SEEEGAAAAAA!
Sega has been around for over half a century, starting with arcade games like Periscope in 1966, before hit arcades such as Hang-On and Out Run helped with their financial woes. But many would remember Sega for its well known console, the Sega Genesis, and the blue bomber himself Sonic, that would take Sega to the stratosphere of recognition. Through an aggressive marketing campaign, endorsements by popular celebrities, intense negotiation among peers, and the will to challenge against a gaming giant, Sega has proven that with determination and grit, anything is possible. Even after its downfall in consoles by the start of the new millennium, Sega is still around pumping out popular games such as Yakuza, Persona, and Super Monkey Ball, and of course Sonic himself. Still there are certain things that Sega may want you to forget along the way, some embarrassing moments to question how they are still around today. These are the top ten things Sega would like you to forget.
10.) The Dreamcast final years
I will admit this, I actually do love the Sega Dreamcast! A combination of what made PlayStation and the N64 great, it has a good collection of games, like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, the 2K sport series, a couple of great 1st party games, and possibly the best line up of fighting games. However, what Sega possibly would like you to forget is how quickly faded away thanks to the impending arrival of the PlayStation 2. Despite how well the Sega Dreamcast perform with their graphics and gameplay, interactive Visual Memory Unit aka a Tamagotchi style memory card, ability to go online and their success with Phantasy Star Online, and unique use of hardware like the keyboard and fishing stick, Sega Dreamcast inability to compete with Sony’s PS2 hardware, backwards compatibility, and ability to play DVD films spell the doom for the Sega Dreamcast. Sega attempted to lower the pricing and offer up rebates for the Dreamcast but it caused more harm than good for the Sega company and after its discontinuation in 2001, Sega has not looked into doing any more gaming consoles since then, marking the Dreamcast as the final console Sega has ever created. Although the Dreamcast does still get content released for their console, it’s apparent that the PS2 became the Sega Killer once again.
9.) Allowing Tonka to market the Sega Master system.
Sega recently celebrated their 66th anniversary, something that is surprising to some since many would consider Sega’s popularity around the Sega Genesis era. Aside from creating arcade games in the past, Sega took a crack at home consoles beginning with the Master System, released both in Japan and the US, well before the release of the Sega Genesis. Although Nintendo had a stronghold in the gaming industry, Sega did their best to capitalize on Nintendo’s success by venturing to the west. But what Sega may want you to forget is that Sega once gave their distribution rights to Tonka.
Sega wanted to follow the same business practice Nintendo had done with their NES by marketing the Sega Master System as a toy and not as an electronic device. Tonka, a toy manufacturer that is mostly known for Construction Trucks and Pick Up Trucks, had no clue how to market or advertise a gaming console and even blocked some popular titles from Japan to the western audiences. This, along with Nintendo having a strong hold of the gaming industry’s 3rd party company forced Sega to repurchase distribution rights from Tonka 2 years after selling it and the Master System would slowly fade away to make way with the Sega Genesis.
8.) The Sega Nomad performance
During the early 90’s, we had an interesting competition with not only the consoles but handheld systems as well, between Nintendo’s Gameboy and Sega’s Game Gear. While Nintendo opted to focus more on handheld games, Sega boldly decided to bring in a portable device that would play Sega Genesis games, and thus the Sega Nomad is created, giving those who owned Sega Genesis games a chance to take it with them wherever they go. While it was a great way to allow those with Sega Genesis to keep their games and purchase other Sega products, the device itself had several issues. For starters, the price was at a whopping $179, nearly the same pricing as home consoles and double the price of the Gameboy at that time. It could only play games for just 4 hours on 6 AA Batteries compared to the Gameboy's 4 AA for nearly 30 hours. And the screen was small enough to cause trouble with motion blur and making some games difficult to play. I also forgot to mention that it can only play most of Sega Genesis games, as it was not compatible with other add-on devices, so no Sega-CD, 32X, or Master System. Most consumers would avoid the Sega Nomad, opting for the Gameboy or Gameboy Pocket the following year, with the eventual release of the popular Pokémon Game. And with really no other game to support the Nomad instead of Sega Genesis games, The Sega Nomad would eventually fade away 4 years later, ironically enough the same year as Majesco’s Sega Genesis was discounted.
7.) EA reverse engineer the Sega Genesis
Looks like the E in EA stands for Easy, as EA managed to do something that made Sega look like fools. During the late 80’s and early 90’s, companies were at their best to trademark their games and have contracts set to ensure no one would manage to utilize or or hack their devices for their own use and no gaming company does this better than with Nintendo and their lucrative contact. So when the opportunity came, EA went on behind Sega’s back and managed to reverse engineer the Sega Genesis to create their own cartridges, boxes, and manuals in order to sell to the public. When Sega caught wind of what was going on, their hands were pretty much tied. Although Sega did manage to strike a deal with EA to create exclusive games on the Sega Genesis, such as the Joe Montana and the Madden Series, Road Rash, and Jungle Strike, had this gone unchecked and other companies catching on it would have spelled disastrous for Sega, especially on the SOA side as other companies would make an effort to try and reverse engineer the Sega Genesis much like EA had done and sell off games on the Genesis which may cause lost revenue for Sega itself. It may also spark a legal battle with Nintendo in terms of unfair practices among the two major companies and those who hacked the Genesis.
6.) The Sega Channel
The Sega Channel was not a bad idea at all. The idea of downloading games onto your console from the internet and playing them was pretty revolutionary, and something no one has thought of unless you own a PC of course. Unfortunately it was ahead of its time. Too ahead. The Sega Channel was released in 1994 for the Sega Genesis. At that time, Sega was falling traction, thanks to the introduction of the ESRB rating system, Nintendo picking up steam with Super Metroid, the Super Gameboy and Donkey Kong Country, and the inevitable arrival of the Sony PlayStation, as well as the internal struggle of power between SOA and SOJ. It was a major fumble on Sega’s part since the Sega Saturn didn’t really have anything sparking major interest in their lineup other than a possibility of a Sonic game, and that the Genesis was about 6 years old at that time, well past its shelf lifespan.
Sega could have the opportunity to give audience an option to play classical Sega Genesis games on the Saturn, especially after the huge mic drop Sony gave at the first E3, but instead choose to have the Sega Channel be accessible through the Sega Genesis up until 1998, in the middle of next generation of consoles between Sony and Nintendo.
5.) Hatsune Miku was considered replacing Sonic as Sega’s mascot
Now this is embarrassing for Sega. It’s as if Nintendo had Ronald McDonald’s as the mascot or Sony going with former President Barack Obama instead of Kevin Butler to promote their games and hardware. Sega at one point really, really missed the mark about caring for their own company. So much so that, at one point, Hatsune Miku was considered as the mascot for Sega! If you don’t know, Hatsune Miku is a vocaloid, a fictional animated character mostly known for performing songs and owned by Crypton Future Media. She has been popular especially in the mid 2000’s and has been seen on several commercials and concerts all over the world.
Hatsune Miku did have several games released on Sega which isn’t bad, however, consider at that time Sega did have one of their most iconic characters mistreated, and we will get to that, younger audiences and, even at some point, older generations have felt that Sega has gone off to a new direction and have abandoned Sonic in favor for someone they didn’t create. But now that Sonic’s popularity has risen back thanks to some good games and films, Sega would like you to forget the idea of changing of the face of the company from a popular hero to a pop star idol.
4.) Sega CD and Sega 32X
Sega attempted to prolong the life of the Sega Genesis by introducing two new add-ons in an effort to enhance the gaming experience with the Sega CD. Now putting in an add-on isn’t bad at all, just look at Nintendo with the power pad and zapper gun or PlayStation and the Multi-tap. However, there were two major flaws when it came to this business practice. One was that these were expensive add-ons, ranging around 170 dollars each to connect to the Sega Genesis. The second was that they provided little to nothing in terms of gameplay experience and performance. Let’s start off with the Sega CD, which is mostly known for bringing us the controversial game, Night Trap, a game that centers around cheesy 80’s horror style games where players would decide the fate of young female adults being attacked by alien creatures. Now there are some good uses of the Sega CD, allowing for FMV cutscenes, especially anime games, but doesn’t really offer much in terms of gameplay experience, especially with the likes of Power Rangers, Slam City, or Prize Fighter. Then there is the 32X that is just an add-on on top of the Sega Genesis, and boy did some games have some poor limitations, either by sound, gameplay, graphics, levels, or all of the above. And there are some games that require both devices which made the Sega Genesis, a once proud console in its own rights, a deprived Digimon Evolution. What made things worse was that Sega had announced a new console on the horizon, dubbed Project Neptune which would later become the Sega Saturn, so all these add-ons were for nothing in the grand scheme of things, being around for as long as 2 years.
3.) Sega Saturn in the US
Sega Saturn was a console that could have kept Sega going in a newly evolved console war that included Sony PlayStation and an impending new Nintendo Console. It managed to port some of Sega’s best arcade games and was considered the better console for fighting games and other multiple port games for how powerful the console is. However, things took a dire turn just right off the gate with the Sega Saturn. For starters, there were no Sonic games on the initial release of the Sega Saturn making fans wait a full year for a Sonic game to be released. Instead, games such as Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighters, and arcade games were released on the initial start but none that really caught audiences attention. Sega would release Nights a year later as their next major title for the Sega Saturn, and although Nights was a good game, it wasn’t a Sonic game that fans have been anticipating for. Also, SOJ (Sega of Japan) didn’t give SOA (Sega of America) enough resources to help promote Nights, stating that it was up to SOA to promote the games that were brought to them while SOJ created them. Speaking of SOJ, their involvement on deciding the pricing and when the console is release prominently hurt the console performance more and handed Sony the keys to decimating Sega in its debut at the first E3 convention. Sega Saturn’s initial price tag at $399 and released one month early in May with little to no promotion at all spelt doom before the race could even begin, prompting confusion over Sega’s decision to release one of their most anticipated consoles without knowledge to the public. Their reason was to get a head start of Sony’s upcoming console, the PlayStation, in hopes of having some revenue. Sony immediately obliterated the Saturn during Sony’s E3 presentation, promising to have high quality performance, better graphics, and top of the line 1st and 3rd party games, and above all else a lower price tag of $299. The Saturn could not recover from this, and although the Saturn did have a surge thanks to a new mascot for Japan, it wasn’t the same for the US and plans were soon scrapped for the impending release of the Sega Dreamcast. The Saturn wasn’t really a bad console at all and did have interesting games, but because of how poorly managed Sega did with the Saturn in other parts of the country not named Japan, it’s easy to see how many would have forgotten the Saturn around the time of its lifespan when you had Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 around popping out more fun, entertaining, and dare I say better promoted games than what Sega did.
2.) The Mistreatment of Sonic
In 1991, Sega had their golden goose, their biggest character that would become the face of the company, the one that would rival Nintendo’s Mario and challenge the mega uber company for supremacy in the gaming industry, Sonic The Hedgehog. Sonic immediately took the world by storm, easily becoming an instant icon, and highly recognizable by anyone who even didn’t know about video games. There were toys made of him, apparel and footwear, and three different cartoon series. Sega could do no wrong with the blue bomber. For over 10 years, Sonic was the center of the attention of the Sega Universe, releasing about 4 games on the Sega Genesis, a couple of interesting gems on the Sega Saturn days, and its triumphant entrance into the 3D realm during the Sega Dreamcast era. Even if you take into account the Sonic games in other consoles during the 7th generation (PS2, GameCube, Xbox) and handhelds, Sonic was properly taken care of until the release of Sonic ‘06 that has led to some cracks with the Sonic franchise’s reputation. The team struggled to recapture the glory Sonic once had in the 90’s with mediocre games such as Sonic Unleashed and Sonic and the Black Knight.
Although Sonic was still popular with nostalgic fans, it wasn’t until the Sonic Boom series that led to Sonic’s disastrous downfall, where Sega took liberty to reimagine Sonic and the cast to offer up stereotypical personality and design. Now I’m not saying that the series was that bad, but rather one game has helped shatter the respect from Sonic fans and gamers everywhere and that is Sonic Boom: Rise of the Lyric. A bugging, technically difficult, uninspiring game that has been universally trashed by nearly all reviewers and fans of the series. It became so bad, many have forgotten that Sonic was the mascot of the company and has seen Hatsune Miku as the mascot instead. It took the team nearly 10 years to finally have a strong release of games such as Team Sonic Racing, Sonic Origins, and their latest release Sonic Frontiers that helped revitalize their trust in the Sonic franchise, as well as a trio of big feature films of the same name to keep the spirit of Sonic alive. Yet it is a sad run that over a decade, a company would treat their best character, the one that helps build the company, into a cash cow rather than keeping the love of the series just like they did in the past.
1.) US vs Japan
It baffles me that two different regions would create an unnecessary Civil War, when the whole premise of a gaming company should be simple: collaborate with one another, make outstanding games, market outstanding games, turn it to profit. Rinse and Repeat. Yet here we are about 25 years later of what could have been. Sega of America was prominently created to help push games made from Sega of Japan to the American audience with little to no success given the time and era they were in. It wasn’t until a shift in management with Sega of America that things started to change. SOA made efforts to help change Sega and push them to the top of gaming companies in the world while SOJ put their efforts to take full control of the decisions and game making and ignored SOA ideas and plans. The influx of ego between both companies caused a needless civil war among the company themselves, and despite Sega’s success in the 90’s, would ultimately spell its doom by the time the fifth generation of gaming consoles would be released. SOA change in hierarchy, understanding of the American audience, and ambitious drive to prove to be better than Nintendo helped elevated Sega as a recognizable gaming industry we know today, while SOJ innovation of creating games, such as Sonic series, Virtual Fighters, Phantasy Star Series, and few others created nostalgic moments were the high points of Sega being seen as equal to Nintendo or even better. However, the lack of SOA looking into the future a relying more on the Genesis and SOJ forcing a change in management of SOA and giving little resources to help with future consoles became the nail in the coffin of the Console Wars between Sega and Nintendo which, oddly enough, have Sony putting Sega out of business of making consoles and relegating to porting games on different consoles as well.
