|
|
|
|
|
|
by giantrobot
1086 days ago
|
|
|
The SegaCD and 32x were most assuredly problems for Sega. They were both problematic with third party developers because their low sales made for a small addressable market. The 32x especially burned third party devs because the Saturn was announced right as the 32x was released. If you were mid-development of a 32x game in November of 1994 you just found out a lot of the money you'd spend had been wasted. You'll either be releasing a game in a few months on a system with no future (32x) or have to spend extra money to port and release it on the Saturn. The Saturn never got the sort of third party support that the PlayStation did. Square and Konami released system-selling games with Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid. That was in addition to second party games like Gran Tourismo which was a system seller as well. |
|
|
Yeah for Sega of America. Sega HQ back in Japan saw the writing on the wall when Sony started working on the PlayStation. Sony has always been massive compared to Sega or Nintendo at any point in time. Even Microsoft has had a tough time competing. This was not the hill Sega wanted to die on even if it meant not making consoles anymore. They're still worth billions, just not tens or hundreds of billions. They made the right choice to move on. The fact that fully grown adults still cling to childhood memories of what could have been instead of recognizing clear business decisions for what they were is a testament to their once genius marketing.
Both then and now Sony owns tons of intellectual property, can do whatever it dreams up hardware-wise, sell that hardware at very competitive prices, and has deep connections with just about every major publisher in the entertainment business. Just like how Sega pulled out of consoles, Sony made a similarly smart move by not bothering with its own streaming service. I don't believe they own their little experiment called Crackle anymore. Why bother when you still own the rights to a ton of stuff? Rights that they probably can't even sell if they tried because it would be illegal under anti-monopoly law. That's a better position than even Disney is currently in.