With or without Sega?

Even though Sega still makes games, there has been a huge void in the gaming industry ever since Sega stopped making consoles. There was something very special and awesome about Sega consoles and their exclusives, ever since the days of Genesis. Possibly more than any other video game company, I adore Sega and I only wish they were still a contender in the console business. Some of my fondest gaming memories and experiences were on Sega consoles playing Sega games, lol my user name should be evident of this.

Even though Sega still makes games, there has been a huge void in the gaming industry ever since Sega stopped making consoles. There was something very special and awesome about Sega consoles and their exclusives, ever since the days of Genesis. Possibly more than any other video game company, I adore Sega and I only wish they were still a contender in the console business. Some of my fondest gaming memories and experiences were on Sega consoles playing Sega games, lol my user name should be evident of this.

Shenmue_Jehuty

Gaming as an industry has changed very little since Sega left the market. Their only main role in the industry was to keep competition up for Nintendo to fight inflation and keep innovation chugging along. We have Microsoft and Sony for that now, and it's not like we lost good Sega games (despite what SOME people out there say, Generations is a phenomenally good Sonic game).

Sega's consoles were good, but only a few knew how to make good use of them (mostly Sega themselves).

And their arcade hardware was just awesome, far above the competition back in the old times.

I think their downfall as a hardware company started when they began to flood the market with senseless addons and systems (32X, Multi-Mega, Neptune, ect.) instead of focusing on the software.

They also did a lousy job advertising and supporting the Saturn (speaking about the US and EU regions).

Sega was only trully competitive in the 16-bit wars where they represented a force to be reckoned with.

But even that was mostly because of aggressive marketing where Nintendo fell a little short.

The 32/64-bit wars were a somewhat one sided battle with the PS1 dominating, the N64 being in distant 2nd and the Saturn far far behind (it sold only about 2 million units in the US which was quite a disaster for Sega - the success of the console in Japan couldn't change that).

Last gen was much alike with DC being competitive only for a short while and then being overrun by the PS2, which remained the king of the gen ever since and Xbox and GC getting a decent to mediocre success (let's not forget MS was having a loss on their system during the whole of it's life span and Nintendo had to halt production of the GC at some point due to too low demand).

The current gen was without a Sega console but I honestly don't think they would be competitive on today's market.

Sure, the success of the Wii might have sparked some ideas of a underpowered, cheapish and "gimmicky" Sega console, but that's probably not what the fans wanted to see neither would it have guaranteed success on today's extremely competitive market (they would have to get 3rd party support, fund the exclusive projects, provide sufficient marketing, ect.)

That's why they moved away from hardware production (except for some less important arcade hardware they still make) and focused on software where they do have some fine own franchises as well as some nice published games (for example the Total War series).

But with the recent reports of losses, they will have to move to other areas than just gaming to stay afloat.

They honestly aren't a big force in gaming anymore when console companies have to fund their canned projects to materialize in exchange for exclusivity...

That said, they still make good games so it would be a shame if they ceased to be.

the market was obviously a LOT better with sega still being in the hardware, since they made the best hardware and software. now they are just above average of the big publishers

I liked when Sega did make consoles. The Sega master system, The Sega Genesis,The Sega Game Gear,The Sega Saturn, The Sega Dreamcast. But Sega go carried away with add-ons etc.

So I also miss Sega in the Hardware business. They had a dynamic flair with their hardware. It would be nice if they returned, but that looks unlikely.

the market was obviously a LOT better with sega still being in the hardware, since they made the best hardware and software. now they are just above average of the big publishers

bultje112

in dreamland, I would want to see a new Sega system , in the real world, Id prefer Sega as a fairly sucessful 3rd party developer, as opposed to a failing console maker.

I don't think the gaming market is necessarily that much worse, as alot of games which would have ended up on Sega systems , just end up on other systems, though I do think Sega is less creative now , and has been since 2003 really.

wheter that has to do with them not making consoles, or just because they nearly went bankrupt , is something else.

Even though Sega still makes games, there has been a huge void in the gaming industry ever since Sega stopped making consoles. There was something very special and awesome about Sega consoles and their exclusives, ever since the days of Genesis. Possibly more than any other video game company, I adore Sega and I only wish they were still a contender in the console business. Some of my fondest gaming memories and experiences were on Sega consoles playing Sega games, lol my user name should be evident of this.

Shenmue_Jehuty

gaming is still going is it? did I pass out or something , dreamcast left like 10 years ago , maybe this is the question you should have asked when they announced that , not when its already done ,

I was fine without a sega console then , (i own them now) and im sure ill do well without sega still ,

its not like they had anything worth mentioning after the genesis any way , dreamcast may have had a few good hits , but its very over rated , on here , half these games are not even as good as top gear or zombies ate my neighbors among other cult hits from snes so to say we are better with sega then we are without is pushing it , i dont see how any one can afford all 4 consoles !

gaming is still going is it? did I pass out or something , dreamcast left like 10 years ago , maybe this is the question you should have asked when they announced that , not when its already done ,

I was fine without a sega console then , (i own them now) and im sure ill do well without sega still ,

its not like they had anything worth mentioning after the genesis any way , dreamcast may have had a few good hits , but its very over rated , on here , half these games are not even as good as top gear or zombies ate my neighbors among other cult hits from snes so to say we are better with sega then we are without is pushing it , i dont see how any one can afford all 4 consoles !

mariokart64fan

[QUOTE="bultje112"]

the market was obviously a LOT better with sega still being in the hardware, since they made the best hardware and software. now they are just above average of the big publishers

Legendarycr8ter

yes they have great games like yakuza, sonic generations, valkyria, that futiristic shooter I can't remember it's name right now. sega all star racing etc. good games but nothing exceptionally creative and new like when they were in hardware. the jet set radio's nights, shenmue, burning rangers etc

I have to disagree with everyone saying the gaming market hasn't changed much since Sega left the hardware business. Majority of the gaming industry has lost the ability to give their games a ...Soul. Regardless, better to have Sega around than not having them at all.gokuofheaven

this hits it right on the nail

[QUOTE="mariokart64fan"]

gaming is still going is it? did I pass out or something , dreamcast left like 10 years ago , maybe this is the question you should have asked when they announced that , not when its already done ,

I was fine without a sega console then , (i own them now) and im sure ill do well without sega still ,

its not like they had anything worth mentioning after the genesis any way , dreamcast may have had a few good hits , but its very over rated , on here , half these games are not even as good as top gear or zombies ate my neighbors among other cult hits from snes so to say we are better with sega then we are without is pushing it , i dont see how any one can afford all 4 consoles !

godzillavskong

never mind him he's a nintendo fanboy and thus a sega hater and troll

The funny thing about Sega's old consoles is that they always put so much emphasis on hardware superiority.

For example the Master System was advertised as twice as powerful (as NES) and had the 3D glasses (some NES games supported that feature too), then the "Nintendon't" and "blast-processing" commercials for the Gen/MD, color graphics for Game Gear, Sega CD's "are you waiting for Nintendo to make one?", 32X's "arcade quality graphics" and dual CPUs for the Saturn.

But they changed that philosophy with the Dreamcast to "let the games do the talking".

I think that's also why so many people consider DC the best Sega system - it was all about the games, not the hardware (altho it was significantly better than 5th gen systems in that department and also pioneered online gaming on consoles).

[QUOTE="godzillavskong"][QUOTE="mariokart64fan"]

gaming is still going is it? did I pass out or something , dreamcast left like 10 years ago , maybe this is the question you should have asked when they announced that , not when its already done ,

I was fine without a sega console then , (i own them now) and im sure ill do well without sega still ,

its not like they had anything worth mentioning after the genesis any way , dreamcast may have had a few good hits , but its very over rated , on here , half these games are not even as good as top gear or zombies ate my neighbors among other cult hits from snes so to say we are better with sega then we are without is pushing it , i dont see how any one can afford all 4 consoles !

bultje112

never mind him he's a nintendo fanboy and thus a sega hater and troll

Sega leaving the console world is and was huge... Sega was Nintendo's main threat and vice verse. SONY and Microsoft kind of have a pushing match now, but Nintendos quality (soul as someone else stated) has gone WAY downhill since removing SEGA from the race. If Sega was still in the lineup, I believe that gaming today would be much different. I truly believe the amount of shovelware titles would be down and quality would be up. With no direct competition Nintendo really doesn't have any worries. That is just my take however.

Sega leaving the console world is and was huge... Sega was Nintendo's main threat and vice verse. SONY and Microsoft kind of have a pushing match now, but Nintendos quality (soul as someone else stated) has gone WAY downhill since removing SEGA from the race. If Sega was still in the lineup, I believe that gaming today would be much different. I truly believe the amount of shovelware titles would be down and quality would be up. With no direct competition Nintendo really doesn't have any worries. That is just my take however.

WitIsWisdom

Are you trying to say that Nintendo were better once because of harsh competition from Sega?

Interesting statement but I don't buy it.

The only thing Sega potentially triggered is Nintendo caring for graphics more (see Donkey Kong Country with it's pre-rendered graphics, the 3D focused "project reality" aka Ultra64/N64, Virtual Boy and it's stereoscopic 3D, ect.).

Also, every popular console was filled with shovelware.

From the Atari 2600 to the Wii (including PS1 & PS2) had it's fair share of crappy games.

[QUOTE="WitIsWisdom"]

Sega leaving the console world is and was huge... Sega was Nintendo's main threat and vice verse. SONY and Microsoft kind of have a pushing match now, but Nintendos quality (soul as someone else stated) has gone WAY downhill since removing SEGA from the race. If Sega was still in the lineup, I believe that gaming today would be much different. I truly believe the amount of shovelware titles would be down and quality would be up. With no direct competition Nintendo really doesn't have any worries. That is just my take however.

nameless12345

Are you trying to say that Nintendo were better once because of harsh competition from Sega?

Interesting statement but I don't buy it.

The only thing Sega potentially triggered is Nintendo caring for graphics more (see Donkey Kong Country with it's pre-rendered graphics, the 3D focused "project reality" aka Ultra64/N64, Virtual Boy and it's stereoscopic 3D, ect.).

Also, every popular console was filled with shovelware.

From the Atari 2600 to the Wii (including PS1 & PS2) had it's fair share of crappy games.

try finding shovelware on xbox360 or ps3. those days are over. yet on wii you can find inmensen amounts of pure crap, that was the point. nintendo have become a gimmick and everything they do a stolen gimmick from sega. the motion controller?? oh really?? I played on my dreamcast fishing rod 12 years ago. wii u? yeah stolen from dreamcast vmu

[QUOTE="nameless12345"]

[QUOTE="WitIsWisdom"]

Sega leaving the console world is and was huge... Sega was Nintendo's main threat and vice verse. SONY and Microsoft kind of have a pushing match now, but Nintendos quality (soul as someone else stated) has gone WAY downhill since removing SEGA from the race. If Sega was still in the lineup, I believe that gaming today would be much different. I truly believe the amount of shovelware titles would be down and quality would be up. With no direct competition Nintendo really doesn't have any worries. That is just my take however.

bultje112

Are you trying to say that Nintendo were better once because of harsh competition from Sega?

Interesting statement but I don't buy it.

The only thing Sega potentially triggered is Nintendo caring for graphics more (see Donkey Kong Country with it's pre-rendered graphics, the 3D focused "project reality" aka Ultra64/N64, Virtual Boy and it's stereoscopic 3D, ect.).

Also, every popular console was filled with shovelware.

From the Atari 2600 to the Wii (including PS1 & PS2) had it's fair share of crappy games.

try finding shovelware on xbox360 or ps3. those days are over. yet on wii you can find inmensen amounts of pure crap, that was the point. nintendo have become a gimmick and everything they do a stolen gimmick from sega. the motion controller?? oh really?? I played on my dreamcast fishing rod 12 years ago. wii u? yeah stolen from dreamcast vmu

Depends what you consider shovelware.

A game might have a high budget but still be "shovelwary" in a way.

It might be true that in today's extremely competitive times it's too much of a risk to do a quick cashgrab without any quality (this is also why we're only seeing sequels and rehashes) but that's not to say the quality of many current gen games may not be questionable (on any platform, not just Wii).

And I'm not quite sure if Sega pioneering those motion controllers and screened gamepads is really comparable to Nintendo's offerings...

Yeah, at least you all can see where I am coming from. I'm not saying that Nintendo only has shovelware because Sega is out of the race, but I can guarantee with more direct competition Nintendo would have had MANY more blockbuster and new IP's that were not just compilations of summer games that people dont even play in the summer unless they are having a family get together... lol

The Wii was very easy to create games for and Nintendo knew that since they had no direct competition it didnt really matter how poor their overall library of games was. Now dont get me wrong... I am in the VERY SMALL minority that loves shovelware, because I am a collector and in a few short years the Wii will have several rare games that nobody ever knew existed.

With this being said however, Nintendo quality has shrank ever since the end of the SNES days (End of the Genesis) when they knew SEGA was in trouble. Now, I'm not saying that Sega was doomed after the Genesis, but it was like a wounded fish in an ocean full of sharks... too many gimmicks that were either ahead of their time, or shouldnt have even been released. Sega did have some great Saturn and Dreamcast games, however Nintendo knew sega was in a LOT of trouble by that point, and quality of Nintendo products continued to shrink.

I'm not saying that I think Nintendo should make sure EVERY one of their games are 5 star titles, but it sure would be nice to have some IP's return or have a blockbuster game outside of the Mario/Link/Samus/Kirby ctegory once again. There are SO MANY great IP's lying dormant.... problem is I truly believe Nintedo is purposely doing this. Now, you may ask the question why? Well, for one Nintendo was in no danger from SONY or Microsoft this generation. I could almost guarantee if Nintendo had more direct competition from another company like SEGA then IP's that got no love this gen would be alive and kicking!

It's almost as if Nintendo will continue to milk their customers until they HAVE to buckle down. As long as they are making the most money on the worst games, then why would they change anything? With another company like Sega which would have a similar game library to Nintendo, they could no longer be so lazy.

If either SONY or Microsoft stopped producing consoles the exact same thing would probably happen to the console that survived. That is why I truly believe that another console developer could survive in the market as long as it contended against Nintendo. Now, if it tried to contend with sony and microsoft it would be swallowed alive due to the fact that they are ALREADY in a competition, and Nintendo doesnt really have any.

Yeah, at least you all can see where I am coming from. I'm not saying that Nintendo only has shovelware because Sega is out of the race, but I can guarantee with more direct competition Nintendo would have had MANY more blockbuster and new IP's that were not just compilations of summer games that people dont even play in the summer unless they are having a family get together... lol

The Wii was very easy to create games for and Nintendo knew that since they had no direct competition it didnt really matter how poor their overall library of games was. Now dont get me wrong... I am in the VERY SMALL minority that loves shovelware, because I am a collector and in a few short years the Wii will have several rare games that nobody ever knew existed.

With this being said however, Nintendo quality has shrank ever since the end of the SNES days (End of the Genesis) when they knew SEGA was in trouble. Now, I'm not saying that Sega was doomed after the Genesis, but it was like a wounded fish in an ocean full of sharks... too many gimmicks that were either ahead of their time, or shouldnt have even been released. Sega did have some great Saturn and Dreamcast games, however Nintendo knew sega was in a LOT of trouble by that point, and quality of Nintendo products continued to shrink.

I'm not saying that I think Nintendo should make sure EVERY one of their games are 5 star titles, but it sure would be nice to have some IP's return or have a blockbuster game outside of the Mario/Link/Samus/Kirby ctegory once again. There are SO MANY great IP's lying dormant.... problem is I truly believe Nintedo is purposely doing this. Now, you may ask the question why? Well, for one Nintendo was in no danger from SONY or Microsoft this generation. I could almost guarantee if Nintendo had more direct competition from another company like SEGA then IP's that got no love this gen would be alive and kicking!

It's almost as if Nintendo will continue to milk their customers until they HAVE to buckle down. As long as they are making the most money on the worst games, then why would they change anything? With another company like Sega which would have a similar game library to Nintendo, they could no longer be so lazy.

If either SONY or Microsoft stopped producing consoles the exact same thing would probably happen to the console that survived. That is why I truly believe that another console developer could survive in the market as long as it contended against Nintendo. Now, if it tried to contend with sony and microsoft it would be swallowed alive due to the fact that they are ALREADY in a competition, and Nintendo doesnt really have any.

WitIsWisdom

I'm sorry, but I think you're a bit out of touch.

First of all, saying that they lost the quality after the SNES is just *your* opinion.

Secondly, the Wii was made because the GC wasn't competitive to PS2 and Xbox.

They saw that the so-called "hardcore gamers" didn't really care for the GC much and they picked a new, grateful audience ("casual gamers") with the Wii.

The Wii still received it's fair share of quality games but it had underpowered hardware and lacking multi-plat support.

That's what they're trying to change with the Wii U but at the time GC failed, making a powerful system that would appeal just to the "core" would be too much of a risk for them.

It's also not true that they're not investing in new IPs beyond the "holy trinity" of Mario/Zelda/Metroid (or Smash).

With the Wii U, they have a lot of interesting new projects on the way such as Zombie U, Wonderful 101, Lego City, ect. (even if they aren't developed directly by Nintendo themselves).

You might have a point when you're saying they fell behind the competition in hardware and 3rd party (multi-plat) support terms and are now playing catch-up, but this is a consequence of the changing market (the games reflect those changes too).

Also, do not forget the loss of Rare...

[QUOTE="bultje112"]

[QUOTE="nameless12345"]

Are you trying to say that Nintendo were better once because of harsh competition from Sega?

Interesting statement but I don't buy it.

The only thing Sega potentially triggered is Nintendo caring for graphics more (see Donkey Kong Country with it's pre-rendered graphics, the 3D focused "project reality" aka Ultra64/N64, Virtual Boy and it's stereoscopic 3D, ect.).

Also, every popular console was filled with shovelware.

From the Atari 2600 to the Wii (including PS1 & PS2) had it's fair share of crappy games.

nameless12345

try finding shovelware on xbox360 or ps3. those days are over. yet on wii you can find inmensen amounts of pure crap, that was the point. nintendo have become a gimmick and everything they do a stolen gimmick from sega. the motion controller?? oh really?? I played on my dreamcast fishing rod 12 years ago. wii u? yeah stolen from dreamcast vmu

Depends what you consider shovelware.

A game might have a high budget but still be "shovelwary" in a way.

It might be true that in today's extremely competitive times it's too much of a risk to do a quick cashgrab without any quality (this is also why we're only seeing sequels and rehashes) but that's not to say the quality of many current gen games may not be questionable (on any platform, not just Wii).

And I'm not quite sure if Sega pioneering those motion controllers and screened gamepads is really comparable to Nintendo's offerings...

you could play soul calibur and virtua tennis with a fishing rod(worked exactly like wii controller). only sega never advertised it and ran with it. sega had all the expertise and were again in the forefront of creativity. nintendo eventually ran with all the credit and money. it's a sad often repeating history with sega.