What ruined SEGA?

[Ulfrinn]

I found this video on Youtube that discusses the history and some behind the scenes type of details on the SEGA company and the decisions by that company that lead them from being pretty much the top of the gaming industry to where they are not. I'd like to hear some thoughts on this topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH7R2PEvzXo

[sage2001]

They made stupid business decisions.

[Fajita Jim]

For the same reason I didn't buy a Dreamcast: I bought the Sega CD, 32X and Saturn. Damn, fooled me three times.

[Ulfrinn]

still though, for CEO of sega america to already have the deals set up and ready to go for both the N64 and the PS1, and the japanese blocking those deals.. thats pretty poor businesses. and then to shoot yourselves in the foot yet again when you have the opportunity to team up with microsoft and potentially get what would become the xbox.. can any business be ran by people that epicly dumb, or unlucky?

as for the dreamcast.. i cant explain why i didnt buy it, i mean.. i thought about buying the saturn but the ONLY game on the saturn i wanted to play was shining force 3, by time the dreamcast came out that was gone and there just werent any games to grab my attention.. they all seemed to be sega only games that didnt really grab my attention.. nintendo had the fun stuff like mario kart, smash brothers, playstation had the more grown-up type of games, i guess sega was just this awkward middle

[Sixtyfivekills]

The moment Sonic games stopped being dark and edgy. Come on, that was the whole charm, I'm sick of "Mr goody two shoes" characters. Forces was just stupid, and characters made everything sound worse than it was (Sonic being tortured, while in reality he doesn't have a scratch and behaves like usual). Come on, what happened to villains who were an actual threat?

[Chief Minister of Gaming]

Industry, and cold clinical strategem, pressure that comes from the culture of commercial shareholders, work in antithesis to creativity. Industry has never married well to the gaming spirit, so these breakdowns have happened in a multitude of companies, that have their intitial 'virgin' creative spirit undermined by the "shareholders grunting in the board room".

So the 'magic' that made the company, a company itself is comprised of individuals. Over time the first individuals who really gave inspiration get married, have children, and move away, and the company is still made up of humans, and for humans to be truly creative to wow and entertain people, it must be full of ultra creative people, who are given freedom to do that.

That is the short of it.

[gugnihr]

They were not capable to capitalise on their most famous and beloved franchises.
Usually the best game of their IP is the first one.
Best Sonic game? Sonic 1
Best Golden Axe game? Golden Axe 1 (and the console port was ugly anyway)
Best Ristar game? There is only one Ristar game
Saturn? No new Sonic games
Dreamcast? Sonic games so offensively bad that no Sonic game would have been better
With every new console they discarded all the franchises that were succesful and loved on the previous one.
People hate that. People always complain about originality because people are hypocrites, but they actually love... well you know... the things that they love.

Also Sega made horrible mistakes because they got scared by consoles like Jaguar and 3DO that have been laughable failures but Sega was not able to foresee that and got scared.

Sega made some truly great games because they were geniouses sometimes, but on a more practical level they did not know what they were doing and handle their business properly.
They ditched Sonic Xtreme and made Nights.
I don't think Sonic Xtreme could have been more flawed than Nights wich is an extremely flawed game.
Sonic Xtreme would have been more popular at least, since everybody loved Sonic (many love Sonic still now)

It's sad. I love Sonic and Golden axe, but Sega was not able to handle their own games and get the best out of their success

[Jej]

It started going downhill when they decided to release addons for the Mega Drive when the Saturn was so close to being released.

[Tito Shivan]

Like Nintendo, they were one bad console release away of doom.

[trousers]

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

The moment Sonic games stopped being dark and edgy. Come on, that was the whole charm, I'm sick of "Mr goody two shoes" characters. Forces was just stupid, and characters made everything sound worse than it was (Sonic being tortured, while in reality he doesn't have a scratch and behaves like usual). Come on, what happened to villains who were an actual threat?

yes, the dark edgy nature of getting through the green hill zone in good time with lots of rings

[sasuke uchiha]

As much as i hate to say it, it was do to the Dreamcast. I love my Dreamcast and even still play it every now and then but it just couldnt even come close to competing with what Sony did with the PS2.

[Ulfrinn]

honestly.. that controller was a big turnoff for me.. i can remember going into a gaming store back in the 90s and seeing the dreamcast for sale and thinking, hey, maybe.. then look at the controller, maybe use it on a demo and thinking.. wtf is this ♥♥♥♥?.. i think by then the dual analog controllers for the PS1 were already out, and even compared to the much more comfortable non dual analog PS1 controller the dreamcast controller seemed to be missing a few buttons

[sasuke uchiha]

Originally posted by Mattmoo:

Originally posted by sasuke uchiha:

As much as i hate to say it, it was do to the Dreamcast. I love my Dreamcast and even still play it every now and then but it just couldnt even come close to competing with what Sony did with the PS2.

True, but it was also a snowball effect. The Saturn was notoriously hard to develop for, but you’re right it was the Dreamcast which was the nail in the coffin.

Oh yeah, i forgot about the Saturn, i cant say i even know anyone that has had or even played on one.

[Chuuya Nakahara]

Originally posted by sage2001:

They made stupid business decisions.

This sums it up simple and easy.

[Martlet]

Bernie Stolar

[trousers]

Originally posted by sasuke uchiha:

Originally posted by Mattmoo:

True, but it was also a snowball effect. The Saturn was notoriously hard to develop for, but you’re right it was the Dreamcast which was the nail in the coffin.

Oh yeah, i forgot about the Saturn, i cant say i even know anyone that has had or even played on one.

I knew one single person who owned a saturn. I knew zero people who owned a dreamcast. Nail in coffin theory seems legit to me.