Sega Genesis was the most successful console for Sega company?

[Velshin]

Was Sega Genesis (also known as Mega Drive) was the most successful console for the company? the main reason I said that because if the answer is no then why it was the only Sega console that lasted so long before it died out of course when the new generation of gaming console arrived like PS1 and etc etc.


Sega Genesis


Sega Saturn

I just don't know why tbh I mean there were so many excellent consoles for sega like Saturn which was known to be the father of RPGs compare to PS1 because at the start of that generation PS1 didn't release a lot of RPGs or the awesome Dreamcast console which had one of the most awesome games for many players like Shen Mu and Skies of Arcadia...but yeah even with that awesomeness..Saturn and Dreamcast didn't last half the period that Genesis had..so what was the main reason you think? was it the players base? or bad luck? or?

Discuss please and thanks for reading.

[Eleccybubb]

One of the main failures of the Saturn was lack of developers and poor support for 3rd party devs. (Sony had way better 3rd party support in the sense they actually sent teams over to help the 3rd party devs) And the fact it didn't release an original Sonic game. They did have Sonic X-Treme in the works but it got cancelled so all the Saturn got was Sonic Jam which was nothing special.

As for the Mega Drive. I grew up with it so for me it is the best console in the world so forgive the bias.

The SNES obviously outperformed it but yes it was the most successful for Sega in general. The Mega Drive lasted so long because they were constantly trying to keep it relevant with addons like the Mega CD and 32X both of which were colossal failures that made the console look like a deformed monster. Although credit where it's due Sonic CD is arguably the best Sonic game imo.

[dope_danny]

It was the most well managed. All of them have excellent games and cult classics but the saturn was rushed out to start a new gen early and its a frankensteins monster of chips under the hood and the dreamcast launched with no piracy protection at all and unlike the ps2 did not play dvds. Both fun in a vaccum but compared to their competition was always the lesser options.

and this is from a guy that loves both.

[Eleccybubb]

It was the most well managed. All of them have excellent games and cult classics but the saturn was rushed out to start a new gen early and its a frankensteins monster of chips under the hood and the dreamcast launched with no piracy protection at all and unlike the ps2 did not play dvds. Both fun in a vaccum but compared to their competition was always the lesser options.

and this is from a guy that loves both.

Saturn wasn't so bad hardware wise. Home ports of some of their arcade games like Daytona USA and House of the Dead were actually not bad.

As I said main reasons stem from poor 3rd party support and very few devs wanting to develop for it. I mean some big names that were on it were Tomb Raider and Resident Evil but only the first games in each series.

Honestly I don't think an original Sonic game would have helped the Saturn much. Sonic R was just terrible too. Poor mans Mario Kart basically and had the stiffest controls of any racing game I've played.

[Velshin]

Saturn wasn't so bad hardware wise. Home ports of some of their arcade games like Daytona USA and House of the Dead were actually not bad.

As I said main reasons stem from poor 3rd party support and very few devs wanting to develop for it. I mean some big names that were on it were Tomb Raider and Resident Evil but only the first games in each series.

Yeah also Saturn performance for 2D games was superior and faster than PS1 specially the famous 2D fighting games that be released in Saturn damn forgot the name of the game

[Eleccybubb]

Yeah also Saturn performance for 2D games was superior and faster than PS1 specially the famous 2D fighting games that be released in Saturn damn forgot the name of the game

Problem was though the PS1 and Saturn were both capable of 3D. And that was the way games were heading. Honestly while they felt faster I wouldn't say Virtua Fighter 1 or 2 felt superior to the Tekken trilogy. But all about preference I guess.

[Velshin]

Problem was though the PS1 and Saturn were both capable of 3D. And that was the way games were heading. Honestly while they felt faster I wouldn't say Virtua Fighter 1 or 2 felt superior to the Tekken trilogy. But all about preference I guess.

No I meant the 2D games of Saturn were superior and faster than the 2D games of PS1 haha yeah when it comes to 3D games yeah PS1 for sure win this.

[dope_danny]

Saturn wasn't so bad hardware wise.

I think you think i mean like graphically. I mean the motherboard is literally a goddamn nightmare of different parts held together with spit and string. Basically slaving a bunch of crap together while other companies refined their 3d hardware for a simple, easily repairable and easy running solution. The saturn was such a chimera of parts from different tech generations that for a long time emulation was considered near impossible just like the ps3 was for years.

Only in this case sega infamously -depending on who was telling the story- either destroyed all the game backups in a fit of space saving zeal or lost them in a warehouse fire. Throw in the super short lifespan of cheap saturn discs and super fragile cases and it all makes for a nightmare hardware that was hard to work with resulting in very hard to back up libraries of games that in some cases are lost forever.

Its why theres barely any saturn games on any form of digital service like psn or xbla but the dreamcast shit is on everything including iphones now. One day a lot of saturn games will just be remembered with scant screenshots archived by places like unseen 64, the only other console with comparable future proofing is the psp and thats thankfully had lots of its games backed up digitally by sony in recent years bar a few standouts like crisis core.

The saturn was a nightmare tech wise but i'll still have fond memories of viruta fighter or shinobi X marathons as a kid.

[Velshin]

Yeah I also love Soul Calibur in the Dreamcast it was super amazing a huge jump from the first Soul Edge (Blade in the US version) from the PS1.

[Shelly]

The original Sega lasted for such a long time mostly because of addons like the CD drive and the Sega 64 which kept it relevant pretty late in life.

Saturn was interesting. It was designed to be the best 2D console ever made - and it probably was. Sadly Playstation released some tech demos before the release and so the Saturn was refitted to be 3D, which caused all sorts of weird glitches since it would do things like use the sound card for additional processing power.

Then came the Dreamcast.

Oh man do I love that thing, sure it sounds like a jet engine about to take off but it loaded games and random encounters with a speed comparable to a cartridge, the modem worked out great and I honestly think it had better beginning graphical fidelity than the PS2.

Sadly by this time Sega had burned bridges with too many developers and didn't pump enough resources into their own game development for a lot of their classic titles. So we have no new Shining Force, an MMO Phantasy Star, amazing sports and fighting games, Grandia was excellent and just seemed like the rest was all forgettable and then Sega just sort of continued down that line.

It's a tragedy that really continues to this day. They could do a lot with so many of their properties if they would just devote some real development to them.

Instead they seem more interested in making sure no one can put up let's play videos of Saturn games.

[Velshin]

The original Sega lasted for such a long time mostly because of addons like the CD drive and the Sega 64 which kept it relevant pretty late in life.

Saturn was interesting. It was designed to be the best 2D console ever made - and it probably was. Sadly Playstation released some tech demos before the release and so the Saturn was refitted to be 3D, which caused all sorts of weird glitches since it would do things like use the sound card for additional processing power.

Then came the Dreamcast.

Oh man do I love that thing, sure it sounds like a jet engine about to take off but it loaded games and random encounters with a speed comparable to a cartridge, the modem worked out great and I honestly think it had better beginning graphical fidelity than the PS2.

Sadly by this time Sega had burned bridges with too many developers and didn't pump enough resources into their own game development for a lot of their classic titles. So we have no new Shining Force, an MMO Phantasy Star, amazing sports and fighting games, Grandia was excellent and just seemed like the rest was all forgettable and then Sega just sort of continued down that line.

It's a tragedy that really continues to this day. They could do a lot with so many of their properties if they would just devote some real development to them.

Instead they seem more interested in making sure no one can put up let's play videos of Saturn games.

Yeah Saturn was amazing for 2D games and far superior than PS1 when it comes to pure 2D games at the begining also Saturn was nicknamed as the father of all RPGs during that generation because of the amount of RPGs been released compare to the PS1 which was very limited when it comes to RPGs but yeah back then RPGS were not as popular as today.


Yeah Dreamcast is one of my favorite consoles... I still remember Grandia II which was waaay better than the bad port they made for the PS2 damn that port was so full of bugs and unpolished at all. And I was sad that they made Phantasy Star an MMO..also Skies of Arcadia a pirate sci fi RPG was amazing.

[Verzen]

Yeah Saturn was amazing for 2D games and far superior than PS1 when it comes to pure 2D games at the begining also Saturn was nicknamed as the father of all RPGs during that generation because of the amount of RPGs been released compare to the PS1 which was very limited when it comes to RPGs but yeah back then RPGS were not as popular as today.


Yeah Dreamcast is one of my favorite consoles... I still remember Grandia II which was waaay better than the bad port they made for the PS2 damn that port was so full of bugs and unpolished at all. And I was sad that they made Phantasy Star an MMO..also Skies of Arcadia a pirate sci fi RPG was amazing.

The RPG's for the Saturn were some of the best I've played. Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean? Yes please. Dragon Force? Yes please. Two of the best games ever.

[Deleted]

Wasn't the Saturn more powerful than PS1, but was just absolute shit for developers to work with, which is why more games were made on PS1. Shame really as that was probably the beginning of the end for Sega in the console market.

[Velshin]

Wasn't the Saturn more powerful than PS1, but was just absolute shit for developers to work with, which is why more games were made on PS1. Shame really as that was probably the beginning of the end for Sega in the console market.

It was more powerful for sure when it comes to 2D games only. I noticed them they were much better and faster in Saturn than in the PS1.

[Bigbazz]

The Mega Drive was the most successful by far, but that was also the period where Sega killed consumer and 3rd party developer trust with the Sega CD and 32x. They wasted a lot of peoples time and money with those consoles. The Sega Saturn was an amazing 2D console and was very powerful but it was also a nightmare to develop for, Sega had already lost a lot of faith and now ports were time consuming to make.

That meant despite being quite a bit more powerful than the PS1 it generally had the inferior ports of games. The Saturn had some great 2d games and was the king when it came to arcade conversions and fighting games, but overall the games library (outside of Japan) was very lacking and the better pricing saw the Playstation dominate it. The biggest RPG on the Saturn was Panzer Dragoon Saga and it was released in 1998, too little too late when Final Fantasy 7 had blown peoples minds a whole year earlier and the Saturn had already been abandoned for the Dreamcast.

Same shit with the Dreamcast, Sega quickly pulling the plug on the Saturn continued the trend of losing 3rd party support while the PS1 had established an extremely dominant market position. Dreamcast was ahead of its time and had really high quality games with graphics that blew everything else away causing it initially to break record sales. The Dreamcast was the real deal, innovative, powerful and easy to develop for but it was too little too late.

Sega could not afford to keep it going and they bailed on the project early on, allowing it to die before it even got to really compete with the PS2. You mention Shenmue which was a groundbreaking game of exceptional quality, but it cost them so much that even though it sold fairly well it was a commercial flop on a massive scale. Sega effectively killed the Saturn and Dreamcast before either of them were released and they did not make the right calls or have enough money to survive it.

[Doctor Amadeus]

So successful they don't make them anymore and Sega is nearly out of business.

[Velshin]

The Mega Drive was the most successful by far, but that was also the period where Sega killed consumer and 3rd party developer trust with the Sega CD and 32x. They wasted a lot of peoples time and money with those consoles. The Sega Saturn was an amazing 2D console and was very powerful but it was also a nightmare to develop for, Sega had already lost a lot of faith and now ports were time consuming to make.

That meant despite being quite a bit more powerful than the PS1 it generally had the inferior ports of games. The Saturn had some great 2d games and was the king when it came to arcade conversions and fighting games, but overall the games library (outside of Japan) was very lacking and the better pricing saw the Playstation dominate it. The biggest RPG on the Saturn was Panzer Dragoon Saga and it was released in 1998, too little too late when Final Fantasy 7 had blown peoples minds a whole year later and the Saturn had already been abandoned for the Dreamcast.

Same shit with the Dreamcast, Sega quickly pulling the plug on the Saturn continued the trend of losing 3rd party support while the PS1 had established an extremely dominant market position. Dreamcast was ahead of its time and had really high quality games with graphics that blew everything else away causing it initially to break record sales. The Dreamcast was the real deal, innovative, powerful and easy to develop for but it was too little too late.

.

Yeah I think part of the reason why Dreamcast died not because of the quality of the product itself (because it was very good tbh) but Dreamcast was kinda like a victim because of the bad reputation Sega got from the others third party developers and other companies because of Sega Saturn.

[Bigbazz]

But since we're here, I'm a massive Saturn and Dreamcast fan and previously fanboy. I have a collection of some pretty sweet games on both consoles, though I don't have Panzer Dragoon Saga (played it with emulation though for a few hours, didn't really live up to the hype in any way but still cool). Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, Soul Calibur, Shenmue, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Star Wars : Episode 1 Racer are my favourites on the console.

I think the Dreamcast really hurt not having EA sports games, despite having amazing first party sports games (arguably better anyway), and the lack of Final Fantasy titles during a time when Final Fantasy was so popular (FF7-10). And then you have the Gran Turismo series on the PS1 which was huge and one of the best selling titles of the era, while the Dreamcast had Sega GT which despite being on the more powerful console was really not even remotely the same quality as Gran Turismo 2... Still had Sega continued to back the console it could have had a modest success, and they have even admitted to pulling the plug early and cutting their losses rather than take the risk.

[Velshin]

But since we're here, I'm a massive Saturn and Dreamcast fan and previously fanboy. I have a collection of some pretty sweet games on both consoles, though I don't have Panzer Dragoon Saga (played it with emulation though for a few hours, didn't really live up to the hype in any way but still cool). Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, Soul Calibur, Shenmue, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Star Wars : Episode 1 Racer are my favourites on the console.

Indeed! let us not forget Shining of the Holy Ark which was another Shining game and a sequel to Shining in the Darkness.

[Bigbazz]

Indeed! let us not forget Shining of the Holy Ark which was another Shining game and a sequel to Shining in the Darkness.

I never got to play that one, too uncommon back when I was a kid and too rare/expensive now. On the Saturn I have King of Fighters 95, Warcraft 2 and then all the usuals like Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 1 + 2, Fighting Vipers, Fighters Megamix, Nights, Panzer Dragoon 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and some others. My Saturn has been playing up though, it will only run certain games despite all of them running perfectly in the disc drive of my PC via emulation.

When I was a kid I used to play Sega Rally, Panzer Dragoon 2 and Virtua Fighter 2 just non stop, to the degree where I look back and honestly don't know how I had the patience to sit there and spend literally hours of my free time every night/weekend just playing those games. Warcraft 2 I ended up just giving up on and playing it on the PC at my buddies, it was awkward to play and the save file would fill the entire internal memory after a few levels to the point where you couldn't resume the game without level codes.