I'll make no secret of the
fact that I'm a Sega fanboy. The console ownership record of my earlier years
followed the rather predictable path of Mega Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast, and
then... something truly awful happened: Sega stopped making consoles!
I'm going to take this opportunity to put
forward my view on Sega's journey from console manufacturer to third party publisher.
The Saturn had been a substantial commercial failure. Sony's fancy new
Playstation console had smashed all competition right out of the park. Sega and
Nintendo were both reeling from having the proverbial rug pulled out from under
them. Then Sega unveiled the Dreamcast.
Boy what a console! Everything about the Dreamcast was Sega screaming "we're back" from the rooftops! (even the horrendously uncomfortable controller still had the forward thinking Visual Memory Units!). I still maintain that the Dreamcast was a fantastic console, and this is clear to me from the high regard the console is held in by the Twitter community. Sega had fixed all the issues that plagued the Saturn. The console was powerful, easy to program and capable of hosting near arcade perfect conversions of Sega's great arcade games; an area in which they were still a major force.
Boy what a console! Everything about the Dreamcast was Sega screaming "we're back" from the rooftops! (even the horrendously uncomfortable controller still had the forward thinking Visual Memory Units!). I still maintain that the Dreamcast was a fantastic console, and this is clear to me from the high regard the console is held in by the Twitter community. Sega had fixed all the issues that plagued the Saturn. The console was powerful, easy to program and capable of hosting near arcade perfect conversions of Sega's great arcade games; an area in which they were still a major force.
It's hard to explain how I felt at the time of Sega’s announcement. Even though most people saw it coming it was still a shock. The Dreamcast had a relatively short lifespan for a console and lots of great games in the release pipeline had already been cancelled. I think anger played a big role in my emotions back then. I'm not proud to say that I held Sony personally responsible for ruining everything by having the audacity to turn up uninvited with a clearly superior machine. It was a childish and irrational response; video games are big business after all. It also led me to steadfastly avoid owning a PlayStation until the third generation. Of course that meant that I missed out on two whole generations of great great games, which is something I deeply regret. On the plus side it forced me into supporting Nintendo!
Supporting Nintendo. Two words that sound simple enough but let's not forget how much of a die-hard Sega fanboy I was! Imagine my despair when the console choices I was presented with were either buying a PlayStation from the evil Sony corporation, or joining forces with the old enemy in order to help bring down the new kid in town. This all sounds very melodramatic and over the top, which of course it was, but I'm trying to accurately paint the picture of the depths of my despair!
So I eased myself into my new Nintendo life gently. I bought a second hand N64 and a copy of Ocarina of Time. A happy coincidence that it just happens to be one of the greatest games of all time! It wasn't long before I was galloping across Hyrule field on horseback, collecting stars in the Mushroom Kingdom and bounding around Spiral Mountain with a bird in my backpack! It didn't take me long to realise I'd made the right decision and the pre-order for a GameCube followed soon after.
This article isn’t a homage to the potted
history of my video game legacy however; it’s about the demise of a once truly
great company. The sad thing is that despite Sega's best efforts the
Dreamcast just didn't sell well enough. The installed user base wasn't large
enough for many publishing companies to want to gamble on releasing a game that
might not sell. So they took the sensible, heart-breaking decision to pull out
of console manufacturing and focus on publishing instead. Arguably the best
business decision they made in many years, great news for Sony and Nintendo,
but ultimately devastating for all their fans. Whoring Sonic out to all takers
wasn't a popular decision in many eyes but it put Sega back in the black
financially and saved the company from the brink.
A financially stable Sega has to be the best news for all their fans, not least because it gives us the hope that they may, one day, return with a new console. It's highly unlikely but if it does ever happen one thing is for sure: I'll be there on launch day grinning like the hedgehog that got the cream, with a super shiny copy of Shenmue 3 in my hand!
I still love Sega, but it saddens me to say since they were this good Is Ages!
A financially stable Sega has to be the best news for all their fans, not least because it gives us the hope that they may, one day, return with a new console. It's highly unlikely but if it does ever happen one thing is for sure: I'll be there on launch day grinning like the hedgehog that got the cream, with a super shiny copy of Shenmue 3 in my hand!
I still love Sega, but it saddens me to say since they were this good Is Ages!
