Why Sega Failed?

This has always been something that has bothered why did Sega ultimatly fail in the console market, the Genesis was an amazing system.

This has always been something that has bothered why did Sega ultimatly fail in the console market, the Genesis was an amazing system.

snakes3425

There were many reasons, one of the biggest was the hype around the ps2 completely overshadowed sega and the dreamcast. As awesome as their old games were, their newer games are very lac-luster. I'm kinda glad there mostly gone, because they are basically a disgrace now

Ya I think timing was a big factor,it should have come out after the PS2.Another reason why is,I read somewhere,that EA didnt support the Dreamcast and without the major developer behind it it lost ground.

It had good games,I wish it had lasted...well hopefully one day Sega will re-enter the console war and learn from the past.

I believe SEGA failed because of Bernie Stolar

- He insulted his current hardware at E3
- He wouldn't bring over popular Japanese game because he thought Americans wouldn't like it
- Said No one wants to play RPGs
- Made joke about Tekken causing NAMCO to make TEKKEN an PS2 exclusive

Ya I think timing was a big factor,it should have come out after the PS2.Another reason why is,I read somewhere,that EA didnt support the Dreamcast and without the major developer behind it it lost ground.

It had good games,I wish it had lasted...well hopefully one day Sega will re-enter the console war and learn from the past.

wildcat2000

SEGA has a bad track record of systems (32x, SEGA CD, SEGA Saturn, and Dreamcast) so many of peopel won't have faith in the new system.

SEGA should remain a game developer, but what I would like to see is that SEGA would let Nintendo EAD (Shigeru Miyamoto) and Team Sonic make a new Sonic Game or even a Ristar game.

timing, games, comopetition and this:

I believe SEGA failed because of Bernie Stolar

- He insulted his current hardware at E3
- He wouldn't bring over popular Japanese game because he thought Americans wouldn't like it
- Said No one wants to play RPGs
- Made joke about Tekken causing NAMCO to make TEKKEN an PS2 exclusive

despa1r_fact0r

SEGA has a bad track record of systems (32x, SEGA CD, SEGA Saturn, and Dreamcast) so many of peopel won't have faith in the new system.

SEGA should remain a game developer, but what I would like to see is that SEGA would let Nintendo EAD (Shigeru Miyamoto) and Team Sonic make a new Sonic Game or even a Ristar game.

despa1r_fact0r

did you just call the CD, Saturn and Dreamcast failures?

know that I'm not accussing you of anything

I was just following the Sonic series and soon after Sonic The Hedgehog, their games seemed to suck really bad.

I was never really a fan of SEGA so I never knew what was happening to them until Sonic 2k6 :|

I'd say it was the following reasons:

• People lost faith in Sega - especially after the failure of Sega Saturn
• The Dreamcast lacked a DVD player, the main selling point of PS2
• Sega were supporting too many consoles at the same time, giving little reason to change system
• The Dreamcast had poor advertising campagins including "It's Thinking"
• Many developers simply didn't take the Dreamcast seriously, it lacked real third party support.

Sega did a lot of things wrong but for me the biggest problem was the games. Sega has a great library of IPs and did they make it to dreamcast? Not most of them. Some good ones did but it just wasnt enough. A few that should have are:

*panzer dragoon or saga

*shining force

*shining the holy ark

*a true phantasy star (not online)

dont forget some of the huge sega arcade games at the time like

*starwars trilogy

*lost world Jurassic park

Plus all the classic stuff from the 8 and 16bit era like

*miracle warriors

*space harrier

*golvellius

*wonderboy

*shining in the darkness

Nintendo has survived because of one reason, making sure their first party software was the best on the systems. Even if they would have done this they still wouldnt have beat the ps2 but they might have been able to stay alive and fight again.

They didn't stick behind their hardware. After the Genesis gave them good footing in the hardware business, they wasted it by releasing a bunch of products - Sega CD, 32X, etc - that only confused customers and were barely supported by anyone BUT Sega.

What it comes back to is bad marketing.

It's been mentioned a few times already but I agree. Sega fans and general gamers were put off by the Sega/Mega CD, 32X and the Saturn. Even though the Dreamcast was a good machine peoples faith in Sega was rock bottom.

I'd love them to bring out a new system in the future.

I think it was pretty much the lack of third-party developers, considering Sony was pulling them all in to the Playstation 2. But yeah id have to agree, Sega's timing was brutal, for example the Gamegear. it was far ahead the Nintendo Gameboy, as it had a color screen and better controls, it just lacked the games.

But i had always heard that Microsoft had Bought the Sega hardware team and started work on the Xbox. So if that were to be true, wouldn't the xbox be just the next thing to what would have been sega's next console? well i just heard that. i don;t really have any source, expect it was in a magazine. that, or im crazy =D

When dreamcast came out I wanted it BADLY. I played the sonic adventure demo in store which happens to be sonics last great game before FAIL! I believe that dreamcast also had better graphics then PS2 but didnt have the games to back it up. Sad because the best times I ever had on a console happens to be a Sega and a sega dreamcast.TrooperManaic

[QUOTE="TrooperManaic"]When dreamcast came out I wanted it BADLY. I played the sonic adventure demo in store which happens to be sonics last great game before FAIL! I believe that dreamcast also had better graphics then PS2 but didnt have the games to back it up. Sad because the best times I ever had on a console happens to be a Sega and a sega dreamcast.famicommander

at the time some Dreamcast games looked better than PS2 games.

kind of like 3600 and PS3 today, some 360 games look better, but eventually PS3 will have better looking games.

SEGA didn't fail. You failed SEGA.

thats what I am trying to say BTW the 360 and ps3 will have simular grapix by the time they mature.

Yes, many reasons. The first big contributing reason was the Genesis add-ons, which proved to be a true waste of money to those who bought them (the Sega CD and Sega 32X). There was minimal improvement to the old Genesis hardware in these, and they had extremely few worthwhile titles.

The Sega 32X has a big more story to it. In January 1994, they ordered their team to construct another add-on to be released late that year in time for the holidays. The bad thing was Sega's divisions weren't communicating very well at all, because they didn't even know that Sega of Japan was making a brand new, full-fledged 32-bit console that would become the Sega Saturn. Because they were too far in the 32X's development to cancel it, they had to release it, and it failed miserably. Some developers claimed they literally received the development kits for both the 32X and Saturn at the same time, and that's not necessarily a good thing in this case.

The Sega Saturn was also a very rough release. Its hardware developers literally built its motherboard with 2 CPUs (tremendous at that time) and about 6 other processors. This not only meant a higher price tag than the PlayStation, though it would be extremely hard to develop for. Another note is that the Saturn's graphics system was quadrilateral-based, not triangle-based. Quadrilaterals are better looking, though everyone was used to the triangle-based system and many decided to just not develop for it.

It also met very unbalanced levels of success from region-to-region. In America, the thing barely even took off, though in Japan it was actually a successful console in a very good competition against Sony. Then came a wise man we could all learn from (one way or another): Bernie Stolar. He's the guy who made the iconic "The Saturn is not our future" statement and made everyone really start to hate Sega. American gamers felt ripped off, while Japanese gamers didn't understand why they were basically announcing another console so soon with the Saturn being a success there. Either way, some developers like EA decided to go against Sega from then on and vow to never release anymore of their games on another Sega console.

So then came the Dreamcast. It did prove to be a big step forward for Sega, and it's pint-sized form factor with powerhouse capabilities (for 1999, of course) was a definite plus, though most gamers were done with Sega now. Sony announced their PlayStation 2 later on, which basically stabbed the Dreamcast in the back. Then it was released and Nintendo and Microsoft announced their entries in the competition, all of which continued to stab the Dreamcast just to make sure it was dead. So ended Sega's long reign in gaming consoles. (Longer than Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo actually.)

To make a long story short, they made some very bad decisions which latered proved fatal to their spot as game console manufacturer. Kind of like Atari, though they didn't improve with their last console.

[QUOTE="TrooperManaic"]When dreamcast came out I wanted it BADLY. I played the sonic adventure demo in store which happens to be sonics last great game before FAIL! I believe that dreamcast also had better graphics then PS2 but didnt have the games to back it up. Sad because the best times I ever had on a console happens to be a Sega and a sega dreamcast.famicommander

One big difference I tend to notice between the two is the PS2's ability to generate reflective surfaces. Something I never ever saw in a Dreamcast game. The lighting in the PS2's first generation games was what, I think, made it seem so impressive at the time generally. But sometimes it seems there's no pleasing casual gamers. Lack of games was the reason people ignored the very powerful Saturn in favour of the PlayStation and yet in 1999/2000, no amount of great games on the Dreamcast mattered in the face of the oh so amazing "Emotion Engine". Ugh

[QUOTE="famicommander"][QUOTE="TrooperManaic"]When dreamcast came out I wanted it BADLY. I played the sonic adventure demo in store which happens to be sonics last great game before FAIL! I believe that dreamcast also had better graphics then PS2 but didnt have the games to back it up. Sad because the best times I ever had on a console happens to be a Sega and a sega dreamcast.Menalque2

One big difference I tend to notice between the two is the PS2's ability to generate reflective surfaces. Something I never ever saw in a Dreamcast game. The lighting in the PS2's first generation games was what, I think, made it seem so impressive at the time generally. But sometimes it seems there's no pleasing casual gamers. Lack of games was the reason people ignored the very powerful Saturn in favour of the PlayStation and yet in 1999/2000, no amount of great games on the Dreamcast mattered in the face of the oh so amazing "Emotion Engine". Ugh

There are a lot of reasons, including the realease of both the PS2 and Xbox but this one line at E3 was the ultimate nail in the coffin. "Saturn is not our future"

[QUOTE="Menalque2"]

[QUOTE="famicommander"][QUOTE="TrooperManaic"]When dreamcast came out I wanted it BADLY. I played the sonic adventure demo in store which happens to be sonics last great game before FAIL! I believe that dreamcast also had better graphics then PS2 but didnt have the games to back it up. Sad because the best times I ever had on a console happens to be a Sega and a sega dreamcast.SciFiCat

One big difference I tend to notice between the two is the PS2's ability to generate reflective surfaces. Something I never ever saw in a Dreamcast game. The lighting in the PS2's first generation games was what, I think, made it seem so impressive at the time generally. But sometimes it seems there's no pleasing casual gamers. Lack of games was the reason people ignored the very powerful Saturn in favour of the PlayStation and yet in 1999/2000, no amount of great games on the Dreamcast mattered in the face of the oh so amazing "Emotion Engine". Ugh

I'm not sure how true that story about the 3D technology being thrown into the Saturn at the last minute is. All I know is that, 3D system or not, it could have done A LOT better if Sega of America hadn't been such idiots wrecklessly marketing the Saturn (not to mention creating the 32X). And contrary to popular belief, the Saturn's launch line-up wasjust as good, if not better, than the PlayStation's. It had Astal, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter, where the only ones I remember for the PS1 were Ridge Racer, Twisted Metal, cheap VF rip-off Tekken and the mediocre Battle Arena Toshinden. The Saturn's potential was staggering compared to how hopeless the Dreamcast's situation was from the beginning and yet they blew it in so many different ways. They effectively lied about the launch date, angering retailers and consumers and sold it at an unreasonably hefty price. The little advertising it received was mostly silly anti-PlayStation mudslinging. Their next huge mistake was hiring ex-SCEA exec Bernie Stolar who would then implement a strict policy on shooters, fighting games and RPG's and even refused to have something as mainstream as Dead or Alive localised. If that wasn't bad enough, people in the industry are said to have found him insufferable and impossible to work with and blamed him for the lack of support the Saturn got in the West. The final nail in the Saturn's coffin was Stolar announcing in 1997 "Saturn is not our future" in reference to the upcoming Dreamcast. Sales for the system plummeted from that point on.

So I disagree that the Saturn had been misjudged from the getgo. It was a system tailored to cutting edge gaming and had every reason to do well until the 32X and the US launch came along. I'm not putting all of the blame on Sega of America though. The fact that Sega's head office never held them to account just shows how indecisive and weak their leadership was becoming.

I believe SEGA failed because of Bernie Stolar

- He insulted his current hardware at E3
- He wouldn't bring over popular Japanese game because he thought Americans wouldn't like it
- Said No one wants to play RPGs
- Made joke about Tekken causing NAMCO to make TEKKEN an PS2 exclusive

despa1r_fact0r

I agree. This seemed to contribute a large portion of SEGA's fall.

But I can't believe no one has mentioned the fact that SEGA failed to release a real Sonic game for the Saturn.

At the time, (and after $300 of my Mom's hard earned money) that was like a stab in the back...or maybe in the face.

Either way, it seemed pretty hard to recover from that F-up.

And contrary to popular belief, the Saturn's launch line-up wasjust as good, if not better, than the PlayStation's. It had Astal, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter, where the only ones I remember for the PS1 were Ridge Racer, Twisted Metal, cheap VF rip-off Tekken and the mediocre Battle Arena Toshinden.

Menalque2

Actually, Saturn was released early as part of a 'surprise release', which as it turns out, was not such a great idea.

Launch titles, via Wikipedia:

Saturn U.S. launch: May, 1995

• Virtua Fighter
• Panzer Dragoon
• Daytona USA

PlayStation U.S. launch: September 9, 1995

• Battle Arena Toshinden
• ESPN Extreme Games
• Kileak - The DNA Imperative
• NBA JAM Tournament Edition
• Power Serve 3D Tennis
• Raiden Project
• Rayman
• Ridge Racer
• Street Fighter: The Movie
• Total Eclipse Turbo

Sega failed because of a serious lack of funds and a general lack of confidence in their own product the DC. Early DC games were easily on par with early ps2 titles but sonys hype machine convinced the general public their machine was vastly superior despite the actual games failing to completely wow people.

Im convinced that if Sega had stuck in the game they could have made a bigger impact in the business against the opposition, all it would have taken is confidence in ur own product and the DC really was a great machine.

Titles and peripherals like Sega Bass Fishing with its rod controller were very cool and ground breakin games like Jet Set Radio which started the whole cell shading theme, if that wasnt enough it had completely unique games like Seaman, the like of which have never been seen since on any other format.

Even with all that Sega felt they couldnt compete against sony so they rolled over and surrendered before the fight ever really got goin.