Sony is fucked up. Most of their market was from 14 year olds playing GTA, but now, no way these kid have enough cash from their summer job to pay the machine, no way their parents will buy the damn thing and GTA isnt as exclusive as it was, the xbox 360 version will even feature exclusive downloadable content.They think they are invicible and in full control ("We have built up a certain brand equity over time since the launch of PlayStation in 1995 and PS2 in 2000 that the first five million are going to buy it, whatever it is, even it didn't have games.") and can do anything they want, but look at the drop in market share they will get. The playstation brand isnt as "cool" as it was either.
Dunno, most people say "playstation" instead of videogames, and sony is the first company to rule supreme for 2 generations in a row. Not even nintendo nor SEGA were able to do that, and even then when they ruled we had a BI-console market, meanwhile the PSX has to compete in a triple-console enviroment (Saturn-N64) and PS2 was in a quad-console war (DC-Xbox-GC) and while it didnt had the same level of market penetration the PSX had, it did mantain a big 65-70% of the market, the same level the Genesis had during the 16bit heyday.
Despite the fact that Sega gave Nintendo a good run in North America during the 16-bit generation, Nintendo pretty much held the crown. Not sure about Europe, but they were the only player to be huge in both Asia and North America. They definitely won during the 8-bit days.
1. People referred to videogames by Atari, Nintendo, and Sega at various points as well. 2. Nintendo ruled during the NES and SNES days. Sega was good competition during the 16-bit era... but most would probably still say the SNES came out on top. 3. During the "supposed" quad console war, Sega was already on their way out and had nowhere near the capital to match Sony's marketing blitz, Nintendo's console was very lackluster (sorry GC fans), and the Xbox was Microsoft's first time on the market. Now, you COULD argue that the PS1 was Sony's first time on the market as well, but seeing as how Sega and Nintendo virtually handed Sony the market over on a silver platter due to unmeasurable incompetence within both companies, such a comparison is rather invalid.
There's no doubt ninty won at the last moment during the 16bits, but the final market share wasnt as big as Genesis one during the heyday (92-93). On the other hand, Sony won two generations with a market share that never went below 60%. In other words, they have always been the #1. About incompetence, well I wouldnt call it like that, more like arrogance, both from SEGA and ninty. Now with the final specs of the PS3 we could assume sony has become arrogant too...
Good point. Though as for incompetence, two names: 1. Bernie Stolar 2. Square And thus Sony's rise to power began.
Stolar was the guy who replaced Kalinske in SOA right? BTW, by square you mean the big flop FF:SW was?
Yes. Bernie Stolar was the man who replaced Kalinske and, IMO, his handling of the Saturn in the US is one of the main reasons behind Sega's demise. And by Square I was referring to Nintendo driving them off and into the open arms of Sony.
Who can forget that? anyways, the guy is in the Xbox division now right? BTW he was still in charge during the DC years too?
No, Bernie Stolar was kicked out or left Sega shortly after the DC launched. Despite all the hatred I (and probably most other Saturn fans) harbor towards the man, he did an extremely good job with the Dreamcast launch. Also, I believe it was Bernie who dressed up as Sonic at some Sony golfing event and replaced their golf balls with golf balls bearing the Dreamcast logo. But I still hate him. The person that replaced him was Peter Moore. Who, while very witty in his jabs toward Sony and loved by the Xbox crowd, sold out the US DC fanbase by giving MS Shenmue II as a Xbox exclusive in the states so that he could get a cushy job with MS. So, Peter Moore is the MS guy you're thinking of, and he is also hated by the majority of Sega fanatics I have come across (actually, he's generally hated more than Bernie Stolar in some circles since he is blamed for the cancelation of Propeller Arena as well as rejecting the idea of Streets of Rage 4 for the Dreamcast).
Indeed! Oh how I miss Sega as a console maker. Imagine if Sega, Nintendo, and NEC were still the big companies. Well, NEC before they went insane and thought people wanted consoles that focused mostly on FMV anime movies.
Sega ruled Nintendo in Europe in the 16 bit days. Mega Drive was far more popular than the SNES. That could be partly due to the piss poor distribution it got though. Yakumo
Just like Brazil. Sega/TecToy dominated the market with the Master System and Mega Drive, although there were tons of Nintendo clones avaiable. TecToy started to go bad when Nintendo finally arrived, and later with consoles based on CD's. The Saturn was just to expensive and with the lack of decent marketing (they used the same lame american ads), people didn't seem to care about it. Even with extremely popular arcades like Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter being converted for it. Plus TecToy never released much games for it, specially the good ones. It's sad because the PlayStation was never officially released down here, and also was expensive. But because of piracy , it never gave the Saturn a chance. By the time TecToy decided to release the Dreamcast, again no decent marketing, a handful of games,... Now they sell cheap DVD's, Karaokes, MP3 players and those Master System and Mega Drive combos.
Yeah Sega always seems to be #2 when you compare it with any of the other legends. But it's place is history is solid. They've put out an amazing variety of products over the years and I think only Sega and Nintendo can really lay claim to taking video games to the next level in terms of public consciousness. They might have been squeezed out by bigger pockets but they put up a good fight and put out good consoles right up until the end.
