Quote Originally Posted by gbpxl View Post
1994 was when they released the 32x probably the worst decision Sega ever made. Outside of Sonic & Knuckles I can't think of anything else Sega made that was good that year
I can actually see how 1994 could be seen as Sega's peak. The 32X sales were great at first, although once 1995 came they crashed like a rock as people saw how useless it was. The Genesis had a strong library, Sonic 3 also came out that year, and third party support was great. Still, a lot of the groundwork for Sega's fall was laid that year; a resurgent Nintendo was also an issue for Sega. I think '94 is the year the SNES surpassed the Genesis. I could see early 1994 as the "end of the peak" but if I had to put a year on it it would be '92 or '93.

1995 is really the year Sega collapsed. Between the 32X's meteoric crash, the Saturn surprise launch, and the general decline of the 16-bit era it was a terrible year for Sega.

In Japan the story was different, the Saturn was launched there and as most of us know it was more successful than the Genesis (Mega Drive) over there. I would say Sega of Japan peaked about 1997, right before Bernie Stolar said "The Saturn is not our future." at E3. That screw-up cost Sega its last successful territory, there was a cascading effect that if the president of Sega USA didn't believe in the Saturn, why should the rest of the world, and the Saturn really lost momentum in Japan in '98.

I also saw a post that said that Sega peaked in the 1980s due to the arcade. Sega was very strong in the arcades then, especially in the latter half of the decade. I wouldn't say Sega peaked when they didn't have any home consoles, but I could certainly see a case for Master System era Sega being the company's peak based on the arcade success.

So I would put the peak in 1992 or 1993, but based on your perspective and what you emphasize anywhere from 1986-1997 is plausible.