Breetai wrote:I don't really think the Sega CD was very successful. Yes, it wasn't a complete failure. It sold enough to keep itself alive, but that was about it. What good software was there?
It sold several million units. Wikipedia lists 6 million units, a quote from Gamepro that also lists the Dreamcast as one of the "worst-selling consoles of all time". The SCD was so popular it sold out and they made several hardware revisions.
And yes, I don't think there are many games out of the system but while Snatcher or Earthbound were a complete failure in the market, Night Trap and Sewer shark sold more than a million units each and were so popular than they sparked a debate in the congress about game violence. Hell the same Gamepro that listed it as a "failure" originaly gave Sewer Shark a perfect score.
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General_Norris wrote:The Sega CD was quite succesful, it was the 32X that shouldn't have ever been made.
I don't really think the Sega CD was very successful. Yes, it wasn't a complete failure. It sold enough to keep itself alive, but that was about it. What good software was there? It has some good RPGs and.... really, just a handful of good stuff here and there. A few good shoot 'em ups, a couple good beat 'em ups, a few nice platformers, and a whole lotta junk (aka. way too much FMV and lame Genesis ports). Of all that, which was the most heavily promoted? The junk!
SO MUCH POTENTIAL with really minimal follow through. Was it worth owning? Yes, but barely.
I wouldn't really call that successful. I would call it a great idea with a very misdirected effort, followed by a piss-poor effort.
Yeah it always perplexes me when people refer to the Sega CD as "successful." I suppose this is totally anecdotal, but I've known anyone (either in 1993 or today) that owned a Sega CD that wasn't a "hardcore gamer" or collector. It certainly wasn't a console for the masses.
I'm glad some people mentioned it was just the NA release of the Saturn that was botched. I've always been under the impression it did great in Japan. The US got like a 1/4th of its library, if even.
I supposed 6 million units is nothing to sneeze at...but then again, compared to the 37.3-40.9 Million Genesis/Mega Drives sold...that's around 14-16% of Mega Drive owners who bought a Mega CD. Not sure how those figures change between regions, but it does give a pretty good idea of how well it sold. The 32x sold 665,000.....
Atari 2600 Jr., NES, Gameboy, Genesis 1 and 2, Saturn, Virtual Boy, Gameboy Advance (with Supercard SD), Playstation (With Goldfinger), Nintendo 64, Playstation 2(modded), Nintendo DS (Fat) with Edge
I wouldn't say the Sega CD was successful, but I wouldn't say it was a failure, either. It always seemed to me like it more or less evened out. I'll agree with everyone in the world, though; the 32x was a god-fucking-awful idea.
I think Sega shot themselves early on. The 32x definitely shouldn't have been made, and I, personally, think they should have stuck by the Genesis and A) not redesigned it 3 times and B) not released the Sega CD. Had the effort and money that went into the two revisions of the Genesis, the CD, and the 32x gone into the Saturn, I think it would have done fine. It's major shortcoming was its 3D capabilities, and like I said, had they not wasted money on prolonging the Genesis and invested more in the Saturn (and not waste money even planning the Neptune), they could have improved that aspect of its hardware.
I really think the Saturn had a chance to do well. I honestly think even with their stupid moves with the Genesis add-ons, it could have done decently had they, like several people have said, just stuck by their 2D games and what ports their console could handle and marketed the shit out of them. The Wii's graphics are WAY weaker than the PS3 and 360, but even with the motion controls aside, they stand by their product, they just market the aspects other than graphics. Sega should have done that.
Had the Saturn done well, I think the Dreamcast could have done well. It needed another year or so of development and a little stronger hardware, but it could have made it. Hell, like I said with the Saturn, I think it could have made it with the hardware it had if Sega hadn't practically bankrupted itself already.
Cronozilla wrote:Yeah but was the 32X a worse idea than launching the thing as a stand alone console like they originally intended?
Well, no, but that's like saying that jumping into a pool of lava isn't as bad an idea as drinking hydrochloric acid. They're still both REALLLLLY stupid ideas.
ElkinFencer10 wrote: I, personally, think they should have stuck by the Genesis and A) not redesigned it 3 times
One of Sega's best policies was it's redesign policy, it kept costs down, making each version cheaper to make than the previous one.
Europe has dozens of versions of the SMS and Megadrive because it was cheaper to make them there than to build them somewhere else and ship and the ties they made with hardware manufacturers made it easy to distribute their consoles while Nintendo never managed to get the NES to the level Sega was getting the SMS.
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