It is Pre-1994 SEGA; What Do You Do to Make the Company into the World's Biggest Gaming Juggernaut by 2014?

[wizardofwor1975]

Fire everyone in a "suit" position at Sega of Japan, and let Sega of America call the shots.

Your absolutely right. Management was always a serious problem for SEGA. Take the case of SEGA of America CEO Tom Kalinske. With Kalinske at the helm SEGA grew from a $813 million dollar company in 1989 to a $3.6 billion dollar conglomerate in 1993. Additionally, with all of Kalinske’s suggestions implemented SEGA had 55% of the market locked up by 1992 up from a pathetic 8% prior to Tom. A major reason if not the number one reason for SEGA's downfall was when Tom Kalinske was forced out by a series of horrible business decisions by Sega of Japan. Kalinske's departure/resignation kicked off a domino effect from which SEGA was never able to recover from. SEGA of Japan should have accommodated Tom and made him happy in turn he would have continued to do what he did best: making SEGA allot of money.

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/console-wars-book-sega/

http://www.sega-16.com/2005/02/tom-k...rican-samurai/

[A Black Falcon]

Okay... starting from 1992.

-Force Sega of Japan to competently support the Sega CD throughout its life. SoJ game support for the SCD in 1991, 1992, and 1995 was minimal; they only tried in '93 and '94, and even then some major titles ended up on cart -- Outrun 2019, Phantasy Star IV. Things were so bad early on that SoA was forced to include third-party multiplatform games (Sol-Feace is a X68000 port, and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is also on PC, Turbo CD, and more) and some Genesis ports as the launch pack-in library! Pretty sad. And the next major packin was Sewer Shark, another game which later on got a port (to 3DO). SoJ needed actual games for the system.

-Make up some information for first and third party teams about how to do good sprite scaling on the Sega CD. Few teams managed to figure it out -- Malibu, a couple of SoJ teams (for Beyond the Limit and Sonic CD bonus stages), Core, and not much else.

-Sega Multimedia Studios was a good idea, and their two games are good, but were they worth the significant expense? Also, even IF it was the mid '90s... Wild Woody, conceptually, should have been changed at some point.

-Never release the 32X. It was a huge mistake.

-Somehow get SoJ to understand that by undercutting SoA, they destroyed most of their sales basem, and they could NEVER replace that all with Japanese sales. As much as they hated it, they needed the American market, and needed to focus on trying to stay relevant in it, instead of going for Japan (with the Saturn) and losing when FF7 and DQ7 were announced as PS1 exclusives.

-Don't release the Saturn as it is. Release a more powerful system (the SGI system, the Lockheed system, something else, they had options), either in late '95 or in '96. This would hurt in Japan, but do a lot more good in the West than bad in Japan, overall. Sega went from over 20 million Genesises in the US to not even 2 million Saturns! Absolutely catastrophic, and with better hardware and no 32X the hurt would be reduced.

-Never, EVER hire Bernie Stolar, he helped finish off Sega in the US.

-With a later and better Saturn, the DC wouldn't need to release in 1998, so it could have been more powerful and not quite as dated specs-wise compared to the other systems of the generation. DC maximum polygon counts particularly are limited compared to the GC, Xbox, or PS2.

-Built in DVD drive in the Dreamcast, with DVD playback either included, or via an addon like the original Xbox remote. A LOT of people bought PS2s in 2000-2001 for DVD playback alone! Match this.


If you REALLY want a successful Sega, though, Sega quite simply needed more money. Sega had limited financial resources compared to the other systems, and that is what pushed them out in the end. Even with all these things, Sega probably eventually ends up out simply because of how each generation is even more expensive to stay in than the last one. Eventually Sega's limited finances were going to give out, unless they could manage a series of smash-hit systems and manage to not immediately waste all the money, as they had done with their Genesis money. I don't know if anything could change this. Like, how could Sega get that money? What would they need to do? I guess if they could moneyhat Square and Enix they could win Japan, but Sony could offer much larger moneyhats, and Nintendo too if they believed in such things (which they don't, of course).

As for the West, canning the 32X and releasing a better Saturn would have worked wonders. How about buying exlusivity (or the studio, even?) to Core Design titles? Core and Sega were close on the SCD/Genesis, and if somehow Sega could have gotten Tomb Raider exclusive, that'd have been huge... (though Sony's moneyhats would have been larger, probably, making this tough; Sega would have needed to get them before they got big, I guess. But at that point, how do you know beforehad it'd be worth it? GEt Tomb Raider console exclusive on Saturn, though, and you help Sega in '96. Also of course... a Sonic game. X-Treme, or something from SoJ, if you force Sonic Team to make a Sonic game instead of NiGHTS. Release one, you NEED it for the US, it's not optional.

However, all of that would only help for a while -- later on console development just got so expensive! Microsoft lost over $4 billion on the original Xbox and shrugged it off as the cost of getting into the industry, while Sega was driven out of the industry with only a tiny fraction of that amount of losses. It's easy to imagine Sega doing a lot better than they did in the 5th generation. But becoming "the world's biggest gaming juggernaut"? That would require INCREDIBLE sales of Sega hardware, and I have trouble imagining a scenario where they could have overcome their massive financial disadvantage, particularly when after the mid '90s Sega's style of arcade-focused game gradually faded in popularity.

[Jorpho]

-Built in DVD drive in the Dreamcast, with DVD playback either included, or via an addon like the original Xbox remote. A LOT of people bought PS2s in 2000-2001 for DVD playback alone! Match this.

Gee, up until now I always thought the PS2 also required a similar addon and that it did not play DVDs out of the box. Anyway, didn't Sony at least have to pay a good chunk of money for the licensing rights?

On that note, did piracy do a lot to kill the DC in the end? Do you think they might have held out a little longer if it at least needed a modchip, or something?

[Gameguy]

Gee, up until now I always thought the PS2 also required a similar addon and that it did not play DVDs out of the box. Anyway, didn't Sony at least have to pay a good chunk of money for the licensing rights?

The PS2 plays DVDs with the regular controller, you don't need a remote to play DVDs. The optional remote just makes things easier.

The real problem with the Dreamcast was a lack of good games for the North American market, most games just weren't what people wanted to play. At least not enough people. When they were desperate for a winner, they released the pretentious Shenmue.

As much as I have a soft spot for Sega, really the Genesis was a fluke. Just about all of their other consoles were market failures, they really lasted longer than they should have if you really think about it. There just weren't any better competitors at the time, not until Sony came to the market and displaced Sega.

[A Black Falcon]

Gee, up until now I always thought the PS2 also required a similar addon and that it did not play DVDs out of the box. Anyway, didn't Sony at least have to pay a good chunk of money for the licensing rights?

Sony was one of the creators of the DVD standard, so they didn't really need to pay themselves a license fee. Microsoft did, though, which is why it requires the remote -- that Xbox remote pack was $30 because it included the DVD license fee. Sega would have needed to pay one too, but I think it'd have made a big difference, because the PS2 particularly definitely was helped a lot by its DVD playback.

On that note, did piracy do a lot to kill the DC in the end? Do you think they might have held out a little longer if it at least needed a modchip, or something?

I don't think it did, really; piracy may have reduced software sales a bit, but piracy was huge on the PS1 as well, and that system did pretty great! Sega's biggest problem was that they were out of money. Lacking hardware sales after the '99 holiday season hurt too, but Sega's biggest problem of course was their finances. They needed the DC to be a huge hit, but it just wasn't. It was doing okay... but PS2 hype was really killing it, and Sega kept cutting prices to encourage sales but that just accelerated their losses.

[ProjectCamaro]

Have more add on's. Sega Genesis DD anyone?

[nosweargamer]

1) Use all resources from the 32X (media, advertising, development) towards the Saturn instead. Make the Saturn more developer friendly.
2) Practice better PR with publishers and retailers. (They burned some bridges with their surprise Saturn (launch)
3) Bring established Genesis franchises to the Saturn right away without trying to force them into 3D (Sonic, Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star, Vectorman, Toe Jam and Earl)
4) Take longer time developing the Dreamcast to better compete with the PS2. Include DVD function.

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Hmmm... let's start at January 1, 1994.

-Let Sega of America call the shots for the most part. Sega of Japan needs to primarily worry about Japan. I think it goes without saying, no Bernie Stolar.

-Never develop the 32X. Go 100% behind the Saturn as their next-gen system, and make it easier to develop for and more 3D-friendly than it was in our timeline. For the "higher-end" experiences that the 32X was targeted, make these SVP chip games, like Nintendo did with the Super FX.

-Keep focus on the Genesis through 1994-1995. Don't switch to those cheap cardboard boxes for games and keep triple-A titles coming on the system. Start winding things down in '96.

-Launch the Saturn worldwide in September 1995, using the extra 10 months from our timeline to further improve the system and keep it competitive. Basically, keep the original "Saturnday" plan. Get the important Sega IPs on there early. Have a Sonic game out for the holiday season of 1995, or in 1996 at the absolute latest. Sonic 3D Blast would be a Genesis exclusive, with a real, main-line 3D game for Saturn. Also, try to launch it cheaper than $399. No regional lockout on the Saturn, but don't heavily advertise that part - the hardcore gamers will figure that out.

-The Saturn needs a unique selling proposition; it can't just ape the PlayStation, it has to do something better than both PS1 and N64. Localize more of the Japanese games worth localizing (stuff like shooters, fighters, and RPGs not dating sims). Make the Saturn the go-to system for RPGs, fighters and shooters, for instance. Work closely with Working Designs, make a new series of Phantasy Star games in 3D, stuff like that. Although FF7 will still move to the PlayStation and it'll start getting large numbers of RPGs after 1997, keep those RPGs coming to Saturn as well. Maybe Square would make a Saturn port of FF7! As for fighters, that cartridge slot is there for a reason: RAM carts to do fighters better than PS1 or N64! Give the Saturn more of a Japanese flair than PS1 or N64 without neglecting the games that sell to Western audiences.

-With a successful Saturn, probably more successful than the N64 but not quite PS1 level, get the jump on the PS2 by offering a system with DVD playback for the '99 holiday season. This would probably be quite expensive, a $399 launch price may be necessary, so it might be a good idea to make the DVD player an optional feature at first (much like the Xbox did) in a way that would allow for an easy upgrade.
Sort of like a Dreamcast for $399 and a Dreamcast Core System for $349, and a $50 upgrade that can be bought later for Core System owners. As far as games, what happened in real life would work for the Dreamcast (well, EA would still be on board as well)

-Do away with the Core System and make the DVD player-equipped Dreamcast standard at $299 in 2000, ideally before the PS2 launch.

-At this point, there's probably not room for Microsoft to entire the gaming market. IIRC, there was some Microsoft tech kicking around in the Dreamcast (Windows CE).