What if SEGA still made consoles?

[rosemarymenace]

They'd probably have doubled down on online connectivity and network features just like they did with the dreamcast

 

[Zerpina]

I like to think that they really would've RAN with the Dreamcast's VMU concept in the future. Iterating on it to include new features - could've worked as a pedometer, like the Pokewalker - and passive wireless communication like the 3DS streetpass feature. Taking your chao out for a walk; training with each of your real world steps; exchanging gifts with other SEGA heads out in the wide world. I think that could've been cute!

It very well could have Evolved into a full-fledged handheld. Like the Wounderswan or such

 

[Somnia]

They probably would have made a system to rival the PS3 in terms of featureset and general ambition, but beyond that I can't say I have much faith that they would have dodged any of the pitfalls that Micrsoft and Sony ran into when it came to making the 8th and 9th generation as lackluster as they have been. Just feels like the industry shifted and homogenized in such a way that unless they went with core console gimmicks to stand out like Nintendo, they'd just be another generic box that functions as little more than a PC-lite.

 

[pl1sk1n]

I like to think that they really would've RAN with the Dreamcast's VMU concept in the future. Iterating on it to include new features - could've worked as a pedometer, like the Pokewalker - and passive wireless communication like the 3DS streetpass feature. Taking your chao out for a walk; training with each of your real world steps; exchanging gifts with other SEGA heads out in the wide world. I think that could've been cute!

This sounds like a mod you could start!

 

[RashFaustinho]

Sega Neptune would have happened

 

[Zerpina]

Sega Neptune would have happened


View attachment 10271

 

[moonbits]

I used to daydream to bring back SEGA full force into the console market.

 

[MemeAlert]

Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 disagree

I was talking about starting with Sonic Heroes (which I don't hate) 3D Sonic wasn't that great hence why I said "Seeing that they sucked at making Sonic games on better consoles" as in the Gamecube & PS2 especially when Sonic Adventure DX isn't a great port.

Post automatically merged: Jan 10, 2025

**Hot Take**

They only sucked later gen after the mega drive / genesis, if Yuji during the Saturn days focused his craft to bring sonic in to 3D rather then be a drama queen about his creation, which he stepped away from, then sonic would have turned out better imho.

Welp Yuji's wish to make other games gave us Balan and insider trading as his legacy now. *Cough sorry to say this, but Yuji gave so much disrespect to his fans by not continuing sonic when we needed it on the Saturn, as a result of that and Sega in fighting, they lost customer faith when they needed it most and damaged the brand imo. Yuji's failure to refine the character when it counted is why we get hit or miss stuff (06 and the like), rather then a more refine character.

I would argue that the Archie comics has did more to refined the character then him, and that's sad.

(not putting Archie comics legacy down from 90s to 2010s, they where good reads).

Why did you not love your child more Yuji?

WHy?....T_T

Sorry this cut deep for me..


Adventure 1 and 2 where ok, but it was a walking sim for the most part, and very linear compared to other sonic games imo, you must be able to see that at least.

loved adventure and saw the potential of Sonic in the 3d space with it, but it lost allot of what made the 2d so good (multiple paths, hidden areas and items), allot was established with the 2d versions of the game.

Character? Pretty sure Sonic suck because his games weren't that polish, not because of Sonic's characterization. Even then there were Sonic games after 06 that had the same problem. It was poor management and lack of advertisement that lead the Saturn's downfall not Yuji Naka because I'm pretty sure whenever I hear about the Saturn it was its great games like NiGHTS, Burning Ranger, Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon & Radiant Silvergun because lets be real...there are other Sega games other than Sonic.

 

[pl1sk1n]

I was talking about starting with Sonic Heroes (which I don't hate) 3D Sonic wasn't that great hence why I said "Seeing that they sucked at making Sonic games on better consoles" as in the Gamecube & PS2 especially when Sonic Adventure DX isn't a great port.

Post automatically merged: Jan 10, 2025

Character? Pretty sure Sonic suck because his games weren't that polish, not because of Sonic's characterization. Even then there were Sonic games after 06 that had the same problem. It was poor management and lack of advertisement that lead the Saturn's downfall not Yuji Naka because I'm pretty sure whenever I hear about the Saturn it was its great games like NiGHTS, Burning Ranger, Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon & Radiant Silvergun because lets be real...there are other Sega games other than Sonic.

Who is saying Sonic was the biggest factor? And the games you mention where great, but niche.

The point is not Sonic, the point is the Saturn brand, which Yuji Naka did not support with his creation sonic, hence mine and allot of peoples complaint! This and other factors costed the Saturn and that spilled over to effect the Dreamcast.

Having other games besides sonic does not mean they will be console sellers, remember there are allot of consoles out there, but without their premier games, they still fail. In each case, you still have niche titles and the like which are lorded often later after the fact, when the console is already dead and gone. But in the short term, during the consoles life cycle, hit titles need to move consoles and allow the them in that generation to reach a wider audience and make more money for the company.

Titles which sold more consoles in each generation during early / late 90s and mid 2000s.

Mascot titles (sonic, Mario, etc..)
Sports games

Console sellers in recent generations:

Looter shooters like fortnight
Mascot titles
Sports titles (not so much since 2014 as its copy paste which people are now sick of).

Personally, beyond mascot titles like Sonic and Mario, i purchased games such as RPGs. Fighters and anything with a good story, but i am the minority. I Am not a fan boy by no means, but to ignore the sales of the Saturn in the west would be lying to myself.

You mention Burning Rangers and Panzer dragoon, grate games, did they carry the console, no! Could they have help? Yes, did Sega bother with them in the west fully? No!

The point. damaged done, faith lost and all the problems happened not because of Yjuji Naka alone, but he added to it!

Sorry for my bad English, i am hoping tone here is ok?

 

[SkoomaCatJesus]

Say the Dreamcast did really well and SEGA decided to make a successor for the 7th gen and subsequently the 8th and 9th gens. What do you think they would've called them, what would they look like, and what kind of features would they have to set them apart from their competition?

We got that. That was the Xbox and 360. But... Microsoft 'lost the magic.' SEGA had the magic, but got lost. If only SEGA could have taken it back after the 360. Yes, I think the bigger question is: what would SEGA have done with the post 360 Xbox brand when making the DC4? Microsoft's DC4 didn't turn out so good. It ended up being 'forgettable,' which happens to be the exact opposite problem SEGA has.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Hmmm... If i were Sega, i'd basically rip the pi and use that as a base:

Target say 500Mhz suggested speed target
128Mb of active memory
Interface/framework to handle 1 million sprites at the same time

While it's technically a 32bit system, it would target 16bit graphics, probably say 128 colors palette table, sprite size of 128x128 (transparency allowed, so png's likely used).

3D could be allowed... so it's sorta more like a heavily suped up PS1, but going sprite-only would be preferred, or having 3D on a second frame which would be used for background stuff.

edit: Oh, and probably 16 layers (which will then become a single image). (Background, 3-4 parallax layers, 4 player layers, 4 enemy layers including projectile and damage objects, and 1-3 layers for GUI...)

Probably target 800x600 or 1024x748 resolution...

 

[Auriiya]

Like the Saturn and Neptune would probably be sega Venus .world would be a better place.all shining force released new PSO on it it and PC .I can dream.

 

[Ikagura]

I had that headcanonical console called the "Sega Cyclone" that would've been a natural evolution of the Dreamcast (a cyclone is basically a spiral with two lines instead of one)

The logo would be similar but not entirely:

Since Sega would be in advance they would try at motion gaming and VR even before the Wii would get a release on top of continuing the online.

 

[Auriiya]

SEGA's unreleased 'Saturn 2' and The Dreamcast Story

Hiya, my first post here. I wanted to discuss the never-released 'Saturn 2' that was supposed to have been developed with Lockheed Martin Real3D technology. From Next Generation November 1995 (sister magazine of EDGE): 'Saturn 2' could've been a new console instead of Saturn or a quick...

arstechnica.com

A bit of history. The Saturn 2?
@Waffles

 

[Jeff]

The first thing would be Sony dissing the DVD add on to the PS2, second, tell Microsoft that three's s a crowd and have them not enter the gaming industry, then Sega would have a chance with the Dreamcast for 3 more years and then release a new console in 2004 and if Microsoft doesn't walk into the video game industry. However, this does not mean the games will be exclusive to the console, the games that did so well, will get ported to PC for those who could not afford Sega's console (Hence Sonic CD, Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast that got a PC port).

 

[Moreno909]

Finally, the SEGA GearCast

 

[INTIMIDAT3R]

SEGA shot themselves in the dick...plain and simple.

I was a SEGA fanatic since the Master System days. I STILL wish they would come back into the console business.

That being said... SEGA's downward spiral started with influx of Full Motion Video games on the SEGA CD and then the straw that broke the camel's back was when SEGA announced... "We will start making games for other consoles and continue making our own consoles. We believe this is a viable business model."

That combined with SEGA of Japan and SEGA if America constantly fighting didn't help matters either.

 

[Ikagura]

"We will start making games for other consoles and continue making our own consoles. We believe this is a viable business model."

I'd like to understand what this means.

 

[Mist64]

i know sega made smoothbrain business decisions which led to them failing and wasting their amazing engineers who were game minded, but sega has really never been as amazing and on the same level on the software side especially since they stopped manufacturing hardware. and they alongside the rest of the industry abandoned a portion of the game design sega helped pioneered in which is one of the reasons why these games are so distinct in being labelled as "retro". indie games are really the only ones now holding that torch.
theyve mentioned reboots of multiple IP, and i am hoping it turns out well but considering its still post dreamcast sega i wouldnt hold my breath for that lmao

 

[Klonoa7]

I’d like to imagine a company like Sega doing things their own way and ignoring the current trends of the competition:

Giving software developers enough time to actually finish a game where little to no game patches would be needed.

No games with pay to win or gacha dynamics.

Modern games with original ideas and not relying on ports and HD remakes.

Regarding names for new hardware you would have to get really creative. You can throw “Sega Galaxy” out since the Galaxy name is already used for phone hardware. You can’t call the new system “Sega 1, Sega 2”, etc. because that is unoriginal and would get old. But it would be nice if Sega were still around making hardware.

 

[Ikagura]

I still kinda wish Sega teamed up with Namco and SNK to make a great Arcade hardware like the Triforce.

Since we're keeping the lexical field of space we could even have consoles using star names like Mizar, Antarest and others.

 

[ThunderBoy]

 

[Moreno909]

SEGA could have competed in the 2000s at leats in the portable market releasing something like a updated Nomad. With some enchacements from the 32x it could be a minor competitor to the GBA, specially if Megadrive games were to be re-released on it. Like a portable Mega Drive (which the Nomad was). Unfortonately, it was released too early and only by SEGA of America. Japanese SEGA should have considered, specially because this was the market strategy behind the GBA, which is basically an portable, more powerful SNES

 

[PurpleShoes]

It's tough to say, really, but I think the gaming landscape as a whole would look a bit different for it.

People like to characterize the console wars as just dumb nerd rage, and that's certainly part of it, but it also comes from companies that had very different philosophies of game design. Sega games tended to be faster paced, less precise, instead focusing on reflexes. Sega games tend to be about getting a feel for how to move when things happen. Nintendo conversely made (and still do) more precise games that focus on teaching you skills and testing them. They tend to be more punishing, but I'd argue both styles are more fulfilling.
Sega and Nintendo fans were so at each other's throats because the types of games on their systems seemed lazy and weird to one another, and who could tell them they were wrong? Growing up on precise Mario, wherein you're taught to learn level layouts and your powerups are taken away for pushing forward, Sonic wherein you can stay alive as long as you have rings and random non-telegraphed enemies are thrown at you seems like lazy game design, and vice-versa.

It follows then that a modern Sega would continue to design modern games with this general grammar, but sticking to their arcade heritage like this would eventually spell their doom. For Sega to stay in the game, I think they'd have to pivot away from games like Crazy Taxi and ChuChu Rocket--at least a bit, somewhere in the early 2000s. Maybe we'd have an awful half decade of uber-edgy Sega adventure games. More optimistically, I like to imagine a Sega that flourished in the late-2000s retro game boom, making their name with a renaissance of 2D platformers. This Sega would really steal the show from XBLA and become the premier indie platform. Maybe even Nintendo wouldn't fully claim that title here!

Oh, also I'd be happily playing the DEATH CRIMSON REMASTERED TRILOGY YEAAAAHHHHH

 

[iPhone15Pro]

We got that. That was the Xbox and 360. But... Microsoft 'lost the magic.' SEGA had the magic, but got lost. If only SEGA could have taken it back after the 360. Yes, I think the bigger question is: what would SEGA have done with the post 360 Xbox brand when making the DC4? Microsoft's DC4 didn't turn out so good. It ended up being 'forgettable,' which happens to be the exact opposite problem SEGA has.

I was actually thinking something along the lines of this too actually !

Like I think in a way ... if SEGA kept making consoles ... would the Xbox still happen? Or would Microsoft still work with SEGA to make their future consoles ?

But yeah that kinda alt future haha
Mario and Sega would never be in the same games !