Do you prefer modern day mags that cover the retro scene or old mags from back in the day ?

[gameofyou]

As I recall, EGM wasn't very favorable towards the Saturn, either.

And speaking of insults, who can forget Sony's "If you are buying a Saturn, your head must be in Uranus".

Ouch.

[Tanooki]

From a marketing standpoint it's a solid gamble. We're talking pre-internet days where you only see the game in pictures mostly, if in action, maybe a demo tape or display in a store, friend or rental. To lie about the good stuff today would be suicidal and you'd get so called out on the crap and ruined for it within a few hours. Back then to scheme against the top tier SNES games and angle shots, play games, lie about it, it would work as people would just see a turd against something amazing and drink that kool aid.

I don't remember the doll ad, maybe regional? That would have been infuriating as around that time I'd have understood what they were lying about and just been pissed at it for the reasons you listed there. I just got over it after awhile back then and just chose to ignore they ever existed, made all the more easy by canceling EGM and having to read their insufferable lies and bending of the truth to be pro-Sega too. If Sega would have run a relatively clean ad run like Nintendo did showing community (the big mario mob into the planet), the game itself (various), goofy nerds or kids doing junk (zelda ad) and the others I would have never felt poorly about them and probably bought one. I remember their spitefulness with Sony, it was even more vile considering how Sony hosed them they wanted outright revenge with them popping out earlier, then lying (to Sega) about the price to pop up $100 cheaper and with real 3D performing hardware, not a 3D generated in software with a weaker more pricey box. Sega knew they were up shit creek and went evil. I didn't mind it so because Sony didn't even really bother with them, after the N64 doing well just in its first year they went and permanently smeared their good name as the crap of the past and the 'kiddie box' which stuck with them through the Wii where they (Nintendo) wrecked their own image without any outside help. :)

Sega got on top for only two reasons and it didn't last. Like the MS-360 they jumped out first at a fair price and being first you get all the technophile kids and some adults back then. Secondarily, their sleezy ads against the NES which were accurate (it was out of date) and then their bold face lies with the SNES and insults with that one and Gameboy owners being dog brained peons worked for a time until they really turned people off of them. Nintendo finally getting their act together over 1-2 years later finally inched into the lead and had better wares to prove it and they got popped with finally Sony smoking them into the grave.

[Aussie2B]

I wish I could find that commercial with the doll clothes, but doing some light searching for Game Gear commercials, I'm mostly just coming up with the dog commercial and the squirrel one. If I remember correctly they had a grey Game Boy in a skirt and blouse (or maybe it was just a dress, I don't know), and they were making it out to be wimpy or girly or whatever. I think they may have even called it a "Game Girl". As a female gamer, them making the Game Boy out to be feminine for whatever strange reason and inferior for being such just pissed me the hell off. I would guess that were probably more female gamers playing Nintendo systems than Genesis systems in those days, and sexist shit like that certainly wasn't going to convince any to give the Game Gear a try.

[FrankSerpico]

Well, from a marketing standpoint SoJ may have had the edge (in your opinion, as I've said regardless of whether they offended fanboys or not, their American ad campaign was quite successful overall), but their ideas about hardware and software were downright stupid in many instances. They ignored the success of American-developed first party games like Comix Zone and Kid Chameleon, they ignored the suggestions from SoA about making the Saturn backward compatible, they rushed the DC to launch in Japan and lost a ton of money thanks to Sonic Adventure being the only game anyone wanted in their JP launch line-up, and really that's just the tip of the iceberg. I think history has shown SoJ bears the most blame for Sega's failure as a console manufacturer.