Found this at Joystiq. " 2old2play has compiled a nice analysis of what may have been Sega's demise in the console business. The piece faults Sega CD, 32X genesis add-on, and the Saturn systems for the company's downfall despite a strong late showing from the Dreamcast. From the article: "Sega started as a small business from which spawned a gaming giant. As with all great Empires, they eventually rot, crumble, and fall from their own ever-grasping hand. After the Genesis [the Company] tried to go in too many directions at once and spread their resources too thin." If there's one thing we miss, it's those commercials with that guy that always yelled out "SEGA!" in the quickest and catchiest way possible. One more time, loud as you can, how does it go?" Article --> http://www.2old2play.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=323&mode=nested&order=0&thold=0
Not really, I hope not anyway since it's all very common knowledge. Mildly interesting opinion piece though.
The thing about these reports is that they are always based on an American's point of view or at least from that snippet above it looks like. The Saturn was anything bar a failure in Japan, It was the Mega CD and mostly the 32X which were the dumb moves. Yakumo
I agree with you. Sega of America really killed any chance of success of the Saturn. Anyway, i just thought the article was nice because it talks about Sega wrong moves, like Sega CD Dev issues, Nomad, and internal battle 32X x Saturn ( I remember that i had a Mega Drive at this time and had no idea what to buy ) and how this affected them with the Dreamcast (when they finally got their act back together).
this is true, sega for some odd reason forced the usa side to launch the system earlier then it was suppose to, as well as keep the price it was when it came out ($400). It had something to do with sega of japan feeling a bit worried about psx launch as well as their distaste for sega of americas decision to go with the 32x which bombed over the 32x. Well its not really their fault much, as the genesis 2 was nothing more then a genesis that could display more colors. So to not have to release it, sega of america decided that it would be better to just have an add on that actually had some inenhancments as an alternative to sega of japans proposal. But really it was going on for years since sega of japan i read didnt like alot of Tom Kalinske decisions, such as lowering prices that they thought were unresonalbe and bundling sonic with the genesis.
Shoichiro Irimajiri, Bernie Stolar, and Peter Moore were all paid off by Sony and Microsoft to run Sega into the ground. h:
I do belive that one of the biggest mistakes Sega did was forcing/ignoring the former Sega of America President, Tom Kalinske. There's a very cool article in Wired (http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/9.05/history.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=) where he says things like: Kalinske: The specs for our next-generation console, the Saturn, didn't look very good, and it was way too expensive - Sega Japan told us it was going to retail at $549. Then Jim Clark, the chair of Silicon Graphics, says, "I've got this chipset that's a derivative of the MIPS chipset that would be perfect for your system." We call Sega Japan and say this thing will be cheaper than Saturn, and that it will move polygons 50 percent quicker. The Sega hardware group comes over and says that the chip is too big, it won't be efficient to manufacture. Forget it. When I tell Jim Clark this, he says, "What do I do with this now?" And I say, "Well, I'm sure there are a few folks who might be interested in buying it." And he says, "Yeah, I've already talked to Nintendo." The rest is N64 history. Kalinske: I felt horrible about bringing Saturn to market. I was being forced to introduce the machine with a very high price, and its performance was terrible. We knew it was terrible. Sega Japan said, "You've got to bring Saturn out before PlayStation." Which we did - it came out four months earlier than PlayStation. Then they said we'd only have 70,000 ready by then. Well, how can you introduce a platform with only 70,000 units? I sent a memo to Japan in 1995, saying Sega would be better off just becoming a software company - we could support Sony, and even Nintendo. They sent a reply: "We will always be in the hardware business." I was dissapointed with the article at 2old2play, tough. I mean it was entertaining, but nothing more. I agree with Paulo and Yakumo. And I think sayin999 got the right idea. If you read Sega's history on Steven Kent's book, you'll se that most of the worst mistakes from Sega outside Japan had to do with SOJ forcing things that made no sense for the other territories. The article seemed more about nostalgia than trying to be objective and give new ideas or information regarding the rise and fall of Sega. Wich is okay, I think, but I would really like to see a more detailed account, especially one that is not USA centric. BTW, got the link from the Wired article from http://www.sega-16.com Very nice site!
Exactly! That's just the sort of arrogance that was typical of Saturn-era SOJ, which is now seemingly creeping in at Sony with its claims of the PS3 being a supercomputer that will ultimately turn out to be an overpriced and underpowered system for consumers while also too complex for most developers. In my opinion it's only a matter of time now before this former giant falls as a result of its new-found complacency and ignorance for common sense, though at least Nintendo continues to prove that risk-taking doesn't always have to be a bad thing if the strategies and marketing behind such decisions are right. After all, how many times has Sony (or most hardware manufacturers, for that matter) relied on Nintendo's cutting-edge position? Let's not forget who first came up with the d-pad and vibrating add-on and made these work successfully. Sure, there were companies before Nintendo, but not even Sega could get enough Samba De Amigo controllers out into the world to make a decent impression, so it looks as if Nintendo will be seen as pioneers of motion detection as well. However, not even Nintendo is perfect - where was Mario and his friends when online gaming first broke into the mainstream?
Wanna know something weird? The Sega Saturn was released in Brazil a week before the USA launch. I wonder why... It's indeed a great site. Just finished reading the Sega SVP Chip feature article. :thumbsup:
While is good that among all this nintendo fanboyism there's a guy who writes about old school without saying "nintendo ROCKS!", this dude has a half baked idea of what was happening at the time, for example: It was "Genesis does what Nintendon't" Thats basic stuff, anyway, once I found a web with long (and I mean VERY LONG) articles on every SEGA console to the date, explaining what happened at the time and why some of them (you know which) flopped, big time.
Probably for the same reason some Nintendo releaseas were available earlier (from a week (Street Fighter 2) to a month (Nintendo 64)) in Mexico before the rest of North America: Mexico was crazy addicted to anything Nintendo, and I get the feeling maybe Brazil was the same for Sega? Still, weird Both you and the article are correct! You see, there was another american TV ad where the lyrics were like..."Genesis does! Genesis does! You can’t do this on Nintendo!" and included shots of Joe Montana and Buster Douglas mouthing "Does!"
I'd half-assumed it was because there was less beurocratic red tape to get through (health and safety checks or whatever). I'd imagine that the demand for the N64 etc was higher in America just purely in terms of numbers of people waiting to pay full price.
