A lot of the gamers think they know exactly why SEGA had to abandon the console manufacturing business. But even SEGA fans may not every detail. But X user named SuperSisi has prompted us to analyze SEGA's biggest mistakes that caused them to quit the console manufacturing business, so I'm gonna follow her advice and explain why SEGA had to quit manufacturing consoles to go third-party. But before we actually answer why SEGA has quit the console business to restructure themselves to being a third-party developer, we need to talk about the only things that were sold poorly.
First off, SEGA has released the SEGA CD. The SEGA CD plays games that use discs. The one that serves as a tech demo on how the SEGA CD works was Sonic the Hedgehog CD. However, upon release, reception was mixed with praising certain games, but criticizing its value for money and limited upgrades. It has become a dumpster fire of an add-on SEGA has developed that the SEGA CD's fate has been sealed because of its mixed reception.
Over to the 32X. It is another add-on for the SEGA Genesis as a low cost option for 32-bit games. The 32X was also met with poor reception to be criticized for its poor quality that it failed to attract third-party developers and consumers, its weak library, market fragmentation of the Genesis and poor marketing. SEGA sold 800,000 32X units and the rest at huge discounts until it was discontinued as they shifted their focus on the Saturn.
So, the SEGA Saturn is the 5th generation console that uses 64-bit games came out in 1994 in Japan and 1995 in North America. The console is successful in Japan, but failed in North America because of its 1995 rush here. The Saturn's game library was met generally with praise, but it was criticized for having a rushed 1995 release date and lacking a key Saturn-exclusive Sonic title, Sonic X-treme, which is why the Saturn became a commercial failure. The Japanese and American divisions exacerbating strategic chaos, which was caused by the Saturn's success in Japan and failure in America.
The Saturn went on a bad Juju land in North America. The Saturn did alright, but when the Nintendo 64 came out, it lost the lead and rapidly lost its market share in the US where it was discontinued and was critized for its lack of third-party support. After the Saturn was discontinued in North America in 1998, SEGA went on to move on to their next console, the SEGA Dreamcast.
The Dreamcast is the final console to be manufactured by SEGA came out in 1998 in Japan and 1999 in North America and other countries. You probably didn't realize why the Dreamcast would be the final console, but like the Saturn, the Dreamcast became a commercial failure. It was praised for innovation and its great library of games, but its commercial failure was caused by competing with the PlayStation 2, the earlier failures of the 32X and Saturn and lack of support from EA and Square Enix, formerly SquareSoft. These factors are the cause of the Dreamcast being a commercial failure. In fact, these mistakes are the source of the Dreamcast's commercial failure and discontinuation on 2001.
Now we have to answer this question. Why did SEGA stop making consoles and restructure themselves as a third-party developer? There is one obvious reason. The Dreamcast became a commercial failure because of the PS2 being the eye of the storm SEGA was in. Can you even believe that SEGA struggled on the Dreamcast so hard? Sony has nailed the grand slam with the PS2. They made a nearly perfect developer-friendly console that has great games. When the Dreamcast has launched, it was off to a rousing start for online play. But when the PS2 came out, it has ruined SEGA's reputation as Sony was financially able to do everything SEGA couldn't that the PS2 has became renowned in sales. This exposed a HUGE reason why SEGA had to quit the console manufacturing business to restructure themselves into being a third-party developer because they were in the eye of the storm of the PlayStation 2.
I have looked more into this and it turns out that SEGA wasn't the first company that restructured themselves as a third-party developer because Atari was the first company to restructure themselves into being a third-party developer following the commercial failure of the ill-fated Atari Jaguar before SEGA did to release games on non-Atari consoles. It was clearly dunked on. Now, I say that it's easy, but it's not. Shifting from being a console manufacturer to being a third-party developer is extremely difficult. They had to call it quits on manufacturing consoles and reorganize tech to develop games and release them on non-SEGA consoles.
SEGA's shift from the console business to being a third-party developer comes with Microsoft taking their place as the console manufacturer for their first console, the original Xbox, to succeed what SEGA has failed. Following SEGA's shift to being third-party developer after the Dreamcast dropped the ball with a lack of third-party support, they began porting their games that were released on the Dreamcast to the GameCube like Sonic Adventure 2 and Crazy Taxi. It became a starting point for SEGA being a third-party developer.
It turned out well that they went on to release games not on the GameCube, but other non-SEGA platforms in the 6th generation-era and beyond like Sonic Heroes, the first new Sonic title they ever released since their shift to being a third-party developer. Super Monkey Ball and Jet Set Radio Future would be launch titles for the GameCube and original Xbox. So far, SEGA releasing their games on non-SEGA consoles, even on this generation, went well so far and will never return to the old console manufacturing business following the failures of the 32X, Saturn and Dreamcast.
Honestly, I like it better when SEGA was a console manufacturer, especially to the SEGA Saturn and Dreamcast due to the SEGA logo that appears when the game is inserted in them. But being a third-party developer came with benefits and it's something that Nintendo wouldn't dare do.
Imagine if your console you and your company have made was a commercial failure after your foe and their company have done everything on their console you couldn't do. And then, you had to restructure yourselves into being a third-party developer. Guess what you were doing every day! In fact, the Dreamcast became a commercial failure, that it was reported that the PS2's spectacular sales would ruin SEGA's reputation when it launched.
And it wasn't just the PS2 that became a grand slam, but the PS1 as well, Sony's very first console that became a grand slam also. If you want to know more about the PS1 and PS2's spectacular sales and how both of them became a grand slam, I have the link to the post that covers it all.
No comments:
Post a Comment