Explaining the Master System's Success in Brazil and Europe

In gathering games for my Raspberry pi, I noticed about 85% of the the Master system's Library was exclusive to either Brazil or Europe and Brazil even got a few exclusives. When does Brazil ever get exclusives?

What I'm wondering is what made the Master System so successful in Europe and Brazil over the NES?

I do have a soft spot for the Get off your ass to pause the game system as it was my first console. Which I foolishly threw out about 7 years ago. I never really thought about this until I saw just how many games either ONLY came out in Europe or ONLY came out in Brazil.

 

It's easy to talk about what made the Master System so succesful in Brazil. They basicly tried to mimic what Nintendo of America did.

Their initial marketing campaign was huge, not just with commercials but also TV shows. All the big stores at the time had a special videogame section because of this. A hotline for tips, a Sega Club newsletter, contests and lots more.

It's important to point out that the official Nintendo was nowhere to be seen, although lots of clones started to appear at the same time. Dynacom's Dynavision II, CCE's Top Game and Turbo Game, Dismac's Bit System, Gradiente's Phantom System, IBCT's Super Charger, Milmar's Hi-Top Game... Some with the USA standard, others with the Japanese and a couple with both cart slots. So it's not like Tectoy had no competition. They had, but it was too fragmented. Everybody knew what a "Nintendo" was, but Tectoy's approach was simpler. You didn't had to worry about adapters or anything like that.

At a store, you had a massive section of Tectoy next to lots of different Nintendo clone systems, each with their own brand (some that people disliked), style and cart slot standard. It's not difficult to understand why The Phantom System was the most succesful clone, as it was manufactured by Gradiente, a big eletronics company at the time.

Then you had Tectoy localize games like Phantasy Star, probably the first ever RPG translated to Portuguese. Then they got a deal with Mauricio de Sousa to use the "Turma da Mônica" characters on the hacked Wonder Boy game, which ended up as a massive hit. Then games like Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GPII were made because of Tectoy sugestion and japanese love for Ayrton Senna. Of course it was a big success as well.

When the Master System was dropped on the USA, it simply continued on Brazil and Europe. In Brazil, more deals were made that ended up as another "Turma da Mônica" game, a Chapolin (mexican character) game.. They kept supporting the Master System by releasing games that were not released in Europe and when that was over, started porting GameGear games.

In my opinion, Tectoy / Sega had the majority of the market till Street Fighter 2 showed up on the Super Nintendo. That alone made people buy imported Super Nintendos. Then Nintendo officialy entered the market in 1993.

At this point, Tectoy had a difficult time with the Sega CD and later with the 32X and the Saturn. By 1996, pratically everyone was focused on the PlayStation and Nintendo64.

 

85%, seriously? Woah. I'd guess because SEGA had better footholds in those markets than in the US, where Nintendo reigned supreme?

Every time a soccer game is in need of a roster update...

 

Did Nintendo just not give two shits about Europe or something back in the 80s?

 

I know you are joking but here's an interesting article with pictures of all Tectoy SMS exclusives: http://segacollect.blogspot.com.br/2008/07/tec-toy-exclusives-and-hacks.html

Also an old Retro Gamer article about Tectoy, posted on HG101: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/GOTW/Brazil/tectoy.html

 

that was a good read. I'm looking forward to giving some of those brazillian games a spin once my PI is set up.

Still wish I kept my Master System.

 

Of course I was joking, most of those roster updates are just romhacks anyways. Still, there seem to be so, so many of them...

Thinking back to all the times we got "PAL-raped" with black bars, you'd think so I think SEGA just had a much better feel for their audience here when it came to advertising. Or they might've just gotten to the market a bit faster, not sure. To me it always felt like they were almost-equals, with Nintendo having a slight lead.

Another thing that could've made a difference was how Nintendo enforced that licensed NES developers didn't also release on other consoles; they might not have been that agressive here (not caring enough to control/stifle an, in their eyes, secondary market).

 

I watched a YT video which detailed this a while ago, will try and dig it out. Basically Nintendo dropped the ball in Europe and Sega had lots of appealing titles, I got mine for arcade ports as I was never out of the arcades at the time. Loved that system, games looked much better than the drab palette of the NES could manage IMO.

 

100% correct. Even in the days of the SNES Nintendo didn't give a shit about Europe. They didn't even distribute their own stuff! I know ow as I worked in retail at the time. Sega worked with big distribution companies, had fantastic TV adds and really knew the market. Nintendo were nothing in the days of the NES and even crap in the days of the SNES and then become ultra shit in the days of the N64. If it wasn't for Gameboy most wouldn't even know what Nintendo was. It was all about Sega until the days of the Saturn. Oh, Nintendos stupidly high prices on games didn't help either.

 

I thought the SNES did reasonably well in Europe. At least by then most of the games that came out in the states came out there, even a few games that didn't come out in the states came out on the PAL SNES.
That Twinbee Platformer and one of the Parodius games came out on the SNES in Europe but not here in the states.

 

lol I've realized about the NES existence after having my own N64.
My first impression was about the controller that was a clone of the Master System controller I knew and why the cartridges were so big and must be inserted into the console and it even had a manual cover. That was insane. I mean, really, you have to close this like a VCR? lol
So someone explained that Super Mario World was not the first Mario game.
How should I know? I remember a TV cartoon that featured Yoshi, some vegetables or whatever. Also the live action part of the cartoon was very very cool. Like the Chuck Norris cartoon had. n_n

 

It did, I knew quite a few people who had a NES and lots with a SNES. Towards the end of the 16 bit era the SNES was more popular with my friends especially after the release of SF2, Star Fox and Doom however it was always there and was good competition for the Megadrive throughout it's lifespan.

The established franchises on the SNES was the reason a lot of my friends held off to buy an N64 instead of a PS1.

 

The perception of Sega's success in Europe probably depends on where in Europe you're thinking of. In the UK, from all I know, Sega was a much bigger thing than Nintendo. However, while I don't have any data to back this up - I'm just going off of my own memory here -, I'm pretty sure that elsewhere (say, Germany) Nintendo and Sega were much closer to each other in terms of market share and mindshare. At least during the SNES and N64 era, which admittedly isn't quite what the thread's about - I can only guess that maybe home computers played a bigger role during the 8-bit and early 16-bit era here than any console? (C64, Amiga, Atari ST...)

From my own memory, in my part of the country, among my circles of friends during the mid to late 90s... in terms of consoles, Nintendo was the thing. I remember SNES and Game Boy games being advertised on TV (ex. Zelda ALttP, Super Metroid, Super Mario Land 2) while I only barely remember one or two Sega commercials (and not what they advertised), I remember playing SNES at a friend's house (Goof Troop, of all games) but don't think I played Mega Drive or Master System until emulators were a thing (Sonic 3 on DGen), I remember getting a Game Boy even before it became big again thanks to Pokemon (Zelda LA, Tetris, Donkey Kong Land) but cannot remember anyone owning nor me wanting a Game Gear or Master System.

To be fair, the guy who had Goof Troop on SNES also had a Mega Drive, tho we never actually played it, I'm pretty sure the Master System converter I own was originally his, and he gave it to me much later and after his MD died or something, and I did initially want a Saturn instead of a PSX or N64, but I can't quite recall why - I think the system just looked cool and the game titles sounded interesting...?

Again, that's all based on my own memories. If someone's got any actual sales numbers etc. for both companies for mainland Europe, feel free to correct me, I'd honestly love to see them!

 

> barely remember one or two Sega commercials (and not what they advertised)
They focused on brand recognition, rather than individual games.
youtu.be/CLb4XY1AYcE
youtu.be/eqfy0Q12BNc
Somewhat similar to Sony's "Third Place" line of ads.

 

That one might've been the one I was thinking of, the guy with the white jacket looks familiar. And I guess it did work on me in terms of brand recognition, to some extend - I knew what Sega and the MD were, and as I mentioned, later wanted a Saturn - even though they didn't translate into any actual hardware and software sales from me.

 

I remember 64 games being close to $120 for some titles.

 

Not really. There was always a wait for a new SNES games. E while Mega Drive stuff was always being released. If it wasn't for Street Fighter there would have been no SNES in the UK. Their stuff was distributed via T.H.E. and they were always batching that Nintendo were awful to deal with.

 

Yeah, in the US it seemed bigger games cost more (more memory games, not necessarily popularity), though even cheaper Players Choice rereleases were more expensive than Greatest Hits PS1 games. The cost of making carts and their limited data are two of the biggest things that killed the N64.

 

Totally agree xdaniel. European Master System and NES marketshares paved the way for future successes and failures of what came after. Sega has never been that successfull. To this day France for instance is seen as a Nintendo country. They still outperform there compared to other EU territory like UK or GSA.

 

For me, as a UK resident, the reason for wanting a Master System back in the day was because of all the arcade ports, like Shinobi, Afterburner, R-Type, Hang-On and Space Harrier. My exposure to Sega arcade titles at a young age was what turned me into a hardcore Sega fan back when I was growing up. I recently read 'Console Wars' and it's interesting how the book notes how the Genesis was struggling in America before the arrival of Sonic the Hedgehog. I'd bought my Megadrive waaay before Sonic came onto the scene and for me, again, it was the Sega arcade titles that persuaded me to go the Megadrive route. I'm sure this was the case for a lot of people in Europe, where I believe the Megadrive started off strong and kept going strong right up until Sega started muddying the waters with unnecessary peripherals like the 32X and Sega CD. I think UK games mags like Mean Machines, S the Sega Mag and C&VG really helped to whet my appetite for the Sega 16 bit, after all the amazing looking screenshots of stuff like Golden Axe and Revenge of Shinobi.