I was ALL-IN on Sega. I had a Genesis, Sega CD, and Game Gear. But when the 32X came out, I was like 12 years old and I already knew which way the wind was blowing. Then when the Saturn was launched, all my friends got PlayStations. I ultimately waited it out for the N64, and never looked back at Sega again. To bungle the brand to a kid who doesn't know anything and was totally loyal says a lot about the incompetence involved.
Somebody must've known Sega couldn't handle 32-X and Saturn at once (not to mention consumers) and was either too scared to speak up or put in their place.
What killed Sega was Sony. We knew back then that Sega-CD and the 32X where gimmicks. Saturn was lined up to be the real deal. Then one day we walked into Circuit City and saw a Sony Playstation on display.. They had that silly Jumpin jackrabbit game... a complete nonsense game that blew away Saturn's flagship Virtua Fighter without even trying. Sony was effortless... saturn you could tell they were pushing the limits of the system with VF1. It was over right then and there. Then came the ridge racer demo to remove any doubt. Sony just beat them fair and square and no Sega fanboi (me) could deny it.
Sega of Japan killed Sega. I think if they had just let Tom Kalinske run Sega of America without SOJ's meddling, I doubt it wouldn't have crashed as it did. They forced Kalinske to release the add ons and release the Saturn early and he didn't want to, but was forced. That's why he ended up leaving the company in 1996. If Sega would have just stayed on Kalinske's original plans, developers wouldn't have dropped out and there would have been a lot more success.
@Epic_C Ya but Sony was just superior... we slaved hard at our teenage minimum wage jobs to save for that Saturn.... then Playstation blew it away... we wanted 3D arcade graphics... Sony did it better.. Saturn was all maxed out tryna make 3D look good... Sony was effortless...
@@Epic_C it was not just Sega of Japan fault when in reality it was the fact that American retailers forced Sega to prouduce handreds of tousands of units from software and hardware, with Sega paying money to all the stock that would go unsold, and with a very little amount sold, this costed the company billions of dollars from 1994 to 1995, and to 1996 , and it's specifically due to Sega of America clinging to the Sega Genesis and even Sega's of Japan willingness to help them rather than simply moving to the new system, hence why the 32x exist, if you don't believe me , than watch a video called "Sega FY 1997 - The Slow Death of a Titan" it's a video that explain some of the hidden truth behind Sega of Japan and Sega of America's failure that explains why the japanese branch needed to interfere, specifically from 54: 02 of that video up to 1: 00 :14 of the video to realize the truth, even though you'll still have to watch up until 1: 05: 02 of it for a better understanding
Virtua Fighter 1 pushing the system not even close 🥴. But yeah Sony beat them fair and square. They made a lot of mistakes and failed to honour their commitments with retailers, that hit them hard. A console doesn't need to be in he most powerful it just needs to be in the same ballpark. But Sega failed on their main strength of the 16bit era @ marketing. Pandemonium reviews talked about Sega's leaked documents that discussed everything on how they were perceived against Sony. th-cam.com/video/gQPFKMx21Sk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=CcNeXKuMJl8wLNTG
Gaming history can be so interesting. Sega became so successful but ultimately caused their own demise. Meanwhile, Nintendo created their own worst enemy.
If the Saturn cart slot supported the 32x and Genesis library, and the 32x wasn't launched in competition to the Saturn, i think sega could have stuck around for a bit longer, and Genesis/Sega CD/32x support would have probably helped justify the higher price over the playstation and keep people in the ecosystem.
I dont blame sony for segas own ineptitude, personally. I think if the playstation had not existed, Saturn would have been destroyed by n64 the way they were running things.
SEGA was doing just fine with the Sega Genesis when they moved away from it it ruined them and now they don't know what they doing with stuff they need to go back to the original hardware
@AlmostSomething he's was putting Sega in the right direction with the Sega Genesis but now everything SEGA is doing is 100% wrong SEGA of japan did that screw up
Kalinske is a Genesis Fan he didn't care about any of those other new consoles they kept throwing out because he knew they all was a flop the genesis still had potential and he knew that they just ignored his request like greedy companies they are
The changing, confusing roadmap, lazy CD ports, dropping IP for Saturn, late dev tools, canceled games, and abandoned hardware killed SEGA--right when the PS1 was promising to do what we'd all hoped for in games for years.
Yeah, Sega built up a decent lead with that two year head start selling the Genesis when the SNES wasn't yet on the market (online figures say somewhere around 5 million units), and it even managed to swing back and forth with the SNES in US sales during certain periods after the SNES actually launched there, but the SNES apparently did ultimately finish on top in North America by the end of the generation. The latest NPD figures say SNES came out a little above Genesis in North America (some people dispute this), it obviously completely dominated in Japan, and I think it sold a little below Genesis in "other" (as Nintendo calls everywhere else in the world apparently). The Genesis vs SNES was the closest battle Sega ever had with Nintendo in any generation. But Nintendo was still the clear victor over Sega every single time when all is said and done (all six times), including the recent Mini era, where the SNES Classic Mini officially sold 5.28 million units and the Genesis was apparently somewhere below one million in sales according to Wiki's list of best-selling game consoles (the Genesis Mini didn't make it on the list, which only goes as low a 1 million sales). That's a pretty big and interesting over 5-to-1 difference there when you think about how popular the SNES and Genesis still are relative to each other literally decades after they were truly relevant. It's a shame Sega isn't relevant as a console manufacturer anymore, as it certainly had some great little systems that went head to head with Nintendo over the years. But, yeah, it really only has itself to blame there. What might have been. Great video. :)
I would advise against using Console Wars as a source. The book is generally framed more as an epic than a history book, and has a lot of false information too on account of Kalinske, who has developed a reputation in recent years for stretching the truth.
@@AlmostSomething Several interviews with other SEGA devs from both Japan and the US have made the rounds. Kalinske's account on the 32X notably doesn't line up with any of them (or even his own public statements from 1994 for that matter). I would recommend looking up Joe Miller's interview about the 32X, as well as the website mdshock, which has translations of multiple interviews from Japan. And also SEGA of America's leaked financial report from 1997. It really paints a different picture of how SoA was run back then
As you touched on, the GameGear probably failed for many reasons. The main reason, I think, however was the battery issue. Batteries didn’t last as long back then, and compared to the GameBoy, it wasn’t even close. Kids relied on the battery life to keep playing, especially if their parents weren’t keen on supplying them all that often. Its greatest crime probably was the fact that it was competing against the GameBoy at all.
I remember getting my Game Boy at launch back in 1989. There was one day I was playing Tetris at my Grandmother's house and asked me to show her how to play Tetris. She caught on quick. So much so, that she refused to give me my GB back. So for my Grandmother's birthday, my Grandfather got her a GB of her very own. Let me tell you, she could hold her own at Dr. Mario.
@@AlmostSomething that was a GREAT video except, there is something you probably never heard of and i hope you tackle it in a video and that is the fact that American retailers forced Sega to prouduce handreds of tousands of units from software and hardware, with Sega paying money to all the stock that would go unsold, and with a very little amount sold, this costed the company billions of dollars from 1994 to 1995, and to 1996 , and it's specifically due to Sega of America clinging to the Sega Genesis and even Sega's of Japan willingness to help them rather than simply moving to the new system, hence why the 32x exist, if you don't believe me , than here is my answer for you watch a video called "Sega FY 1997 - The Slow Death of a Titan" it's a video that explain some of the hidden truth behind Sega of Japan and Sega of America's failure that explains why the japanese branch needed to interfere, specifically from 54: 02 of that video up to 1: 00 14 of the video to realize the truth, even though you'll still have to watch up until 1: 05: 02 of it for a better understanding
The game Gear was nothing more than a portable Master System. A 3rd party company released an unlicensed peripheral called the "Master-Gear" adapter. This adapter allowed you to play Master System games on the GG.
Always baffles me when a studio/company brings in a successful director/CEO to helm their efforts, and then refuses to listen to said director or CEO on key decisions. Why pay a (presumable) premium for someone's experience, expertise, and talents when you're going to ignore it as soon as it disagrees with your own "wisdom"?
I'm surprised you didn't cover the pre-SG 1000 history. Both Sega and Nintendo licensed out their games to Coleco. Imagine them being on the same side of the pre-crash console war, a battle of 7 corporate armies (Atari, Mattel, Coleco, Bally, Magnavox, Emerson, Milton Bradley). They would not be symbolically be on the same side until Mario Sonic Olympics 2008.
It wasn't Just the console add-ons that doomed Sega; it was mostly retailers that doomed and failed Sega in the long run. Sega was given some of the worst terms they had to adhere to since re-launching the Genesis/Mega-Drive in NA! And these worse terms weren't even applied to Nintendo either. It only applied to Sega, Atari, 3DO, and other minorities that retailers saw as an after thought! I'll be happy to list some of the examples if anyone replies.
2.4 Million Units sold of the Sega CD…? I can’t consider that a true failure comparedand the fact we over 125 games in America and 200+ total. Go look at how many Sega MegaDrives sold in Japan, that is a failure in comparison. They sold from 1988-1995, the most they sold was 900,000 units in 1991 overall it sold roughly 3,500,000 total units in Japan meanwhile somehow the MegaDrive CD sold 850,000 units during its short time being promoted in Japan INCLUDING A YEAR THEY SOLD OVER 400,000 IN A SINGLE YEAR… Had they not made the Saturn so known realistically the CD and 32x could’ve sold 1.5-2x as many units each and they ended up selling.
Sega of Japan is what ruined Sega in the US. If they had just let Tom Kalinske run the US side of the company without the Japan interference that they did, I'm sure they wouldn't have crashed as they did.
dude you're really mistaken if you think that it's just Sega of Japan fault when in reality it was the fact that American retailers forced Sega to prouduce handreds of tousands of units from software and hardware, with Sega paying money to all the stock that would go unsold, and with a very little amount sold, this costed the company billions of dollars from 1994 to 1995, and to 1996 , and it's specifically due to Sega of America clinging to the Sega Genesis and even Sega's of Japan willingness to help them rather than simply moving to the new system, hence why the 32x exist, if you don't believe me , than here is my answer for you watch a video called "Sega FY 1997 - The Slow Death of a Titan" it's a video that explain some of the hidden truth behind Sega of Japan and Sega of America's failure that explains why the japanese branch needed to interfere, specifically from 54: 02 of that video up to 1: 00 14 of the video to realize the truth, even though you'll still have to watch up until 1: 05: 02 of it for a better understanding
Can't say SEGA was wrong about Sony not knowing what they were doing. What Sony did know, however, is how to partner up with people who did. Money talks.
Um, no. Batman Returns might have had the original genesis game included in the Sega CD version, but it also had an all new game and was one of the few that took advantage of the Sega CD's extra hardware capabilities to the fullest - a stunning, well loved game, and you don't need to play the Genesis platform sections at all. A bit of misinfo here.
dude you're really mistaken if you think that it's just Sega of Japan fault when in reality it was the fact that American retailers forced Sega to prouduce handreds of tousands of units from software and hardware, with Sega paying money to all the stock that would go unsold, and with a very little amount sold, this costed the company billions of dollars from 1994 to 1995, and to 1996 , and it's specifically due to Sega of America clinging to the Sega Genesis and even Sega's of Japan willingness to help them rather than simply moving to the new system, hence why the 32x exist, if you don't believe me , than here is my answer for you watch a video called "Sega FY 1997 - The Slow Death of a Titan" it's a video that explain some of the hidden truth behind Sega of Japan and Sega of America's failure that explains why the japanese branch needed to interfere, specifically from 54: 02 of that video up to 1: 00 14 of the video to realize the truth, even though you'll still have to watch up until 1: 05: 02 of it for a better understanding
@@Troll_Ha dude, seriously I don't know if you watched the video I talked about or not, but if I were to tell you even more information, than I would tell you that EVEN Sega of Japan CEO Hayao Nakayama was PROUD of Sega of America's success, YES they did not listen to the American branch, but that's only due to money losses of billion of dollars, and that Sega of Japan spent TWO YEARS of blood and sweat working on the technology of the Sega Saturn technology, only for the American branch to tell them to throw all that away just because they had a deal with Silicon Graphics, as well as the fact that it was SONY OF JAPAN and Ken Kutaragi who refused to work with Sega of Japan due to Sega's technology lacking in terms of power compared to theirs, as well as demanding a measure of control that was too much for Sega to give. and besides just because you heard the story from the book of console wars, does not mean that this is the entire picture of what happened or that all they said is correct, I for one and many others HAVE no idea how all that new information had never been known to the American side of Sega, but I understand that we only heard one side of the story the entire time, as well as that it is a complete myth that both branches of the company were completely at odds with each other, when they were BOTH responsible for different factors, EVEN TOM KALINSKE with his focus on on the brand and image, rather than the quality of the product PLEASE, watch the video before you comeback with a reply, as well as other sources of information such as the video "EDITOR’S CORNER PODCAST - EP 20: Chat with Sega Lord X & James The SegaHolic" and a web site "Mega Drive Shock" (i advise to watch the video first) and remember, it's been far too long since Sega of Japan had been specifically blamed for Sega Saturn, it's a very complicated matter that need a lot of time to be understood, if you're not conveinced yet, i don't know what to tell you
@@Troll_Ha except according to a former Sega of America employee "David Rosen" the 32x was a team effort idea, as he said in an inter view the following : "After the Genesis, Sega of America was interested in developing peripherals while Sega of japan wanted to move on, it wasn’t necessarily a friction but there was a lot of going back and forth, helping to resolve issues with the ultimate aim of achieving what both arms of the company wanted". weither you believe it or not, both branches of Sega wanted each other to succeed no matter how contradicting that might sound to what you heard, all that information i mentioned is not some thing i just said without finding out about it, and if you're telling me that i don't know what am i talking about, then you're basically telling me that people who did so much effort to bring that information in the first place don't know what they are talking about, even that American employee i already mentioned, apparently, you still had not checked out what i told you of sources of information, and if that isn't enough, than again, i don't know what to tell you.
Going to respectfully disagree with the SEGA-CD being presented as a failure. As usual, there is nothing meaningful to back this up. Sales numbers are incomplete, as with most SEGA consoles, but still considered as worldwide total sales (hopefully one day people will stop believing blindly what is written in wikipedia). The add-on had a revision and was supported for 6 years. Unlike some "random" sales numbers, these are verified facts, and clearly demonstrate that it was successful enough to justify such support.
What I find fascinating about all these videos about the demise of Sega in the console business is that NOBODY talks about the real reason it happened. The real reason Sega FAILED is... (1) They never ran a PROFITABLE business. (2) They were never a stand-alone company. They were ALWAYS a subsidiary. Sega is to THIS DAY a subsidiary of SEGA-SAMMY HOLDINGS. Just like Playstation and Xbox, Sega NEVER was a independent entity. They always had a parent company, aka "DADDY" who they could run to for a bailout. When a structure is set up like this they tend to BURN cash to "win" instead of running a proper business. This is why Xbox is the piece of 💩 that it is and is constantly burning cash and making mistake after mistake, and the reason why Playstation keeps making failure (PSVR2) after failure (PSVita) and has NEVER hit its peak (PS2 sales) in decades. The only difference with Playstation is that it actually made a profit, so that is why it still hasn't gone belly-up yet, but it eventually will. The only company that still lasts after 100 years is Nintendo because they are NOT a subsidiary. Nintendo is the PARENT. This is why they are forced to run a tight ship because they have no one to run to for a bail out. Playstation and Xbox is going to FAIL just like Sega. The only way to stop that from happening is for Sony and Microsoft to both SPIN THEM OFF into their own independent companies.
I was ALL-IN on Sega. I had a Genesis, Sega CD, and Game Gear. But when the 32X came out, I was like 12 years old and I already knew which way the wind was blowing. Then when the Saturn was launched, all my friends got PlayStations. I ultimately waited it out for the N64, and never looked back at Sega again. To bungle the brand to a kid who doesn't know anything and was totally loyal says a lot about the incompetence involved.
It was beyond crazy to release the 32X and the Saturn so close to one another. There wasn't a retail outlet who thought this made any sense.
Somebody must've known Sega couldn't handle 32-X and Saturn at once (not to mention consumers) and was either too scared to speak up or put in their place.
What killed Sega was Sony. We knew back then that Sega-CD and the 32X where gimmicks. Saturn was lined up to be the real deal. Then one day we walked into Circuit City and saw a Sony Playstation on display.. They had that silly Jumpin jackrabbit game... a complete nonsense game that blew away Saturn's flagship Virtua Fighter without even trying. Sony was effortless... saturn you could tell they were pushing the limits of the system with VF1. It was over right then and there. Then came the ridge racer demo to remove any doubt. Sony just beat them fair and square and no Sega fanboi (me) could deny it.
Sega of Japan killed Sega. I think if they had just let Tom Kalinske run Sega of America without SOJ's meddling, I doubt it wouldn't have crashed as it did. They forced Kalinske to release the add ons and release the Saturn early and he didn't want to, but was forced. That's why he ended up leaving the company in 1996. If Sega would have just stayed on Kalinske's original plans, developers wouldn't have dropped out and there would have been a lot more success.
@Epic_C Ya but Sony was just superior... we slaved hard at our teenage minimum wage jobs to save for that Saturn.... then Playstation blew it away... we wanted 3D arcade graphics... Sony did it better.. Saturn was all maxed out tryna make 3D look good... Sony was effortless...
Sega killed itself. They got greedy and did dumb things. Stop blaming sony for segas own dumb decisions. Please.
@@Epic_C it was not just Sega of Japan fault when in reality it was the fact that American retailers forced Sega to prouduce handreds of tousands of units from software and hardware, with Sega paying money to all the stock that would go unsold, and with a very little amount sold, this costed the company billions of dollars from 1994 to 1995, and to 1996 , and it's specifically due to Sega of America clinging to the Sega Genesis and even Sega's of Japan willingness to help them rather than simply moving to the new system, hence why the 32x exist,
if you don't believe me , than watch a video called "Sega FY 1997 - The Slow Death of a Titan" it's a video that explain some of the hidden truth behind Sega of Japan and Sega of America's failure that explains why the japanese branch needed to interfere, specifically from 54: 02 of that video up to 1: 00 :14 of the video to realize the truth, even though you'll still have to watch up until 1: 05: 02 of it for a better understanding
Virtua Fighter 1 pushing the system not even close 🥴.
But yeah Sony beat them fair and square.
They made a lot of mistakes and failed to honour their commitments with retailers,
that hit them hard.
A console doesn't need to be in he most powerful it just needs to be in the same ballpark.
But Sega failed on their main strength of the 16bit era @ marketing.
Pandemonium reviews talked about Sega's leaked documents that discussed everything on how they were perceived against Sony.
th-cam.com/video/gQPFKMx21Sk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=CcNeXKuMJl8wLNTG
Gaming history can be so interesting. Sega became so successful but ultimately caused their own demise. Meanwhile, Nintendo created their own worst enemy.
I guessing you’re referring to Sony with their almighty PlayStation aren’t you?
@@Swordslinger-hb1ns yup! He actually touches on this at about 14:18
This is true, but Nintendo did thank SONY for the development of the audio chips for the SNES.
If the Saturn cart slot supported the 32x and Genesis library, and the 32x wasn't launched in competition to the Saturn, i think sega could have stuck around for a bit longer, and Genesis/Sega CD/32x support would have probably helped justify the higher price over the playstation and keep people in the ecosystem.
I dont blame sony for segas own ineptitude, personally. I think if the playstation had not existed, Saturn would have been destroyed by n64 the way they were running things.
SEGA was doing just fine with the Sega Genesis when they moved away from it it ruined them and now they don't know what they doing with stuff they need to go back to the original hardware
IF it is to be believed, Tom Kalinske said that repeatedly.
@AlmostSomething he's was putting Sega in the right direction with the Sega Genesis but now everything SEGA is doing is 100% wrong SEGA of japan did that screw up
Kalinske is a Genesis Fan he didn't care about any of those other new consoles they kept throwing out because he knew they all was a flop the genesis still had potential and he knew that they just ignored his request like greedy companies they are
The changing, confusing roadmap, lazy CD ports, dropping IP for Saturn, late dev tools, canceled games, and abandoned hardware killed SEGA--right when the PS1 was promising to do what we'd all hoped for in games for years.
I enjoy your content. I like your presentation style and the topics you choose. Keep up the good work.
Totally made my day. Thanks so much!!
Yeah, Sega built up a decent lead with that two year head start selling the Genesis when the SNES wasn't yet on the market (online figures say somewhere around 5 million units), and it even managed to swing back and forth with the SNES in US sales during certain periods after the SNES actually launched there, but the SNES apparently did ultimately finish on top in North America by the end of the generation.
The latest NPD figures say SNES came out a little above Genesis in North America (some people dispute this), it obviously completely dominated in Japan, and I think it sold a little below Genesis in "other" (as Nintendo calls everywhere else in the world apparently).
The Genesis vs SNES was the closest battle Sega ever had with Nintendo in any generation. But Nintendo was still the clear victor over Sega every single time when all is said and done (all six times), including the recent Mini era, where the SNES Classic Mini officially sold 5.28 million units and the Genesis was apparently somewhere below one million in sales according to Wiki's list of best-selling game consoles (the Genesis Mini didn't make it on the list, which only goes as low a 1 million sales). That's a pretty big and interesting over 5-to-1 difference there when you think about how popular the SNES and Genesis still are relative to each other literally decades after they were truly relevant.
It's a shame Sega isn't relevant as a console manufacturer anymore, as it certainly had some great little systems that went head to head with Nintendo over the years. But, yeah, it really only has itself to blame there. What might have been.
Great video. :)
This story has been told to death on TH-cam.
Sir, I have excellent news for you! You are merely a click away from finding another video that you will, in fact, enjoy! Happy YouTubing!
@@AlmostSomething keep up the good work
I would advise against using Console Wars as a source. The book is generally framed more as an epic than a history book, and has a lot of false information too on account of Kalinske, who has developed a reputation in recent years for stretching the truth.
So, this is news to me, but you aren't the first to tell me that! Where can I find out more about that?
@@AlmostSomething Several interviews with other SEGA devs from both Japan and the US have made the rounds. Kalinske's account on the 32X notably doesn't line up with any of them (or even his own public statements from 1994 for that matter).
I would recommend looking up Joe Miller's interview about the 32X, as well as the website mdshock, which has translations of multiple interviews from Japan. And also SEGA of America's leaked financial report from 1997. It really paints a different picture of how SoA was run back then
Amazing presentation skills man. Super concise, detailed and informative.
thanks so much!
Genesis and Dreamcast were pretty decent, but Snes and PS1 have unbeatable libraries
Yessir. That always did it for them.
As you touched on, the GameGear probably failed for many reasons. The main reason, I think, however was the battery issue. Batteries didn’t last as long back then, and compared to the GameBoy, it wasn’t even close. Kids relied on the battery life to keep playing, especially if their parents weren’t keen on supplying them all that often. Its greatest crime probably was the fact that it was competing against the GameBoy at all.
Great video! Hope to see more from you!
More to come! And thanks so much!!
people saying 'use LED on the gamegear' really should go back and see how much LED cost at that time. :D
I remember getting my Game Boy at launch back in 1989. There was one day I was playing Tetris at my Grandmother's house and asked me to show her how to play Tetris. She caught on quick. So much so, that she refused to give me my GB back. So for my Grandmother's birthday, my Grandfather got her a GB of her very own. Let me tell you, she could hold her own at Dr. Mario.
Great video, Playstation had so much better games at the time then Dreamcast
I love Sega and I always will. In my group of consoles I have I rep Nintendo Switch, Sega Saturn, and PS5
Great video!
Thanks so much!!
Very interesting!! I love video game history
Glad you enjoyed!
@@AlmostSomething that was a GREAT video except, there is something you probably never heard of and i hope you tackle it in a video and that is the fact that American retailers forced Sega to prouduce handreds of tousands of units from software and hardware, with Sega paying money to all the stock that would go unsold, and with a very little amount sold, this costed the company billions of dollars from 1994 to 1995, and to 1996 , and it's specifically due to Sega of America clinging to the Sega Genesis and even Sega's of Japan willingness to help them rather than simply moving to the new system, hence why the 32x exist,
if you don't believe me , than here is my answer for you
watch a video called "Sega FY 1997 - The Slow Death of a Titan" it's a video that explain some of the hidden truth behind Sega of Japan and Sega of America's failure that explains why the japanese branch needed to interfere, specifically from 54: 02 of that video up to 1: 00 14 of the video to realize the truth, even though you'll still have to watch up until 1: 05: 02 of it for a better understanding
The game Gear was nothing more than a portable Master System. A 3rd party company released an unlicensed peripheral called the "Master-Gear" adapter. This adapter allowed you to play Master System games on the GG.
Great Stuff!
Thanks so much!!
Thank you for the like!
@@AlmostSomething no problem, I love your take on these subjects. Keep up the great work!
Always baffles me when a studio/company brings in a successful director/CEO to helm their efforts, and then refuses to listen to said director or CEO on key decisions. Why pay a (presumable) premium for someone's experience, expertise, and talents when you're going to ignore it as soon as it disagrees with your own "wisdom"?
I'm surprised you didn't cover the pre-SG 1000 history.
Both Sega and Nintendo licensed out their games to Coleco. Imagine them being on the same side of the pre-crash console war, a battle of 7 corporate armies (Atari, Mattel, Coleco, Bally, Magnavox, Emerson, Milton Bradley).
They would not be symbolically be on the same side until Mario Sonic Olympics 2008.
Blame Sony for that.
They hit gold one time with the Genesis and never had a success after that. The Saturn was a failure and they abandoned the Dreamcast.
It wasn't Just the console add-ons that doomed Sega; it was mostly retailers that doomed and failed Sega in the long run.
Sega was given some of the worst terms they had to adhere to since re-launching the Genesis/Mega-Drive in NA! And these worse terms weren't even applied to Nintendo either. It only applied to Sega, Atari, 3DO, and other minorities that retailers saw as an after thought! I'll be happy to list some of the examples if anyone replies.
2.4 Million Units sold of the Sega CD…? I can’t consider that a true failure comparedand the fact we over 125 games in America and 200+ total. Go look at how many Sega MegaDrives sold in Japan, that is a failure in comparison. They sold from 1988-1995, the most they sold was 900,000 units in 1991 overall it sold roughly 3,500,000 total units in Japan meanwhile somehow the MegaDrive CD sold 850,000 units during its short time being promoted in Japan INCLUDING A YEAR THEY SOLD OVER 400,000 IN A SINGLE YEAR…
Had they not made the Saturn so known realistically the CD and 32x could’ve sold 1.5-2x as many units each and they ended up selling.
Sega of Japan is what ruined Sega in the US. If they had just let Tom Kalinske run the US side of the company without the Japan interference that they did, I'm sure they wouldn't have crashed as they did.
dude you're really mistaken if you think that it's just Sega of Japan fault when in reality it was the fact that American retailers forced Sega to prouduce handreds of tousands of units from software and hardware, with Sega paying money to all the stock that would go unsold, and with a very little amount sold, this costed the company billions of dollars from 1994 to 1995, and to 1996 , and it's specifically due to Sega of America clinging to the Sega Genesis and even Sega's of Japan willingness to help them rather than simply moving to the new system, hence why the 32x exist,
if you don't believe me , than here is my answer for you
watch a video called "Sega FY 1997 - The Slow Death of a Titan" it's a video that explain some of the hidden truth behind Sega of Japan and Sega of America's failure that explains why the japanese branch needed to interfere, specifically from 54: 02 of that video up to 1: 00 14 of the video to realize the truth, even though you'll still have to watch up until 1: 05: 02 of it for a better understanding
Thank you for this insight! I'll have to track that down.
The Genesis didn't beat the Super NES. The NES sold 50 million worldwide and the Genesis/MD sold over 30 million.
I had a sega and snes
:Facepalm: umm, nah.
Can't say SEGA was wrong about Sony not knowing what they were doing. What Sony did know, however, is how to partner up with people who did.
Money talks.
Um, no. Batman Returns might have had the original genesis game included in the Sega CD version, but it also had an all new game and was one of the few that took advantage of the Sega CD's extra hardware capabilities to the fullest - a stunning, well loved game, and you don't need to play the Genesis platform sections at all. A bit of misinfo here.
my dad couldnt afford to get me a snes but he got a got me a great deal on a SEGA!
personally i blame Sega's Japan branch. such incompetence
dude you're really mistaken if you think that it's just Sega of Japan fault when in reality it was the fact that American retailers forced Sega to prouduce handreds of tousands of units from software and hardware, with Sega paying money to all the stock that would go unsold, and with a very little amount sold, this costed the company billions of dollars from 1994 to 1995, and to 1996 , and it's specifically due to Sega of America clinging to the Sega Genesis and even Sega's of Japan willingness to help them rather than simply moving to the new system, hence why the 32x exist,
if you don't believe me , than here is my answer for you
watch a video called "Sega FY 1997 - The Slow Death of a Titan" it's a video that explain some of the hidden truth behind Sega of Japan and Sega of America's failure that explains why the japanese branch needed to interfere, specifically from 54: 02 of that video up to 1: 00 14 of the video to realize the truth, even though you'll still have to watch up until 1: 05: 02 of it for a better understanding
In the book console wars it clearly says it was sega of japans fault, and they would not listen to sega of america.
@@Troll_Ha dude, seriously I don't know if you watched the video I talked about or not, but if I were to tell you even more information, than I would tell you that EVEN Sega of Japan CEO Hayao Nakayama was PROUD of Sega of America's success, YES they did not listen to the American branch, but that's only due to money losses of billion of dollars, and that Sega of Japan spent TWO YEARS of blood and sweat working on the technology of the Sega Saturn technology, only for the American branch to tell them to throw all that away just because they had a deal with Silicon Graphics, as well as the fact that it was SONY OF JAPAN and Ken Kutaragi who refused to work with Sega of Japan due to Sega's technology lacking in terms of power compared to theirs, as well as demanding a measure of control that was too much for Sega to give.
and besides just because you heard the story from the book of console wars, does not mean that this is the entire picture of what happened or that all they said is correct, I for one and many others HAVE no idea how all that new information had never been known to the American side of Sega, but I understand that we only heard one side of the story the entire time, as well as that it is a complete myth that both branches of the company were completely at odds with each other, when they were BOTH responsible for different factors, EVEN TOM KALINSKE with his focus on on the brand and image, rather than the quality of the product
PLEASE, watch the video before you comeback with a reply, as well as other sources of information such as the video
"EDITOR’S CORNER PODCAST - EP 20: Chat with Sega Lord X & James The SegaHolic"
and a web site "Mega Drive Shock"
(i advise to watch the video first)
and remember, it's been far too long since Sega of Japan had been specifically blamed for Sega Saturn, it's a very complicated matter that need a lot of time to be understood, if you're not conveinced yet, i don't know what to tell you
@@gregtom3272 The 32X was the main reason for segas failure, everyone knows that.
You don't know what you're talking about.
@@Troll_Ha except according to a former Sega of America employee "David Rosen" the 32x was a team effort idea, as he said in an inter view the following : "After the Genesis, Sega of America was interested in developing peripherals while Sega of japan wanted to move on, it wasn’t necessarily a friction but there was a lot of going back and forth, helping to resolve issues with the ultimate aim of achieving what both arms of the company wanted".
weither you believe it or not, both branches of Sega wanted each other to succeed no matter how contradicting that might sound to what you heard, all that information i mentioned is not some thing i just said without finding out about it, and if you're telling me that i don't know what am i talking about, then you're basically telling me that people who did so much effort to bring that information in the first place don't know what they are talking about, even that American employee i already mentioned, apparently, you still had not checked out what i told you of sources of information, and if that isn't enough, than again, i don't know what to tell you.
Going to respectfully disagree with the SEGA-CD being presented as a failure. As usual, there is nothing meaningful to back this up. Sales numbers are incomplete, as with most SEGA consoles, but still considered as worldwide total sales (hopefully one day people will stop believing blindly what is written in wikipedia). The add-on had a revision and was supported for 6 years. Unlike some "random" sales numbers, these are verified facts, and clearly demonstrate that it was successful enough to justify such support.
Service Games. So the correct phonetic pronunciation of Sega is 'Sir Gay'
What I find fascinating about all these videos about the demise of Sega in the console business is that NOBODY talks about the real reason it happened. The real reason Sega FAILED is...
(1) They never ran a PROFITABLE business.
(2) They were never a stand-alone company. They were ALWAYS a subsidiary.
Sega is to THIS DAY a subsidiary of SEGA-SAMMY HOLDINGS.
Just like Playstation and Xbox, Sega NEVER was a independent entity. They always had a parent company, aka "DADDY" who they could run to for a bailout. When a structure is set up like this they tend to BURN cash to "win" instead of running a proper business. This is why Xbox is the piece of 💩 that it is and is constantly burning cash and making mistake after mistake, and the reason why Playstation keeps making failure (PSVR2) after failure (PSVita) and has NEVER hit its peak (PS2 sales) in decades.
The only difference with Playstation is that it actually made a profit, so that is why it still hasn't gone belly-up yet, but it eventually will. The only company that still lasts after 100 years is Nintendo because they are NOT a subsidiary. Nintendo is the PARENT. This is why they are forced to run a tight ship because they have no one to run to for a bail out. Playstation and Xbox is going to FAIL just like Sega. The only way to stop that from happening is for Sony and Microsoft to both SPIN THEM OFF into their own independent companies.