[TLZ]

 

[polybius80]

I think even that hypothetical successor of DC may not have survived against Wii and PS360 no matter if option A or B, too many unknowns that requires too much "what if" to be discussed, in the end some executives predicted problems in the future and decided to throw the towel

 

[Meicyn]

Sega made a lot of weird shit and was very experimental back then, which often times wasn’t profitable enough to warrant the investment. Sega was kept afloat by the good graces of Isao Okawa. The moment he died, there was no one to bankroll the Sega we knew. They had no choice but to become a software only brand.

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

Go the Nintendo route

 

[anthony2690]

I'm happy with Sega as a third party, love Yakuza and Sonic, but I wouldn't buy a console for segas current output only.

Their first party output during Dreamcast was great though.

The closest we probably ever got to another sega system was the original Xbox.

 

[In Cold Blood]

Just imagine if Sega and MS had of worked together. Sega content exclusive to xbox.
Sigh..

 

[cireza]

gimmicky add-ons like the Sega CD

The SEGA CD wasn't a gimmicky add-on in any way. It was a great upgrade that brought many new features to the Western market.

the Sega Saturn, a console that for most of its life, may as well not have even existed in the public eye

Saturn had decent success in Japan and it is a console that moved around 10 millions units. Saying that it did not exist to the public eye is largely debatable. People knew of the console.

If SEGA were still making consoles, they would still be making awesome games and people would still not buy them. Then they would die again and people come and tell us how awesome SEGA and their games were.

 

[Ozzie666]

I'm sorry, but the success of the genesis was a fluke. There is insurmountable evidence to suggest Sega actually had no clue how to run their business properly. If not for a final dying gift, they were done even earlier. If half the people who claim to love the Saturn and Dreamcast in 2022 actually supported Sega back then, maybe they would be alive? The Xbox is really where it was going, they just didn't have the deep pockets to make it happen. I'd argue we saw what came next to a degree with their Xbox launch titles.

They had absolutely no clue and were at odds even against themselves. Sega failed much longer than it succeeded, even if we love the Dreamcast. I do wonder if they had used DVD, would Sega had at least lived a while longer.

Sorry to be a buzz kill.

 

[Romulus]

Would have been great to see all the games, but the hardware would probably be weird.

 

[pramod]

I wonder if it would be possible for Sega to resurrect the Megadrive? Like make a new version that has HDMI support, runs games on actual hardware and not thru emulation, with upgraded specs so that games would run faster/smoother?

 

[Alexios]

Maybe we'd get a few more amazing Dreamcast games like Gunvalkyrie or a Panzer Dragoon or even some of the cancelled third party stuff like Agartha before they went bankrupt instead of 3rd party, that'd be cool too I guess.

I wish we never had the Sega CD and 32X instead, focusing on Saturn to make it bigger in the west and localize more of its amazing Japanese library would have been great.

Not that I agree with the thinking they are the reason Saturn didn't perform because they disappointed fans with cutting support for them or whatever, since people largely didn't buy those either to be disappointed, it was the guided media spewing their self fulfilling prophecies as usual. It was all the regurgitated bs by the pro Sony marketing and paid off western media and change of how business was done with the enthusiast media into a far more two way relationship which Sega and Nintendo largely didn't do outside low key and obvious "official" magazines, Sony did that and also bought out or even created "impartial" ones. The biggest proof of that is its bad reputation for 3D when, as long as it lived, it was quite competitive and had its fair share of great games, similar to the PS360 differences the press minimized instead of exaggerate to favor their darling.

They trashed great games, ignored others and flat out lied for their Sony overlords. In the same breath they'd damn Saturn for less than perfect Model 2 conversions of games they'd praise PlayStation for similarly downgraded games based on far weaker than Model 2 Namco boards and pretend Saturn had the lesser 2D fighting game ports (!) because blue shadows, lol. Pathetic times. Of course this continued with the Dreamcast getting judged unfairly in similar ways vs an imaginary emotion engine while they ignored the horrible image quality of early PS2 years and of course also fully changed their tune 180° when other systems arrived to the scene and power suddenly wasn't the be all end all, PlayStation was some kind of amazing sweet spot while anything worse in any way (even if better in others) was a turd and anything overall better some kind of superfluous excess


I don't know how bad it was worldwide but even here we had a magazine called Games that was hip and mainstream or whatever and even had a TV show and it was basically a Sony ad from cover to cover, more so from intro to outro, with some token mention of Saturn or later N64 games, at times. Yet fantrolls wanna rewrite history and pretend they needed better games or hardware or whatever, as if turds from some companies don't sell and awesome shit from others never goes ignored by gamers or any entertainment media, yup, what's mainstream is quality, anything else is trash!

Except when they wanna bash Nintendo for being trash yet selling to some imaginary dedicated fanbase that doesn't know better of course, oh no, only Sony or Microsoft or whatever one stans for ever sells on its merits contradicting any and all their past criticisms of other companies ​

 

[Meicyn]

I'm sorry, but the success of the genesis was a fluke. There is insurmountable evidence to suggest Sega actually had no clue how to run their business properly. If not for a final dying gift, they were done even earlier. If half the people who claim to love the Saturn and Dreamcast in 2022 actually supported Sega back then, maybe they would be alive? The Xbox is really where it was going, they just didn't have the deep pockets to make it happen. I'd argue we saw what came next to a degree with their Xbox launch titles.

They had absolutely no clue and were at odds even against themselves. Sega failed much longer than it succeeded, even if we love the Dreamcast. I do wonder if they had used DVD, would Sega had at least lived a while longer.

Sorry to be a buzz kill.

Nah, you’re right. Shenmue is the ultimate example of Sega at their worst when it came to decision making. It was a $50 million glorified tech demo that Yu Suzuki had no business being allowed to make, because there was no way it would ever be a big enough success to recoup development and marketing costs. It flat out wasn’t fun to play back then and it definitely did not stand the test of time. I was outright confused when the gaming press and some gamers lost their minds over the Shenmue 3 announcement years ago. Then the game came out and everyone hated it, and I’m like… it’s literally what ya’ll asked for. The original had terrible gameplay too.

Meanwhile, Blizzard went and made World of Warcraft for around the same amount of cash back in 2004.

 

[hemo memo]

Yeah imagine a console with SMT as exclusive. That’s a system seller right there.

 

[RetroAV]

Personally, I'd wish they just continue to push the limits of their already released platforms like the Genesis/Sega CD/32X and the Saturn (I still want that VF3 Saturn port! ) Dreamcast would be fine too if it meant they would port Super GT and other Model 3 games.

 

[UnNamed]

Yuji Naka might still be around making games and not going to jail i guess.

whynotboth.gif

Just imagine if Sega and MS had of worked together. Sega content exclusive to xbox.
Sigh..

Why imagine?

 

[Heisenberg007]

Sega is too small a company for that now.

 

[Drew1440]

If they were to stay in the console business, I'd wager their home consoles would mirror their arcade boards of the time. With the Sega Lindbergh following up the Dreamcast in 2005, and from the specs it should compete favorably against the 360/PS3, though that Pentium 4 would run toasty in a console.

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 3.0G HT (800Mhz FSB - 1MB L2 Cache)
GFX : NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series GPU
GFX Memory : 256MB (256 bit GDDR3)
Operating System : Montavista Linux
GFX Capabilities : Vertex Shader 3.0, Pixel Shader 3.0
Audio : PCI Sound Card - 3D audio synthesizer chip onboard, possible to have 64 sounds playing simultaneously, 5.1 surround output.
Video output: One analog D-Sub, Two Digital DVI outputs.
Display : Single or dual monitor support. Can output the same picture to each monitor or different pictures on each monitor, the resolution for each of the 2 monitors can also be different.
Sound output: The two front speakers have RCA connectors, SPDIF for full surround.
Resolution : HDTV (High Definition)
RAM : 1024MB 184pin DDR SD-RAM PC3200 (2x 512MB DDR 400 sticks)
LAN : 10/100/1000 TBase Gigabit Network
Other : DVD Drive Support, USB2.0 (x4) - Sega ALL.NET online support.

Followed up by the Sega Nu in 2013.

 

[Hitchyhero]

I really really miss sega of old. there's just no game company around anymore that makes games like they used to. I love their arcade style games

 

[Badlucktroll]

If i had money like Elon one of my projects would be to get Sega afloat making consoles again

 

[Azelover]

I think we would all be better off, actually.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

I would be the most happy gamer in the world with SEGA and SONY making both consoles.
The market would be better, with lots of fun tiers B games. And more innovative too!

 

[PendekarRajawali]

Well if MS is not a super rich company we would only have two players in console market right now.

 

[Henry Panic]

No one wanted to buy Segas games on their consoles, so even if there was a new console after Dreamcast it wouldn't have the software to move hardware.

Sega's best selling games are still the first two Sonic games.

If the Saturn and Dreamcast had games people wanted to buy, they would have been competitive.

 

[Proteus Maximus]

Nah, you’re right. Shenmue is the ultimate example of Sega at their worst when it came to decision making. It was a $50 million glorified tech demo that Yu Suzuki had no business being allowed to make, because there was no way it would ever be a big enough success to recoup development and marketing costs. It flat out wasn’t fun to play back then and it definitely did not stand the test of time. I was outright confused when the gaming press and some gamers lost their minds over the Shenmue 3 announcement years ago. Then the game came out and everyone hated it, and I’m like… it’s literally what ya’ll asked for. The original had terrible gameplay too.

Meanwhile, Blizzard went and made World of Warcraft for around the same amount of cash back in 2004.

Shenmue is still my favourite game after all these years. It was a technical marvel at the time. Just because you didn't like it doesn't make it a bad game.

As for the Dreamcast itself, I bought one and supported it when it relevant.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Last I checked sega had two or three consoles (genesis, Dreamcast) that were solid, I understand Saturn had crummy graphics. And sega mixed it up with handhelds which I think is important.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Interesting question. I think if Sega were still making consoles, and Microsoft joined the fray anyway, they would have been forced to go with the #2 route: find their own lane and stick with it, like Nintendo did.

Thankfully, Sega had such an option I just think they lacked the corporate synergy to realize it at the time: you know what Arcade1Up are doing nowadays with home arcade cabinets? That's what Sega could've done. Repurpose the Dreamcast/NAOMI hardware into a modular home arcade cabinet. Kind of like what the Konix Multisystem wanted to do back in its day, but now with much better technology and a big company backing it.

Sega would've maybe needed to find a way to keep the costs manageable, and maybe that'd of meant taking a few years out as a 3P publisher bringing their games to other consoles but simultaneously making Dreamcast versions of those games while scaling back on Dreamcast unit production. Keep that going until say 2004, at which point they could do a modular home arcade system with somewhat speced-up Dreamcast/NAOMI/NAOMI 2 power and keep the price manageable (MSRP $299).

Make sure you have some innovative software for it at launch, make it 100% BC with the Dreamcast library & peripherals (most of them, anyway), provide downloadable patches for select Dreamcast games to use the new hardware functions, and keep the production numbers manageable, preferably with a slight profit margin from Day 1 (if that would mean a slightly higher MSRP of say $349...so long as you can convince people, go for it). And an extra discount for those with active SegaNET subscriptions of at least 1 year before picking the system up.

The way I see it, this could've been Sega' Wii moment. Maybe with a somewhat slower start but able to find foothold soon enough. Maybe plan a price drop in Fall 2005 to $249 with a simplified SKU to ward off the 360's cheaper SKU (not that this Sega system would be competing in the same market segment as 360; again this would be more of a Wii strategy for Sega), and I think they'd of been quite successful. I think they'd also need to ensure compatible SDK framework between it and whatever arcade system they would have going forward, so that while you'd get select ports from that to this Sega system and vice-versa, the real use would be in bridging the user experience between the home and arcade environments. Just go all-in with that, make it your distinguishing feature.

I don't really see an alternate future where Sega could have sustained making home consoles competing on the same strategy as Sony, especially if Microsoft joined the fray anyway, Sega just lacked the type of resources and mindshare for that. But I think they could have still been successful with a more distinguished home platform targeting a different type of market segment, and maybe even keep that going with select ports of future games to select console platforms if they were deemed as good multiplatform revenue streams without causing a rift with their own console brand identity (i.e Monkey Ball ports to the Wii, Virtua Tennis ports to the PS3 & 360 etc.). Basically, it'd be Sega staying as a platform holder but also dabbling with strategic 3P support on other platforms the way we've been seeing Microsoft and Sony do today. In fact, Sega had already done this to some extent back in the '80s so it would be nothing new for them.

No one wanted to buy Segas games on their consoles, so even if there was a new console after Dreamcast it wouldn't have the software to move hardware.

Sega's best selling games are still the first two Sonic games.

If the Saturn and Dreamcast had games people wanted to buy, they would have been competitive.

They did have games people wanted to play. The problem was lack of marketing. Games don't sell themselves in this industry unless they are absolutely massive and even those types of games were few and far between in the '90s and early '00s. Sega didn't necessarily have the best marketing budgets or strategies for key individual games, but they were pretty good at selling their overall brand of the time.

Those are two separate things, however. It's similar to the problem Microsoft has today with Xbox IMHO; they can sell the brand (same goes for GamePass), but are generally pretty bad at marketing & messaging around specific individual games. I agree that Sega needed more games with wider mainstream appeal (and just like I say with Xbox, lack of mainstream appeal does NOT imply lack of quality. These are also two separate things, although at times there can be crossover), but it's hard not to see that they didn't have the best adaptation to advertising/marketing specific game releases in ways to position them as tentpoles, to marketing standards that were developing throughout the late '90s and into the early '00s.

 

[ReBurn]

I'm sorry, but the success of the genesis was a fluke. There is insurmountable evidence to suggest Sega actually had no clue how to run their business properly. If not for a final dying gift, they were done even earlier. If half the people who claim to love the Saturn and Dreamcast in 2022 actually supported Sega back then, maybe they would be alive? The Xbox is really where it was going, they just didn't have the deep pockets to make it happen. I'd argue we saw what came next to a degree with their Xbox launch titles.

They had absolutely no clue and were at odds even against themselves. Sega failed much longer than it succeeded, even if we love the Dreamcast. I do wonder if they had used DVD, would Sega had at least lived a while longer.

Sorry to be a buzz kill.

Still salty after all these years...

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

I wish that Sega will reconsider making consoles again. Day 0 :]

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Nah, you’re right. Shenmue is the ultimate example of Sega at their worst when it came to decision making. It was a $50 million glorified tech demo that Yu Suzuki had no business being allowed to make, because there was no way it would ever be a big enough success to recoup development and marketing costs. It flat out wasn’t fun to play back then and it definitely did not stand the test of time. I was outright confused when the gaming press and some gamers lost their minds over the Shenmue 3 announcement years ago. Then the game came out and everyone hated it, and I’m like… it’s literally what ya’ll asked for. The original had terrible gameplay too.

Meanwhile, Blizzard went and made World of Warcraft for around the same amount of cash back in 2004.

I kind of agree with this TBH. That money could've gone towards:

-AAA single-player Phantasy Star sequel
-3D Dragon Force sequel
-A 3D Streets of Rage 4
-A new Eternal Champions
-A new rail-shooter Panzer Dragoon & JRPG-style PD Saga game

...with some millions left over to cover marketing, production, distribution and maybe some smaller games on top of that. Instead they went into a game that ultimately became a money pit. Yeah Shenmue was technically impressive for its time but it didn't have the mainstream appeal all of the stuff I just listed would have potentially had, or at least a lot more appeal among Sega fans particularly since they were in IP already known to them.

I respect Shenmue for what it did in showing off Dreamcast's hardware and eventually laying the groundwork for Yakuza, but I think Sega could've done the former with any or all of the other games suggested above, and the latter could've been set up with just adding a "Virtua Force" type of mode into the VF3 Dreamcast port (or VF4 Dreamcast port if one ever got made). These are kind of the examples we mean when some of us say Sega had notoriously poor business decisions during the period.

 

[Alexios]

Shenmue only cost that much cos they made it twice, for Saturn as well (scenes from Shenmue II are in the Saturn footage) and that cost also covered Shenmue II partially during their co-development for Dreamcast. It just took too long and Saturn died too soon so it would have flopped harder there and it was rightfully moved (as jaw dropping as it would have been on Saturn even at single digit fps with all the glitchy disappearing polygons and I would have loved to have it there too). One game (or two) that did recoup part of the costs to a degree and also helped put Dreamcast on the map by looking spectacular (as games like SOTC did for PS2 even if they're very much niche also), not to mention pioneer in and advance Sega's development processes in many fields, so is part of the reason Dreamcast performed as well as it did (as people that didn't have an interest in the game itself through it saw the system's potential and hype over its capabilities), even if still not great enough to keep Sega afloat (a near impossible task at the time anyway), is hardly the reason they went down or something they'd be better off ditching. Such decisions are made all the time, I mean, they have finished games that went unreleased altogether like Propeller Arena, handling this or that thing differently doesn't change shit in the grand scheme. Phantasy Star and Panzer Dragoon staff formed Overworks and brought us Skies of Arcadia, Sakura Wars and other Dreamcast games, they weren't laid off or sat around doing nothing to fund Shenmue. With more time they'd have done more games too (at least a proper Sakura Wars IV and not the short send off homage it turned into), like their later PS2 and arcade games. Going by Phantasy Star IV's story it's good they turned that series into online console Diablo instead anyway, as much as I prefer solo games myself. Also, hating great games doesn't make you cool, lol. Same for validating that opinion by sales talk, as if anyone can with a straight face claim only the turds fail and only the greats succeed, ever, in anything. Games like Panzer Dragoon Saga weren't cheap either and didn't make back their cost but I wouldn't have it any other way. You might as well have had Sega not be Sega just to survive, that's just pointless and not much unlike what they are now anyway so you got your wish in a way, enjoy.

 

[gothmog]

I miss Sega but I don't miss them enough to buy another console from them. I would love to see them find themselves again software wise, though.

 

[analog_future]

If they didn’t die as platform holders in 2000 they would’ve died in the years to follow. There was too much competition and the writing was on the wall for them for years.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

But what if it played out differently? Let's say the Dreamcast was successful enough to quickly turn a profit for Sega, allowing the company to continue making game consoles alongside Nintendo, Sony, and newcomer Microsoft.

Ok, and then nothing would change because none of the problems and bad decisions that were made would change in this scenario. What would happen is the same thing that happened with the Genesis, so the Dreamcast manages to make profit, which it already did anyway before the short-term strategies that proved successful dried up, but let's assume they actually made money on the Dreamcast, even if not that much, worldwide and not just the US for the entire gen.

So you would have Sonic Adventure, NFL2K, and Crazy Taxi sell double what they did, d 10% to the sales of everything else from launch until 2000, and then end of 2000 through let's say 2004, Sega would reach a peak and then go into a decline because they aren't able to replicate nor figure out what caused that earlier success, they would then panic and start spending money on silly things, which would then lead to the Dreamcast 2 launching with bad reception, less money, and no sound strategy or unity with third-parties or internally. This would be despite the Dreamcast still ending with profit regardless of the decline.

The problem with these theories is people forget hardware was only part of the problem, and only ONE of the reasons why they were losing money. Netlink probably lost Sega more money than the Saturn hardware did, or just as much. Then you had the ice cream truck, the two theme parks, the arcade center similar to chuckie cheese, the nomad, the pico, the pico tour bus, the other accessories for the Saturn, spending tons of money on marketing for games like Clockwork Knight and other strange choices, spending money they can't recoup on overpowered arcade machines that started to show their age in one year, the two attempts to co-develop a PC, releasing their games on PC, and so many other things.

A lot of people put too much focus on hardware as the only or primary issue in these discussions.

The Gamecube may have been the weakest link but even if you remove Sony and Microsoft, the Gamecube would have had better coverage since most new online gaming outlets were all pro-N64, US was Nintendo's top country and had sequels to several favorites from the N64 and new titles, it would have been twice as powerful as the Dreamcast for a low-price, Sega would have little to attract the younger child and family demographic, and the GC would be more reliable with less hardware problems while also being able to play GBA games through an adapter for full-screen play on TV, which would still make the VMU look like a gimmick.

PS2 and Xbox would be in your scenario however, and because of that you also have to ask what audience would Sega be able to built with a Dreamcast that lasted long enough for them to release a Dreamcast 2? Xbox and PS2 would cover almost everything the Gamecube didn't, they would both have better online, they would both be more powerful just like the Gamecube, and so on.

Sega surviving to make more consoles after many years of bad choices would only work if they managed to steal enough of the audience of either Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, or combinations between them. How?

What did Sega have to take from Xbox, with Halo, Dead or Alive 3, Project Gotham, Splinter Cell, Brute Force, Crimson Skies, Ralisport challenge and others?

What did Sega have to take from PS2, with Tekken Tag Tournament, Metal Gear, Jak and Daxter, Ace Combat, Devil May Cry, FFX, Ratchet, Sly, and a bunch of others?

What did Sega have to take from GC, with Luigis Mansion, Smash Bros Melee, Double Dash, Wind Waker, Rouge Squadron 2, Metal Gear, Sunshine, RE games, and others?

This was always the problem. Sega needed to create better IP to build with instead of throwing out and replacing on the Saturn, the Dreamcast was way too late to pull that off other than sports.

 

[Ozzie666]

Still salty after all these years...

Not really, just the Sega I knew is dead. The Sega of Arcades is dead. Never meet your heroes because they are ugly.

 

[lame gag1990]

I miss their console output but they're doing ok as a software company. They're obviously not the creative, fearless force they once were but I'm grateful they still exist. A lot of my fondest gaming memories growing up through my childhood involved SEGA.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

I think it’s better this way, they just didn’t have what it takes to succeed in the hardware space. Their software struggles as it is, with all of their focus on it. Sega brand strength just doesn’t have the clout to compete with the big names Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. I don’t see a real audience that would allow room for a 4th console maker.

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

The only way Sega could have possibly survived the mid to late 90's is if they helped to create the Pokemon craze. However for that to have been possible a better Game Gear revision that used way less batteries or new portable hardware all together would be required. It's too bad they made the mistake of creating the Nomad instead so that's a no go when it comes to link cables and Pokemon trading. Then again if they had passed on the Nomad idea until battery technology could handle such a thing better they could have maybe beaten Nintendo to the Switch.

At least the Pokemon artist Ken Sugimori would have supported Sega.

 

[Fat Frog]

...since people largely didn't buy those either to be disappointed, it was the guided media self fulfilling prophecies as usual.
It was all the regurgitated bs by the pro Sony marketing and paid off western media

That's why i love console wars , it's fun, it's pure : Not like this hypocrite of Phil Spencer.

Phil Spencer 2021 : I respect Sony.
Phil Spencer 2022 : Console war with Jim Ryan. People are so full of shit

@OP
What about a C) option ? There is a reasonable scenario between an overpriced/underexploited PS3 and the fraud/rebranded overclocked gamecube called the Wii.


The Playstation 3's cell was too powerful, to complex for most japanese publishers.

PS3 WAS USELESS FOR JAPANESE DEVELOPERS (many didn't use half of its power).

That's why there was a room for a cheap power efficient machine by Sega.


2005 scenario C

Sega launches a $300 machine as powerful as a Lindbergh (inferior to a 360 but far better than a Wii) with Naomi 2 deluxe ports at launch for minimum costs.

2006
Sega finally releases Virtua Fighter 5 for its machine:


(VF5 is a lindbergh game...)

Sony fans:
"Such console would be technically ridiculous against the PS3 and the CELL".

Practical answer: "Well yeah, but japanese developers are struggling with PS3 or a bit less with the 360"

2005/2006 Xbox360 DOA4



2007 PS3 game/Tekken 6


2012 PS3 game/DOA5 (sorry to disapoint but VF5 is still competitive)


Well, well, well, as expected, it seems most japanese average ps3 games looks like more or less Lindbergh games:

Star Ocean/PS3

Nier/PS3

Some games like MGS4 would be out of reach for the Lindbergh but it's the 1% minority and let's face it (Uncharted 2 is 2009 game, GOW3 2010...4 years after the 360 launch. If Sega was still alive they would release another console in 2010/2011 )

Sony boys: "OMAGAAAD, Snake's mustache has 60000 vertices :fap: :fap:

Sega boys: " Cool story, bro. You'll see that mustache (lol) for like 10 secondes during cut scenes and then you'll have at least 10 hours of piss filter gameplay and cut scenes.


What would be the kind of Dreamcast 2 lineup during the PS360 era ?





https://youtu.be/u8kvSGUwAyc


Vibrant games...

Virtua Fighter 5
Valkyria Chronicles
Sega Rally Online
Bayonetta
Outrun 2 SP DX
Vanquish
Mad World
Yakuza games
House of the dead 4
Alien Isolation (downgraded of course)
After Burner Climax
Sonic Generations
Ghost Squad Evolution
Sonic All Star Racing Transformed
Resonance of Fate
Binary Domain
Phantasy Star Zero (with Lindbergh graphics)
Alpha Protocol

You wouldn't buy a Sega console only for Sega games ? Except, Sega wouldn't be alone:

Treasure Games (it was Sega's closest ally)
Capcom games (Capcom released many games on Saturn, Dreamcast)
Atlus games (a close Sega ally since the Megadrive days)

Conclusion:
The PS360 generation was a nightmare for many japan games fans like me.
Piss filter western games (even JP AAA like MGS4, RE5 had it) or PS2HD games with japanese publishers. (it's problematic when you buy a console for 600 bucks).

Taking into account all these elements, of course, a middle ground Sega console would have been a blessing (colorful, various and stylish games) for a growing niche of gamers at a reasonable price... (lindbergh games like After Burner Climax or Sega S-RPG like Valkyria don't push the PS3 limit, they would be a perfect fit for a console version of the Sega Lindbergh)



Yeah, Sega boys don't care about blocky characters during cut scene and lack of vertices (lol), we don't watch cut scenes most of the time, we... play games

PS: After 2010, PC and mobile would save Sega from bankrupcy. (Sega would sell more PC games as this market grow and would make a lot of money with Sonic games. In other words, a Sega console wouldn't be the only ressource for Sega)

 

[RoboFu]

The only way this would work today is if MS bought them out and named their next console the Sega X.

Then they would have to launch and quickly announce a lot of sequels to nostalgic titles. Like a proper phantasy star.

People like to think the Saturn’s hardware was the cause of its failure in the west but really it’s because they never made any next gen sequels to their popular 16-bit sega games and all they had were very content lite arcade games.

The very few sequels we did get were horrible. Like instead of a kick ass 3D Shinobi we got a mortal kombat type frame captured monstrosity.

 

[Fat Frog]

The only way this would work today is if MS bought them out and named their next console the Sega X.

The success of the Series S proves that dads have enough money for several consoles and that there is a room for a cheap power efficient machine with solid exclusives.

20 years ago, yeah, the market was too small for 3 console makers...

Soon enough, the market will be 5 times bigger. Don't worry, the Sega niche could grow at a steady path... (games like Yakuza 0 or Persona 4 will pass 2 million units only on PC and it's still expanding.)

 

[Crayon]

A world where all sorts of incompetent companies run just fine on hugs and kisses yes, I can see it now.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Last I checked sega had two or three consoles (genesis, Dreamcast) that were solid, I understand Saturn had crummy graphics. And sega mixed it up with handhelds which I think is important.

Sega Master System was absolutely a great system, even if it got destroyed in the marketplace. Way better graphics than NES and some really great games. Managed to beat NES in some regions (UK, Brazil) as well.

 

[93xfan]

Just imagine if Sega and MS had of worked together. Sega content exclusive to xbox.
Sigh..

I kind of feel Sega fans should gravitate towards Xbox, given all the BC games you can only play on Xbox.

Sonic Adventure 1&2
Sonic all stars racing transformed
Sonic Generations
Virtua Fighter 2
Nights
Virtual On
Sonic 3 (with original music)
Fighting Vipers
Superior versions of many genesis games due to the botched audio in the genesis collection.
Golden Axe (arcade)
Altered Beast (arcade)

Etc.

 

[Scotty W]

Sega owes all of its success to Nintendo delaying the SNES to promote Mario 3. That allowed them to grab a huge chunk of the market. But they blew through this capital for the next 10 years because they were bad at business. There was simply no coordination in the company.



This game appeared the year before Scud Race. What were they thinking? Even worse, neither game has ever been ported. The company has always been a two headed octopus. Even as a third party they are still not organized. The idea of releasing a console in a market where there is little to no room for error is just unthinkable.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Sega owes all of its success to Nintendo delaying the SNES to promote Mario 3. That allowed them to grab a huge chunk of the market. But they blew through this capital for the next 10 years because they were bad at business. There was simply no coordination in the company.



This game appeared the year before Scud Race. What were they thinking? Even worse, neither game has ever been ported. The company has always been a two headed octopus. Even as a third party they are still not organized. The idea of releasing a console in a market where there is little to no room for error is just unthinkable.

Cool Riders was anachronistic but it was basically the sequel to Outrunners that we never got.

 

[Ansphn]

They would do a better job at creating exclusives than Xbox.