The Double Edged Sword 03.27.08: Sega's Consoles

Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 03.27.2008

A Hall of Shame induction turns into something completely different instead. In The Double Edged Sword, I take a look at Sega's Consoles and decide which were actually good, bad, or somewhere in between.

Welcome to the very first and maybe even last edition of The Double Edged Sword. For those who are wondering what happened to the Hall of Shame, it isn't gone. At least, it might not be gone. Here's the explanation:

Last week I was doing Part 1 of a two part series about the failing consoles of two companies that used to be on top of the hardware game: Atari and Sega. The first part was all about Atari, and I only mentioned Sega briefly. Yet somehow, I get 14 out of 15 comments relating to how I'm a Sega hater because at the end of the column I said there were "plenty of failures" for that company. It was almost as if I was getting feedback for an entirely different column I wrote.

Some complained I was going to make things seem so one sided, even though it was the "Hall of SHAME." But apparently it seemed like I was not allowed to bash Sega because of all the good they had done for the industry. The problem is, Sega almost had done an equally amount of good things and bad things.

Many thoughts ran through my head. Should I just ignore these commenters as annoying fanboys and continue what I was going to do? Should I take their comments and make them seem like idiots? Or should I just cancel the column because with so many comments on it already, it felt like I had already written it? Or maybe just post "Sega sucks" and be done with it, and wait for the hits to skyrocket over those two words.

Much later on, I instead remembered about an idea for a column I had, but never really put it to use since I was already working on the Hall of Shame. But now, with all this talk about the good and bad of Sega, I think it's time I give this idea a test run. This is The Double Edged Sword.

Here's how The Double Edged Sword works: I'm going to take a topic and split it into three different sides. One side will be called "Sharp" and talk about all the positive aspects about the topic. One side will be called "Rusted" and will focus on all the negative aspects about the topic. Finally, the last side is "Double Edged", where it has both good and bad qualities relating to it so it would lie somewhere in the middle. Depending on how all this goes, this could be my new weekly column, but I'll see if I can do a Hall of Shame now and again.

Well, in case you haven't already noticed, this week's topic is Sega's Consoles. Sega made so many consoles that they fit in all three categories, and sadly, because people on both the consumer side and the industry side were getting so sick of the "Rusted" ones that they couldn't get into what was quite possibly their "Sharpest" one of all before leaving the hardware market.

SHARP





The MegaDrive, better known as Sega Genesis – Ah, Sega's first true success into the hardware market that started the biggest console war since the crash of '84.

Even though Nintendo was monopolizing the game industry, Sega was finding success in the Arcades with it's System 16 board. After the Master System did little to stop Nintendo, Sega decided to take it's System 16 board and rework it as a video game console. Because it used the exact same board with slight changes, they could easily build up a library games by porting over it's popular Arcade games. The console would go under the name Mega Drive, and because of a trademark infringement, would be called the Genesis in America.

The Genesis launched in 1989 as an NES killer, and at first it was thanks to the near-perfect Arcade ports. But then things started to slow down about a year later when those Arcade ports were turning out to be the only great games to buy for that system, and the ports were criticized for being too short as console games. Meanwhile, Nintendo finally decided to take Sega seriously and quickly created the SNES, and pre-orders for that system was reaching as high as sales for the Genesis. Sega was going to need some sort of killer app to finally make a real dent against Nintendo. In 1991, Sega created the mascot that would bring them to new heights much like Mario did with Nintendo. Artist Naoto Ōshima, designer Hirokazu Yasuhara and programmer Yuji Naka together gave birth to Sonic the Hedgehog, and when the first Sonic game was released, Genesis sales skyrocketed. Sonic was such a success that he replaced Alex Kidd as Sega's official mascot, and would replace Altered Beast as the game that came with the Genesis.

The Genesis is not only known for all the great games it had, but it also contained some of the most memorable marketing of why Nintendo sucked and why Sega ruled. Sega would come up with the term "Blast Processing" to show off just how smooth and fast Sonic was and how slow and old Mario was. Sega's commercials would even show footage of Nintendo games to make them look pathetic. One commercial I clearly remember (I still have it on a VHS tape somewhere) a customer goes in to buy an SNES, and the salesman is happy to give him one until the customer sees the Genesis right next to the SNES. The SNES is showing off Super Mario World, but the customer is more impressed with Sonic the Hedgehog because he goes faster and it's got more colors. He then also notices that the Genesis is cheaper than the SNES. Despite the effort of the salesman, the customer changes his mind and asks for the Genesis instead. You will never see the big three put out commercials like that these days, and in a way it's a shame. Plus, who can ever forget the slogan "Genesis can do what Nintendon't," causing Nintendo to respond with "Nintendo is what Genesis isn't?" I have to say, the 16-bit days definitely had the best video game commercials, and we have Sega to thank for that.

Another reason for the Genesis' success was it's marketing towards the older gamers. Nintendo's games were constantly meant for the younger crowd, while Sega had games meant for people sick of playing such "kiddy" games. Aside from Sonic, it also had more violent games than SNES, and one infamous incident relating to this is that of Mortal Kombat. MK was reaching Grand Theft Auto levels of protest from parents and politicians over the violence this game had (remember that this was before the ESRB, so games really didn't have any rating system). So when it was ported to the consoles, Nintendo had all the blood cut out of the game. Sega? They kept it exactly the way it was for the Genesis, and because of that, a LOT more copies were sold for the Genesis rather than the SNES. Genesis truly was the home of the older crowd.

Despite the close race it had with Nintendo in the 16-bit war and for a while even beating Nintendo in U.S. market share, the SNES would ultimately wind up with more worldwide sales than the Genesis. But the damage had been done and the message was clear: Nintendo's monopolistic reign was over. Sega was the true competitive rival of Nintendo, and that feud would carry on to the next generation of game systems.

Well, at least that's what it should've been had it not been for so many mistakes on Sega's part, but we'll get to that later.

The Dreamcast – The story of the Dreamcast is saddening, because Sega got things right and brought new innovations to consoles, yet it barely lasted 3 years.

After years of struggling in the 32/64-bit era when PlayStation and Nintendo 64 totally creamed the Saturn, Sega decided it was time to make a new console. After a huge shake-up in upper management, Sega began work on the console that had to become a great success in order to pay off their debt (reaching $1 billion) or Sega would go the way of Atari. In November 1998, the Dreamcast was launched in Japan, and sales were good. Then on 9/9/99, the Dreamcast came to America, and again, sales for the launch were good. Things seemed to be looking up for Sega.

The biggest factor that would help the Dreamcast in sales was that it had online gaming. Even though the Dreamcast wasn't the first console to have online gaming, it was the first that got it right. 16-bit consoles tried to go online, but the service wasn't that good and it was never really utilized anyway. The Dreamcast had a built-in modem right from the get-go, and all you really needed was to sign up to Sega's online service "Sega.Net" and you can start playing games like NFL 2K1 and Phantasy Star Online. Plus, much like all the current consoles do now, you can download additional content for your games and save them to the VMU, Sega's handheld memory card. I've tried out the service when I got Phantasy Star Online and when I used to have dial-up, and it worked pretty fine. Meanwhile, I now have a cable connection and anytime I try to play Smash Bros Brawl on "With Anyone,", I either get a laggy match or no match at all. To think that I've had an easier online experience with a console that came out 7 years before the Wii is pathetic on Nintendo's part.

The Dreamcast also had one of the best library of games for a console. You wanted fighting games? They exclusively had Soul Calibur, Power Stone, and the better versions of the Marvel vs. Capcom series. You wanted RPG games? Skies of Arcadia was as good as any Final Fantasy game. Online MMO your thing? You had Phantasy Star Online. You wanted Sports games? They had the 2K series, Ready 2 Rumble, and Virtua Tennis. You also had Sonic Adventure, Samba De Amigo, Crazy Taxi...the Dreamcast almost had everything. The Dreamcast had a lot of great games and finally brought GOOD online gaming to the consoles. That's usually the formula for a successful console that would make it last five years or beyond.

But the Dreamcast didn't last that long. It lasted about two and a half years before production was ceased, and Sega left the hardware market. HUH?! Why did a console that had such great games and unique features wind up being a failure?

In a way, it was Sega themselves. Sega had made so many mistakes in the past several years in the hardware market that consumers and game developers just couldn't trust Sega. EA decided to not release any of it's sports game on Dreamcast because of the failure Sega Saturn turned out to be. On top of that, Sony was going to release the PlayStation 2 the following year, and with that console being able to play DVD movies and being backwards compatible with PS1 games, it looked to be the more convincing choice. Dreamcast couldn't play DVDs, and Sega knew it would be a mistake to make the Dreamcast like that, but it just couldn't afford to make DVD playable Dreamcasts. So instead, they used a format of their own called GD-ROM. Plus, since Sega was making this format, it would keep away software pirates. Unfortunately, people were able to find a way to copy games on CDs and used that instead. So yeah, that kind of backfired on Sega.

The Dreamcast had some of the best games and exclusives, but the sins of the past and the popularity of Sony had claimed their toll on Sega, and the Dreamcast was discontinued in 2001. If that wasn't bad enough, in March 2001 Sega CEO Isao Okawa gave up $695 million worth of Sega and CSK stock to help Sega get through it's hard times after Dreamcast failed, and then passed away at the age of 74. Nowadays the Dreamcast still lives on mostly through emulations of consoles, home brew games, and the memories of many jaded gamers.

RUSTED





Genesis 32X – If you want to look at all the mistakes Sega can make when it comes to hardware, look no further then what is their most Rustiest of consoles.

The 32X was the second add-on for the Sega Genesis, created by Sega of America. Notice I said "second add-on", because Sega already had an add-on for the Genesis: Sega CD. Why did Sega create the 32X when they already had the Sega CD? It was because at first, the 32X was to be it's own console, but because it wasn't that much more powerful then the Genesis, it was changed to simply be an add-on that would enhance both the console and the Sega CD. But here was the even bigger problem: Sega of Japan was already working on a 32-bit system, the Sega Saturn. They never let Sega of America in on this until 32X was well underway. Why didn't SoJ decide to tell SoA to cancel the 32X altogether and just go with the Saturn? Maybe SoJ really liked fucking around with SoA, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, seeing how that's one of the reasons Sonic Xtreme was canceled.

The 32X launched with a $150 price tag with no packed-in game, and games ranging from $60 to $70. It's launch was almost botched because some of the games promised at launch didn't make it, and the only really good game to get was the arcade port of Star Wars. Meanwhile, the 32X after launch wasn't looking so good, because with news of Saturn and PlayStation about to be released, gamers decided that it was better to wait for those systems rather then buy the add-on, and sales were sinking fast. Then of course, you got the fact that the 32X had no true Sonic game. Genesis had one. Sega CD had one. Game Gear had one. What did 32X have? Knuckles Chaotix, which would of remained long forgotten if not for some of the Chaotix characters suddenly reappearing in Sonic Heroes. The game didn't actually have Sonic in it, and was hated by some for not being the 3D Sonic game they thought it would be when rumors about "Sonic 4" was going around. As if the 32X library by itself wasn't bad enough, Sega decided to release "Sega CD 32X" games, which required having BOTH add-ons to play them, and all of the titles were shitty Sega CD games to begin with. Who's brilliant idea was this?!

Only a few months after it's release, the 32X was already gaining much negative criticism. With the anticipation of Saturn and PlayStation, game developers were seeing the console as a stopgap measure for the transition period from 16-bit to 32-bit, and by the 2nd quarter of 1995, many companies had abandoned the 32X so they can focus on making games for the Saturn. Consumers were getting pretty peeved at Sega, because it was hard enough to be convinced to buy the Sega CD, but now they were being told to buy the 32X, and then really soon the Saturn? Oh, did I mention that the 32X only worked with the model II version of Genesis, and that if you had the original you would need to pay for additional cables? By the end of 1995, the 32X died a painful death and began the trend of Sega's imminent failure in the hardware market, not to mention showing how much SoJ and SoA didn't seem to get along with each other.

Sega Nomad – What in the blue hedgehog hell was the point of this thing? After the Game Gear saw some success, you'd think Sega would work on an even better version that wasn't such a battery eater. But instead, we get the Nomad, which wasn't even a real handheld gaming system, but rather just a glorified portable Genesis that would cost $180, which was more expensive then just a regular Genesis. Even though this one was portable, that feels like a rip-off, especially since as commenter Sega put it, "150 bucks was expensive".

The battery life of this thing was even worse. It was bad enough that just like the Game Gear, it took so many AA batteries and lasted about five hours. So Sega creates a rechargeable battery pack you can buy separately. Sounds like a great idea right? Until you realize that the adapter lasted even LESS time then regular batteries! And the damn thing cost $79! This was released in October 1995, a time when Sony just released the PlayStation in America and Sega had already debuted the Saturn. The Nomad was quickly forgotten by everyone.

Sega Neptune – This was supposed to be a stand-alone 32X that can also play Genesis games. It was originally going to cost $400, until it was changed to $200, and then Sega thought "fuck it" and canceled the project so it can work on just the Saturn.

Genesis CDX – Once again, Sega decided to create more pointless hardware. This was a console that combined the Sega CD and the Genesis as one console. It cost $400, which was just about the same price of buying both consoles separately. Oh, and it was barely compatible with the 32X. The console is apparently very rare to find these days, and I'm assuming it's because most of them have been deservingly destroyed.

DOUBLE-EDGED





The Master System – A lot of people will probably confuse this as Sega's first console, but it actually isn't. It's the third version of their SG-Mark 1000, but that only came out in Japan and isn't really remembered for much else.

The problem with the Master System was that, while it was such a success in Europe, it didn't do quite so well in America. With Nintendo controlling 90% of the video game market in America both through it's great game library and it's under-handed tactics with third-party companies, Sega didn't think it was worth it to put a lot of effort into trying to get the Master System to compete against Nintendo, so they let Tonka manufacture the console instead.

Tonka, as in the company that makes toy trucks? Yep. But hey, ColecoVision came from a leather company (Coleco stands for Connecticut Leather Company), so who knows, maybe Tonka could've made it work. But Tonka had no idea how to market a video game console, and it's popularity in North America had sunk. When Sega released the Genesis and it was becoming a success, they took the rights back from Tonka and remade the system. But it was pretty much too late as it was now a battle between the NES and Genesis, and soon the SNES would be coming. The Master System pretty much faded into obscurity and isn't really remembered by most gamers these days, though now the Virtual Console is coming out with Master System titles in the future.

It wasn't really such a bad console, but because of Nintendo's majority control on the North American game market, the Master System basically stood no chance of survival. But on the other hand, maybe it only looked that way because Sega wasn't putting a lot of effort into that console. Who knows? It could've been a great rival against the NES. But at least Sega started to get things really going with Genesis.

Sega CD – Much like the Dreamcast, people think the Sega CD was ahead of it's time. But unlike the Dreamcast, the Sega CD sucked.

The Sega CD was released as an add-on for the Sega Genesis in an attempt to keep that console alive with revolutionary new technology. I guess that whole "Blast Processing" thing was losing it's appeal. The technology was revolutionary alright, but it wasn't any fun. The Sega CD is notorious for having a huge library of games using Full Motion Video. These videos were acted out with real people instead of rendered game characters. Sounds great until you actually see these games in action. Night Trap, Slam City with Scottie Pippen, Kris Kross: Make My Video, and Sewer Shark are a few of the worst games you can ever play. The Sega CD also had a bunch of point and click games that the kind you'd find in the early PC days, and those were just outright boring.

But the biggest problem with the Sega CD was the price at launch: $300! If it was a new console, I can understand that kind of price, but it was an ADD-ON. So by doing the math, you were really spending more than $300 if you didn't own a Genesis yet. What did commenter Sega say in my Hall of Shame column? "150 bucks was expensive?" Imagine trying to convince people to buy a $300 add-on for a console you already made them pay over $100 for, and most of the games have that shitty FMV format. I sure as hell wouldn't want that deal. But somehow, Sega was able to convince 6 million people to buy it, but considering that was only 20% of Genesis owners, that's pretty underwhelming. After about two years, Sega stopped caring about the Sega CD and instead created another Genesis add-on, and we all know how that turned out.

So what keeps this failure from being listed as Rusted? Because, as bad it was, it did have some redeeming qualities about it. For one thing, it showed game companies that since CDs were able to hold much more storage space and become cheaper to manufacture than cartridges, it would become a great replacement as the new format for video game consoles. On top of that, unlike the 32X, it actually had some games worth buying. Sonic CD was definitely the best of the bunch (and best Sonic game ever to many), the Lunar RPG series gained some popularity, and there was the cult classic Snatcher created by Metal Gear Solid mastermind Hideo Kojima. Maybe if the Sega CD wasn't so damn expensive and had a lot less crappy FMV games, it probably would've seen a bit more success.

Sega Saturn – So after the whole Genesis/Sega CD/32X debacle, Sega decided to put all their efforts into this one console. This is the one console where they couldn't make any mistakes, and yet the Sega Saturn will be remembered as where Sega made some of the most stupidest mistakes in video game history.

One of those mistakes would be the launch of the console itself. While the Japanese launch was a success, in America it was a whole different story. At E3 (the first one in fact), the main topic was "PlayStation vs. Saturn." A couple months before the event, Sega had already announced that the Sega Saturn was set to be released September 2nd, 1995, which they dubbed "Saturnday." Sony announced that the PlayStation was coming September 9th, one week after Saturn.

But SURPRISE! The Sega Saturn was already out in stores! Yep, that whole "Saturnday" thing was just a hoax, and you can get the Saturn right now for $399! There's no way Sony could ever top that right? At that same E3, Steve Race, designer for the PlayStation, came on stage with a big stack of papers but said only one thing: "$299."

Oh...well, at least the Saturn still has the jump start! Sales will still be good for the console right?!

No. What the jump start ultimately did was alienate game developers and retailers who hated Sega for not letting them in on this secret. The only games that would be available for the Saturn at launch was a couple of Sega games, and all the rest wouldn't be ready until the original launch date as planned. Some retailers got mad at Sega for picking competitive rivals over them, so some went so far as to never carry the Saturn and other Sega-related products. When the PlayStation made it's debut, it sold more units then the Saturn did in their 4 month head start.

But at least the Sega Saturn still had some great games. The fighting games were awesome (Virtua Fighter, Fighters Megamix, and the japanese version of X-Men vs. Street Fighter), the Panzer Dragoon games were good, and then of course you've got the game with one of the biggest cult followings: NiGHTS. It may seem like a glorified time trial game these days, but back then NiGHTS was considered an awesome title, and even moved Yuji Naka to tears with one of it's endings. Unfortunately, that led indirectly to Naka helping kill off the Saturn's killer Sonic title that SoA was working on.

That was another problem with the Saturn: No real Sonic game. At least the 32X had something with Knuckles Chaotix. But because of SoJ fucking with SoA on what engines they were supposed to use and Naka threatening to leave if they used the NiGHTS engine, the development of Sonic Xtreme, Sonic's first foray into 3D gaming, was canceled. Instead, what Sonic fans got was a Genesis compilation (Sonic 1-3 and Sonic Knuckles), a "3D" game that was ported from the Genesis, and a mediocre racing game. Meanwhile, Nintendo had the revolutionary Super Mario 64 and Sony had Crash Bandicoot. Sonic the Hedgehog, who had made the Genesis so popular and brought Sega to it's peak, had no real 3D adventure game.

Between the early launch, having no real Sonic game, and the PlayStation doing nearly everything better then them, the Saturn would constantly struggle until Sega finally admitted the Saturn wasn't Sega's future and would begin work on the Dreamcast. Saturn only sold 9.5 million units worldwide compared to over 100 million for the PlayStation.

Game Gear – Now, some people seem to call this a "Portable Master System" in the same way the Nomad was just a "Portable Genesis." I'd have to disagree about that. The Game Gear may have been as powerful as the Master System, but at least it had a library of it's own games and wasn't a worthless piece of shit like the Nomad was.

With Sega now being Nintendo's official rival, of course they were going to give the handheld market a shot, and thus the Game Gear was born in 1991. Sega basically made the Game Gear do what Game Boy didn't (or should I say what Nintendon't?). It would have a color LCD screen, it was backlit, the games would have stereo sound, and the controls would be on the side of the screen making it more comfortable to hold. But unfortunately, it suffered two major problems that plagued the Atari Lynx: It was a hefty price ($150, and by that time Game Boy's had dropped to $90) and it was a battery eater (it needed 6 AAs that lasted for about 5 hours). However, what separated Game Gear from the Lynx and nearly every other handheld that tried to compete against Nintendo was that it had actual games people cared about. The Game Gear would last until 1997, but would be brought back a couple times in the future by third-party companies.

So was the Game Gear a success? Yes and no. Sega was able to sell 11 million units, which is actually more than how either the Saturn and sadly the Dreamcast did, and it was one of the few rivals that stood it's own against the Game Boy. However, the problem was that the Game Boy would live on through different incarnations with GB-Pocket, GB-Color, and then GB-Advance. What happened to the Game Gear? Nothing! Once it was done, it was done. You'd think with the kajillion console ideas that Sega was coming up with, you'd think one of them would be a new and improved Game Gear. One that would take less batteries, last longer, and would look even better then perhaps the Genesis. But alas, the Game Gear had no successor, and this it can't really be classified as a "Sharp" console.

Console count:
2 Sharp.
4 Rusted.
4 Double-Edged.

Overall, Sega truly was Double-Edged in the hardware market. They made great decisions like marketing the Genesis to older gamers and showing the world the usefulness of the CD format. But then they would make asinine decisions like releasing the Saturn earlier then they were supposed to and wasting money on worthless hardware like the Nomad and the CDX. Unfortunately, the asinine decisions were so bad a lot of people stopped caring about Sega, and that's why they're now a third party company instead of continuing making commercials about how they are so much better then Nintendo (unless you count those Mario & Sonic olympic commercials).

On an unrelated note, 411 is now hiring for new writers. If you're interested in writing a column, news report, or reviews and previews for the Games section, send a sample of your work to Ramon & Ashish.