What's Next for Sega?
It’s been a long time since I have done an editorial, but I decided to talk a little bit about what’s in store for Sega in the future.
I can remember the one day back in the Christmas of ‘92, or was it ‘93? I can’t remember. Anyway, I was at my cousin’s house for Christmas, and I was really eager to open up my gifts. I guess I was expecting the usual things, like toys, or a book, or something. But low and behold, the biggest box turned out not to be another train set or something like that, but my very first system, the Sega Genesis.
My brother and I rushed over to the TV, and after managing to finally get the system going, I was playing my very first game, Sonic the Hedgehog.
At the time, Sega was a revolutionary company. They introduced revolutionary concepts and ideas, that were miles ahead of anything the NES had to offer, or Nintendo for that matter. Their game lineup was great, and I spent countless hours playing Sonic, Cool Spot, and other classics. But as the years wore on, and as technology got better and better, I began to play with my Genesis less and less. 1995 saw the release of Nintendo 64, and after finally obtaining the system, my good ‘ol reliable Sega Genesis never saw the light of day again.
It may have looked like Sega was ready to step down as a hardware maker, but ‘95-‘96 saw the release of the Sega Saturn, which was ‘da-bomb’. Just to compare, it took the N64 1 day to sell 30,000 units, PlayStation 1 week and the Sega Saturn…32 weeks. Clearly something was wrong, as the months wore on, and unsold Saturn’s began piling up in warehouses, people thought that Sega was done for good. But then….
The Sega DreamCast, the highly toted next generation machine, had come out, and what a sight it was. Now most believed that Sega had a firm hand in the next gen market, and that Sega’s success as a console developer, rather than a game developer, was imminent. However, with PS2 and GameCube ready to put their molds into the next generation market, and loyal Sega game developers (Sonic Team) ready to start developing for other systems, what should Sega do?
Send in your comments to NGN Online on what you think the future for Sega is. I’ll post your comments right on this page!