The Rise and Fall of Sega Enterprises

[Pulsar_t]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... nterprises

[jay_red]

Very good read thanks!

[bacardipr05]

Ive only skimmed the article. I love Sega and shed a tear the day i found out the Dreamcast was cut off. Even when i heard and it was made official i still didnt want to accept. I think Sega did many right things with the Dreamcast release. Some mistakes where made but not as bad as the Saturn. I remember trying to convince people to buy the Dreamcast i managed a few buyers and it was a hard sell. Sega;s reputation was so far damaged, Sega did manage to convert a few of these people but not enough. Communication was .a big problem between SOJ, SOA and SOE. Its like the head didnt control the feet and the feet didnt listen to the head and the arms where just dangling. I also felt and i know they where bleeding money SOJ gave up the fight to soon with the Dreamcast. Fact is even before it was revealed that Sega was going to give up on the Dreamcast they where already developing games for the other platforms. Much as Sega tried to keep it a secret rumors where already leaked that Sega was going to abandon the Dreamcast. The battle i feel was lost with the Saturn. Upon learning the power of PS1, Sega should of scrapped and rebuilt the Saturn instead of adding multiple processors driving up the price and complexity of the sytem. Even if they would of meant delaying the Saturn a few months. Most of i hate Bernie stolar...The End...

[Yancakes]

Good read. In my opinion it is missing one thing, a fact that is typically ignored and is pretty redeeming for Sega, since they weren't involved in the act at all really.

It's a well known fact that Nintendo's dickheadery caused Square to jump ship to the Playstation in the mid-late 90's. Something that is typically ignored, however, is that the Saturn and the Playstation were in heavy competition until Final Fantasy 7 was announced, at which point the Playstation took off and left the Saturn in its dust.

That being said, by this stage Sega already lacked the competitive edge to keep up.

[Erik_Twice]

I think the article is decent tough it has several mistakes or omissions that ruin the whole picture. It seems that no article on the downfal of Sega ever includes the arcade division, which was (and still is), Sega's biggest money-maker.

Calling the Sega CD a failure is one of my pet peeves. It sold more than 6 million units and those terrible FMV games like Sewer Shark and Night Trap sold more than one million copies each, quality didn't have anything to do with the sales.

Something that is typically ignored, however, is that the Saturn and the Playstation were in heavy competition until Final Fantasy 7 was announced, at which point the Playstation took off and left the Saturn in its dust.

Agreed. That it was also easily pirated and Sony's distribution models are also commonly ignored.



Anyways, I think the Dreamcast idn't save SEGA only because people bought into the hype of the PS2 and it's DVD player. People knew how good the games on the Dreamcast were but they didn't buy it.

[bacardipr05]

Yeah the Ps2 juggernaut hype also diminished sales. How do you fight hype. I also always wonder if the the Dreamcast somehow launched with a DVD player would things be different.

[ZeroAX]

This article is pretty bare bones. Hardly anything new. I guess not a lot of gaming sites mention the economic environment in Japan, which is the only new thing I learned from that article.

[retrosportsgamer]

Calling the Sega CD a failure is one of my pet peeves. It sold more than 6 million units and those terrible FMV games like Sewer Shark and Night Trap sold more than one million copies each, quality didn't have anything to do with the sales.

I just said the same thing to someone the other day. It's a common misconception that is a pet peeve of mine also. Everyone was doing FMV games during that time, and Nintendo wanted in with Sony for the same thing.

The 32x -> Saturn timeline is where things get bad.

[BoringSupreez]

Something that is typically ignored, however, is that the Saturn and the Playstation were in heavy competition until Final Fantasy 7 was announced, at which point the Playstation took off and left the Saturn in its dust.

Agreed. That it was also easily pirated and Sony's distribution models are also commonly ignored.

I think the reason the competition between PS1 and Saturn is typically forgotten is because for most people, the PS1 didn't start rocking until 1997 (when it started blowing Saturn away.) It was in competition with N64 for a longer, more memorable period of time.

[ZeroAX]

It was in competition with N64 for a longer, more memorable period of time.

Only in the states (where I think the N64 sold like 80% of its units. Probably less, but I remember when I saw the sales by region the N64 did amazingly well in the US and very bad everywhere else.

The Saturn was actually kind of a success in Japan (specially compared to all OTHER Sega consoles).

And Europe is Sony land. It was the first mainstream console here. Well.....if you don't count handhelds.