Reprise wrote:I can't for the life of me work out what it could be. Sega and a revolution, as well as it being "a scoop as big as the Wired PS5 reveal", just makes no sense at all. Things I have been expecting from Sega are... well the new Sonic game and mostly predictable stuff. Maybe a Dreamcast mini at some point, but I'm not expecting one.
It's a weird one. Some kind of exclusivity deal or a buy out isn't particularly exciting, nor am I expecting one...
Right? This is what I can't get my head around. At this point, I am stumped as to what it could be revolutionary. Racketboy is totally correct, Sega just doesn't have the cash to get back into the console market. Same with SpaceBooger, the market is too crowded. Sega's got a deathwish if it wants to compete alongside Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. It'd be hard to rival even Atari and Intellivision, too.
Perhaps this is all just a ruse. Sega is making a hard turn into a VR system, or they're going the Konami route and going to corner the pachinko market.
"We at Sega are proud to announce a new and exciting title that the fans have demanded. Introducing Flappy Hog! Sonic has sprouted wings and needs your help to beat Dr. Robotnik. Can you help him flap through the pipe obstacles to save the planet once again?"
Maybe Sega are exiting the video game market and going into new territories. Professional wrestling, featuring famous Sega characters making their wrestling debut like Ryo Hazuki, Blaze, Axel, Sarah Bryant, Alex Kidd and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Own: Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Playstation 1, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, PS Vita, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, Xbox 360
Lets pretend for a moment that sega did jump back into the console market, what would they need to do to be successful? I think the potential is there as they have tons of IP's and a pretty rabid fanbase of gamers who still long for the glory days of the genesis and think the dreamcast is the best system ever made.
Here is what I think sega would need to do in order to be competitive:
1) they would need a subscription service that sets up virtual consoles with all of their old systems, up to and including the dreamcast. A good virtual line up with strong emulators for stuff like the Saturn and dreamcast would be very appealing to sega fans and I can imagine loads of people wanting to sign on to experience their huge catalog of games. Along with this subscription service they would need an option to buy, I know I would absolutely love to buy a digital copy of stuff like panzer dragoon saga and other impossible to find games and I'm not even really a sega guy.
2) They would need a solid launch line up of good sega 1st party titles, a good sonic game would be necessary but supplementing it with stuff like phantasy star online 3, streets of rage 5, and a few others would go a long way to attracting new gamers.
3) They would also need a long term plan and release schedule that slowly drips out new games, sega has IP s up the wazoo and many of them have not been touched in decades, give us a new panzer dragoon, shining force 4, dragon force 3, jet grind radio whatever, house of the dead 4, golden axe and so much more, maintaining a quality line up of games like this would absolutely set the new sega console apart from its peers
4) they would need to have a system that is on par with current gens, easy to develop for and attract 3rd party suppport like they did in the genesis days.
I think if sega did those things they would have a fighting chance and would set themselves apart from the current gens enough to stand out.
an alternate strategy would be to go the Nintendo route and not directly compete with the others and instead make a less powerful, cheaper console that still follows points 1-3 above
Sega doesn't have the resources to float a full console of the sort that would be able to compete with Sony or Microsoft, but I could see them doing a convertible console sort of like the Switch, though it would have to be lower cost and meant to complement the Switch rather that compete directly with it. All that said, I don't think it will be any kind of console or hardware announcement. I think it will be either about software schedules for the coming year or two or some kind of partnership or tie-up with one of the other big players, or even Apple or Polymega. I don't think we'll hear they're being sold. They bought Atlus and seem to be doing OK on that purchase. I could see some sort of merger, though. Or I could see them, say, joining the Bandai Namco stable. Or maybe buying Red Corporation or something like that. Maybe they'll pick up a strong indie developer or two with the goal of revisiting some fallow titles, since their in-house teams seem largely tied up and are probably not up to the task of reviving old franchises effectively.
I honestly can't envision Sega re-entering the console manufacture industry and being successful given both how wildly different the industry and Sega itself is today. What could Sega do to encourage gamers to either buy their console instead of Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo's, or at least in addition to one of those consoles? What niche could they find? And where would they get the capital needed from?
I would love a new Sega console that had a 'virtual console' with loads of classic Sega console and arcade games available (particularly games that haven't been re-released much - I'm looking at you Saturn library!) and it would be even more awesome if it also had brand new games released for it, particularly if Sega resurrected a bunch of dormant IPs and made them exclusive to the console. That would be amazing. But likely? Not in a million years. I mean, if they have new games to make or old games to sell, why endeavour a high risk venture like getting back into the hardware business? There's consoles available with large install bases they can release games for.
Own: Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Playstation 1, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, PS Vita, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, Xbox 360
