Who killed SEGA?
- Thread starter ksdixon
- Start date
I think it was a suicide, with Microsoft whispering in their ears to make seppuku.
The Real Reason Sega Failed Spectacularly
In this article, we explain the rise and fall of the Japanese video game company, Sega. Read on to find out what caused its failure.
history-computer.com
Hint: It wasn't PS.
They're still alive, but if we're talking about why they left the console business, it was primarily Sega of Japan making dumb decisions and fighting with Sega of America.
Sega commited suicide, mostly due to many dumb decisions taken by higher ups from Sega America and Sega Japan to a point they only had the option of moving to be a 3rd party multiplatform publisher.
Too much focus on add-on devices like MegaCD or 32X instead of leaving that tech for the next gen console, competing against themselves with stuff like 3X and Saturn, fights between Sega America and Japan instead of having a global strategy, making Saturn too difficult to develop for instead of focusing on help 3rd parties as much as possible to get their support, getting rid of the marketing firm they had for Megadrive and Mega CD in the west and a long, not focusing enough in Europe doing things like investing hard on localization to several EU languages, etc.
Nintendo and Sony outperformed them because they did a better job in these and other areas. But if Sega would have done a better job not making these mistakes they would have performed way better and wouldn't have needed to stop making consoles.
I think it's a similar case to MS: since 360 every generation they are losing market share more and more because of their own decisions and at some point they'll end leaving the console market somewhere in the future. Not because of decisions taken by Sony or Nintendo, but because of suicidal strategies taken by MS heads instead.
Too much focus on add-on devices like MegaCD or 32X instead of leaving that tech for the next gen console, competing against themselves with stuff like 3X and Saturn, fights between Sega America and Japan instead of having a global strategy, making Saturn too difficult to develop for instead of focusing on help 3rd parties as much as possible to get their support, getting rid of the marketing firm they had for Megadrive and Mega CD in the west and a long, not focusing enough in Europe doing things like investing hard on localization to several EU languages, etc.
Nintendo and Sony outperformed them because they did a better job in these and other areas. But if Sega would have done a better job not making these mistakes they would have performed way better and wouldn't have needed to stop making consoles.
I think it's a similar case to MS: since 360 every generation they are losing market share more and more because of their own decisions and at some point they'll end leaving the console market somewhere in the future. Not because of decisions taken by Sony or Nintendo, but because of suicidal strategies taken by MS heads instead.
Yeah, there's plenty of docs out there.
Sega killed Sega.
More precisely, Japan killed US division setting up a snowball effect.
Sega killed Sega.
More precisely, Japan killed US division setting up a snowball effect.
With a lot of circumstances facilitated by the company who would benefit the most from their exit: Microsoft.
Microsoft was suspiciously too involved with the Dreamcast and ready to follow it with a console of their own that directly benefited from Sega exiting the hardware business. Their classic EEE MO.
You think MS will leave the console market? Unlike Sega, they can afford to keep making consoles. I think they have too much pride to leave. I think they won’t want people to think “little” companies like Sony and Nintendo pushed them out.
Sega killed Sega.
I'll tell you one thing, you clearly have an unhealthy obsession for Microsoft; I just didn't know conspiracy tin hats were one of them.
Nintendo was set to be the next Sega. They continuously shrunk in the home console market not counting the lightening in a bottle Wii. Which is crazy since they have the strongest IP, but they forgot how important 3rd party is. Somehow it took them decades to realize that.
Luckily they still had a successful handheld business and decided to fuse their markets together so they could maintain a home console presence. Unfortunately that means the days of cutting edge Nintendo are long gone and we’ll forever be playing their games on tablet hardware.
A lot of people on places like Reddit and Resetera will blame PlayStation in order to justify what Microsoft is doing now, but Sega's worst enemy has always been Sega themselves.
Gameboy and Pokémon is what kept Nintendo afloat. It allowed them to blunder two console gens in a row and 3DS did the same for Wii U.