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Originally they claimed piracy on and lack of sales for the move however the bottom line was that it was just more economically feasible for them to become cross platform software developers rather than try to compete with Sony and Microsoft's entrance into the gaming market.
Probably a very smart move. It's only Nintendo's innovations that have kept them competetive in the game industry. If they'd kept going down the GameCube path my guess is they'd have a much smaller market than they do now.
Don't worry though, they are still making hardware... well Sega is, it's just you won't know it's them unless you own an arcade parlour :)
The gaming war started with Atari 2600, made in 1972. Nintendo came in With the NES in 1975. in 1986, Sega introduced The Mastersystem. With Sony working on the Playstation, sombody had to go. That somebody was Sega. The Jaguar Was Atari's last system. So why Atari AND Sega dropped out of the gaming war, I know not.BIG6TO6
Atari bit the dust in a lot of ways.
1. NES whipped all Atari systems at the time.
2. TurboGraphx 16 didn't have the support of 3rd parties, had poor first party titles, and the Genesis and SNES really were THAT much better.
3. Jaguar was horrible. Came out too early and focused more on games with full motion video than polygonal games like on the Playstation, N64 and Saturn.
4. Atari also took a HUGE hit from the videogame crash during the arcade era. It didn't have the kind of money it originally had at its peak (which was A LOT).
Sega bit the dust in the following ways
1. Too many add-ons for the Genesis. Sega 32x and CD were not needed. (wasted money by Sega).
2. Saturn was extremely hard to program for, so it never could get momentum. Also, the lack of a true Sonic title (this is when Sonic was the king of games) really hurt. 3rd parties left it to die.
3. The Dreamcast is actually misunderstood. It sold 10million plus. It had better graphics, good online for the time, and had a huge support of devs and good games. But between piracy and the lack of a DVD player, it couldn't compete in Japan with the PS2. Had the Dreamcast had a DVD player, we'd be having a different conversation.
4. With the Dreamcast having some woes in Japan, the U.S market was the only one left. But between Nintendo, Sony and now a well known American company in Microsoft all coming with new consoles, they decided the money wasted to compete could be money well saved and put to game development.
The downfall of the arcades in the west hurt SEGA a great deal. Even since the late days of the Saturn, a lot of the arcade genres that once were considered the predominant genres in gaming began to be considered "niche" in the west. Even worse, they began to be considered sub-par and lacking in content compared to console or PC games. And you can easily notice that became the general point of view in the review scores the media gave to a lot of arcade game ports, that in spite being exellent, they still got average scores at best, because according to them they were lacking in content and lasting value. Something that to me it just doesn't make any sense.
Nowadays the big Japanese arcade companies like SEGA, NAMCO and TAITO hardly ever get to bring something outside of Japan. So given the current situation, I really don't think SEGA could've mantained another console, since the company has always relied in their strong arcade hits.
And by the way, the NAOMI (the arcade counterpart of the Dreamcast, although most people ingore it had twice the amount of main memory and graphics memory that Dreamcast) was one of the company's most successful hardware, unlike the Dreamcast.
Your facts are a bit off. The Atari 2600, or Atari VCS as it was originally know, came out in 1977. Making it the third system released of the second console generation (Fairchild Channel F and RCA Studio II both came out months prior). Nintendo's first home system was also released in 1977, but that was a pong-clone called the Color TV game. The Famicom came out in 1983, and then its western counterpart (NES) was released in late 1985. Master System was originally launched in the form of the Sega Mark III in 1985.
$$$$$$$. As with everything to do with business, money reasons. After the Atari 2600, every Atari console failed, eventually Atari was bought by Infogrames, which decided to keep the Atari name to sell games in America. The Atari you see today isn't the same Atari from the past.
With SEGA, they made many horrible business decisions after the Genesis was released. SEGA wasted alot of R&D money on failed projects after they got money from sales of the Genesis. SEGA CD, 32X, SEGA VR, etc. the lists goes on with a bunch of projects. Because they were losing so much money, SEGA decided to put all their eggs in one basket, so when the Saturn was released, SEGA decided to cut support to all their older systems including the Genesis and the recently released 32X. This completely destroyed consumer confidence in SEGA and the Saturn failed in the marketplace. With the Dreamcast, SEGA was still losing money. SEGA spent $70 million to make Shenmue and even if every Dreamcast owner bought the game, SEGA still would've lost money. So SEGA decided to cut their losses and get into the 3rd-party business. Eventually SEGA was bought by Sammy.
All the big titles in the day that I was aware of were on Saturn and Dreamcast, in Capcom's case I would say they gave them amazing support. Most people said that the saturn version of almost every fighting game was always better than PS, DC had a non stop bombardment in good titles through it's life span and if you compare it's amount of huge titles for it's life span you would be hard pressed to find something better.
From what I understand the beginning of the end for Sega's console division was the suprise launch of the Saturn, which in addition to being a suprise to the public was also a suprise to several developers and retailers who were in business with Sega at the time. One doesn't need a Harvard Business School degree to realize what a stupid move that was.
I would guess there are several more reasons, it would probably be beneficial to search youtube. I'm willing to bet that somebody has a solid and well researched documentary on the history of Sega there.
Although the U.S. release of the Sega Saturn was the biggest embarrassment for Sega, the Saturn did really well in Japan. I would say it's my favorite console of all time next to the Sega Master System and then Dreamcast following it.From what I understand the beginning of the end for Sega's console division was the suprise launch of the Saturn, which in addition to being a suprise to the public was also a suprise to several developers and retailers who were in business with Sega at the time. One doesn't need a Harvard Business School degree to realize what a stupid move that was.
I would guess there are several more reasons, it would probably be beneficial to search youtube. I'm willing to bet that somebody has a solid and well researched documentary on the history of Sega there.
Second_Rook
right someone said what I've thought for a long time Sega didn't die it evolved into Xbox.
dovberg
That was obviously Sega's thinking early on, given the fact that they choose to continue the Shenmue and Jet Set Radio series on the Xbox. (Big mistake there.)
I never understood why they chose to give up on the dreamcast halfway through its lifespan. Its sales didn't seem that bad (like 11 million or so from 99-02) Just seemed odd to me.
magnax1
Because more than half of those 10 million units were sold at bargain-bin prices (US/EU) or were refurbished units (Japan), and they were sold after the system was discontinued. If the Dreamcast had actually sold like that during that timespan, then the system wouldn't have been discontinued in the first place.
And by the way, it was the American division who discontinued the Dreamcast, and right afterwards didn't wanted to know anything more about it or about another SEGA console. That's why the American userbase didn't got to see some of the late DC games that were eventually released on other systems, like Shenmue II and REZ.
[QUOTE="dovberg"]right someone said what I've thought for a long time Sega didn't die it evolved into Xbox.
ThePlothole
That was obviously Sega's thinking early on, given the fact that they choose to continue the Shenmue and Jet Set Radio series on the Xbox. (Big mistake there.)
From what I understand they were conned to it by Peter Moore, who later defected to Microsoft. As president of SoA, he sold the publishing rights for Shenmue II in the US to MS, and convinced "some" overseas staff to develop games for the Xbox.
That's certainly not what SEGA was thinking.
Ah, okay. Well either way the lackluster sales on the Xbox seems to have sealed the fates of these two wonderful franchises.
um sony didnt start workin on ps1 til n64 era came
-and you are so wrong in almost any way possible
the real reason sega couldnt do it no more isnt because the competitors at least the way you put it
they were actually at their own fault because
when the released the genesis it was popular at least enough to call it a success sega tried making the system last by releasing un neccasary add-ons instead of releasing the saturn which they did a yr later to late,
because no one trusted sega after the add-ons enough sega actually had to pull the plug on saturn early because retailers like kb toys stopped carring sega products and the gg was already destined to fail ,
then they went ahead released sega dreamcast which did alright until ps2 arrived,
and they could not handle it it was when nintendo and microft launched their consoles or announced them launch dates sega pulled the plug as a result you know crazy taxi was among many sega titles in the gc launch and xbox launch window so ya, the real answer lies within segas bad decision making over seas and in america ps2 n64 etc only added more pain to segas wallet,
and i hate to bust the one who said dc became xbox because of all the sega titles -only 3 before sonic heroes of course
--the gamecube had more titles available from sega then ps2 or xbox ,
this would include
crazy taxi-ps2 gc
sonic adventuer 2-gc
sonic dx-which is the first sonic adventure-gc
sonic mega collection initally exclusive to gc but got revamped xbox ps2 ports
sonic mega gems collection-gc ps2
sonic heroes-gc xbox ps2-the first officail multiplat sonic title that was not a remake of any kind
shadow the hedghog -ps2 gc xbox
pso online series 1-3 -gc only
xbox exclusive games include
sega gt2002/jsrf combodisc-includied in xmas 2002 walmart bundle
amped -available as stand alone or again a xmas 2002 bundle by walmart only the first one was available everywhere to my knowledge
amped 2-these are all new games by sega not dc etc ports
crazy taxi 3-excluding the pc version of course
and the jet set radio future and sega gt2002 stand alones
there was also a upgraded sega gt 2002 wit online
so ya thats all the xbox recieved from sega exclusively
um sony didnt start workin on ps1 til n64 era came
mariokart64fan
Wrong. Sony started working on the PlayStation during the SNES era, after Nintendo terminated the contract with them to create a CD add-on for the aforementioned system to compete with the SegaCD (an addon which would have ironically been called "Nintendo PlayStation"). The Sony PlayStation was ultimately released more than a year before the N64.
Hmmm? No. The PS2 had a whole lot more SEGA games than the GC and the Xbox combined.--the gamecube had more titles available from sega then ps2 or xbox ,
mariokart64fan
[QUOTE="mariokart64fan"]um sony didnt start workin on ps1 til n64 era came
ThePlothole
Wrong. Sony started working on the PlayStation during the SNES era, after Nintendo terminated the contract with them to create a CD add-on for the aforementioned system to compete with the SegaCD (an addon which would have ironically been called "Nintendo PlayStation"). The Sony PlayStation was ultimately released more than a year before the N64.
the console was going to be stand alone in plans and to be released in 1992. the addon however was thought of before it releasedHmmm? No. The PS2 had a whole lot more SEGA games than the GC and the Xbox combined.[QUOTE="mariokart64fan"]
--the gamecube had more titles available from sega then ps2 or xbox ,
Panzer_Zwei
You sure? Gamecube had a lot of Dreamcast ports.
Also, would it be worth it too buy an old Saturn? The console never seemed to get a whole lot of support, and I don't really know a whole lot about it. I had a friend who had it and didn't really like it much, so I never even thought about it until recently.
Hmmm? No. The PS2 had a whole lot more SEGA games than the GC and the Xbox combined.[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]
[QUOTE="mariokart64fan"]
--the gamecube had more titles available from sega then ps2 or xbox ,
magnax1
You sure? Gamecube had a lot of Dreamcast ports.
Also, would it be worth it too buy an old Saturn? The console never seemed to get a whole lot of support, and I don't really know a whole lot about it. I had a friend who had it and didn't really like it much, so I never even thought about it until recently.
Yes, of course I'm sure. They released a whole lot more software on the PS2.As for the SS, it is an excellent system, but you should research first if you can get the games you want for the system.
[QUOTE="magnax1"]
[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]Hmmm? No. The PS2 had a whole lot more SEGA games than the GC and the Xbox combined.
Panzer_Zwei
You sure? Gamecube had a lot of Dreamcast ports.
Also, would it be worth it too buy an old Saturn? The console never seemed to get a whole lot of support, and I don't really know a whole lot about it. I had a friend who had it and didn't really like it much, so I never even thought about it until recently.
Yes, of course I'm sure. They released a whole lot more software on the PS2.As for the SS, it is an excellent system, but you should research first if you can get the games you want for the system.
I don't know much about it though. What are some of the best games?
Yes, of course I'm sure. They released a whole lot more software on the PS2.[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]
[QUOTE="magnax1"]
You sure? Gamecube had a lot of Dreamcast ports.
Also, would it be worth it too buy an old Saturn? The console never seemed to get a whole lot of support, and I don't really know a whole lot about it. I had a friend who had it and didn't really like it much, so I never even thought about it until recently.
magnax1
As for the SS, it is an excellent system, but you should research first if you can get the games you want for the system.
I don't know much about it though. What are some of the best games?
There's a whole lot of them, really. However, the best games for the system were for the most part Japanese exlusive releases on one side. On the other side, a lot of games that were actually released in the west have gone up in price substantially. So the import scene is the way to go with the SS.
I know another reason why the Dreamcast died is that it had the worst possible pirating issues. You could literally just burn a game onto a CD and play it on a dreamcast without any modifications. I don't know how a huge company like Sega could let something like that slip through so easily.
Actually they tried like hell to avoid it. That's why they put their games on GD-Roms rather than CD-Roms. But those crafty pirates figured a way around it. And you don't have to just burn a cd, there is one more step to it, but I won't mention what that step is, for I fear of the ban-hammer if I do so.I know another reason why the Dreamcast died is that it had the worst possible pirating issues. You could literally just burn a game onto a CD and play it on a dreamcast without any modifications. I don't know how a huge company like Sega could let something like that slip through so easily.
magnax1
[QUOTE="magnax1"]Actually they tried like hell to avoid it. That's why they put their games on GD-Roms rather than CD-Roms. But those crafty pirates figured a way around it. And you don't have to just burn a cd, there is one more step to it, but I won't mention what that step is, for I fear of the ban-hammer if I do so.I know another reason why the Dreamcast died is that it had the worst possible pirating issues. You could literally just burn a game onto a CD and play it on a dreamcast without any modifications. I don't know how a huge company like Sega could let something like that slip through so easily.
Emerald_Warrior
Well I don't know exactly how it works, but I know that its extremely simple, especially compared to most systems where you have to do hardware mods. I had a room mate that just bought a dreamcast and some CD roms and was basically able to burn any game without modification, which I thought was insane.
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