Firstly, I’m a old-school Sega fan. I grew up spending many-a-hour on the Sega Megadrive. I then bypassed the Sega Saturn to get to the glorious Sega Dreamcast. I’m saying this because a lot of what I’m going to say about Sega isn’t very nice…but it’s the truth.
One thing I see a lot from Sega fans is for Sega come back into the console market with “Dreamcast 2”. Particular when close to E3. Some people believe that either Microsoft and Nintendo will drop out of the console race; leaving a gap for Sega to exploit. I for one am I’m telling you that this is not going to happen. I’ll go one better and say that Sega returning to the console market would be a terrible decision and that is why that we never happen and here’s why….
90s Sega is not today’s Sega
The main problem from a fans prospective is their/our perception of Sega. When you and I think of Sega we think of the Sega in the 90s; back when they were the kings of gaming. Sadly that is not the case today. They’re not a Nintendo, a Ubisoft or even an EA. You can add Activision and Capcom to that list also.
All these companies are now bigger than Sega and they all make ‘bigger’, more popular games than Sega do. COD, Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Resident Evil, FIFA, just to name a few. Any on these companies would have a better chance of making an successful console. They actually hold franchises people would want.
While it was beloved by many; the Dreamcast was not successful. It would be unwise to release an successor to a console that wasn’t successful in the first place.
Sega don’t have that $$$.
Developing a games console for worldwide use isn’t cheap, especially in today’s age. Why do you think so few companies do it apart from massive conglomerates like Microsoft or Sony? Sega aren’t as big as those companies and to be honest, they were even pushing above their weight against Nintendo in the 90s. Put simply, Sega couldn’t afford to put out new console. They don’t have that kind of money anymore.
Sega doesn’t even come close to the amount of revunue the likes EA and Activison make.. The Sonic brand alone is no longer strong enough to sell hardware and Sega aren’t exactly great at revive their older franchises or making newer ones these days and when they have tried (NiGTHS, Samba de Amigo, Golden Axe) those games have either end up half-assed or poorly marketed like MadWorld. A lot of their top-level developers have left the company due to the company re-structuring and the subsequent lack of freedom. They no longer have the money or talent to launch such ambition projects. One of the reasons we haven’t seen another Shenmue. =/
If Sega released the Saturn the way they had release the Dreamcast, they may be in much better shape today.
So Sega don’t have the funding, the money, talent and most importantly they do not have the consumer confidence. Outside of die-hard Sega fans, who else who pick up a “Dreamcast 2”? No one else. Hell, I doubt I’d even buy it. Sega can barely market own their games these days let alone a console. Other than Sega would any third-party company see the Dreamcast 2 as a viable console to make games for? You see what’s happening with the Wii U right? If these companies are willing to drop their support for Nintendo then what change do Sega have?
Lastly, “Dreamcast 2” would be a terrible name as sadly the Dreamcast name is associated with failure. Having a brand new console being associated with failure right from the start is not good. Also with the name “Dreamcast 2”, anyone under the age of 13 would wonder what the hell a “Dreamcast 1” ever was. Sega re-entering the console market would be a total f**king disaster. The best we can hope for is for Sega to become a bigger and better software company like a Ubisoft or a Capcom. That’s something that still is possible.
Written by a direhard Sega fan.
Nikyle's Two Pence 
Preaching to the choir a bit?
But seriously, you’re giving the other devs too much doubt benefits. Most of these devs are pretty damn greedy and would be stupid enough to release a console over $400 during a recession. There’s no such thing as a “viable” console when the money is going to get tighter, and the obsession with “HD graphics” has corrupted every developer in the industry. As such, they would all fail due to their HD obsession what with the asinine costs for development alone. Hell, the mere suggestion of cutting back on dev costs made one developer lose his shit.
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“Preaching to the choir a bit?” That made me laugh. Fair comment but then go off on one. And I don’t get the point behind it.
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Seriously. Thank you.
There is nothing wrong with being a fan of Sega products. But this whole ‘DC2 is happening’ that’s been plaguing the internet is getting tiresome. It’s a pipe dream at best.
Why would Sega even bother? The insane amount of competition along with plethora of products they can release games for is more than enough reason for them to not deal with the hassle and expense of a new system.
Fans of the Dreamcast have short memories. It’s wasn’t just the Dreamcast that did poorly. The Saturn, CDX, Nomad and 32X failed to entice consumers. I doubt Sega needed more evidence that it was time to get out and focus on other projects.
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Firstly, Thank you. There’s nothing better than waking up to positive comment of your blog =)
Secondly, we agree with pretty much everything. That’s exactly what I was trying to say. A lot of people really need to think about what they are saying.
Though, I wouldn’t call the Dreamcast an outright failure.I personally believe if it had better financial backing, Microsoft’s kinda of money behind it, than it could have been as successful as the first Xbox or Gamecube. Shame Sega wasted their resources of so much crap before hand.
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I agree with everything you stated. Its like the other guy was pointing out that the “HD graphics has corrupted every developer in the industry.” that is the biggest excuse all old school gamers use because they are unhappy with current games and unwilling to move forward.. You cannot run a console in non HD format nowadays considering every TV is HD. We transitioned over from analog ,to digital HD. Its the direction everything was heading in. HD today, is our new standard. Nintendo themselves said they made the Wii none HD because adoption was low. Yet now, here they are in HD form. In mid transition, many companies were struggling moving over. But also many blockbuster IP came out. Gear of War, Uncharted series, God of war and old school classics like the new Tomb Raider which has revitalized that old franchise and Mario is still going strong along with Zelda and Metroid.
Some people are just stuck in the past, and refuse to accept things have changed. Nothing will ever top our memories when we were younger. Which is why so many people keep holding on.I am an old school gamer, and I can say there are a TON of new IPs out well worth peoples money. At the end of the day, what drove me to choose the PlayStation brand over Sega and even the Dreamcast was the GAMES. I had ALL Sega systems minus the CD drive. What drove me away was the game development. Beyond Shenmu and Soul Calibur. the Library was dull. Graphically the Dreamcast was superior to the PS1. I choose the inferior system because they offered better games at the time. Dreamcast pushed a lot more Arcade style games. While Sony had a lot more movie type IP.
Sega has not been making much off their IP to even consider starting a console.
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Typo, I meant to say graphically superior to the PS2. I need to point one thing out .. Back in the days all system had their soulless garbage games just like today. Not everything sold like gangbusters.
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what he/she meant by hd is that every one wants better graphics. look at people bashing cod for not having good graphics like battle field, i got battle field on xbox 1. game is not worth 60 bucks ill tell u that. although not horrible, there are many games id rather play. i played earth bound (by the way, great rpg) more then i played battle field. but thats what every 8-13 year old who want rated m games like these days. when i said i liked sonic 3, half my class didn’t know what i was talking about. and the casual gamersare not the ones wanting this. they rather play super mario then a mindless shooter. its the simple minder sports gamers who got cod and sports games.there are great games, even great fps shooters like bioshock and far cry 3.many people dont broaden there interest. just dont be so stereotypical person.
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I was bored and happen to find this blog, as a oldies Sega fan, I too agree with you. Sega did hurt the lot of us and there are still those who hope for the impossible that they can’t do. But in order for Sega to do such a thing and actually succeed would well… Look of the listing below.
Sega Needs:
1. Create A community of teams and members to contribute funds or volunteer developers, population of 1 million most. (Think of it like the Linux community if you are familiar of their OS for PC.)
2. Due to the lack of game developers, Sega pretty much have to round up what little developers that are out there such as people from 3d open source communities like Blender 3D, 3D sculpt artist of the Zbrush or Sculptris forums and final the android game developers.
3. Sega would have to be willing to share their tech with the new community development cause, which would be free to the members use.
4. The new Team of Volunteer Developers would have to compare and contrast of modern games (Assassin Creed, Need For Speed, Infamous, God of War, Etc.) and apply them concepts to the older type games and create a formula of their own that will work, thus making a game actually likable.
5. Game sales would be a better structure for downloadable content on a network server like PSN, but have to take a slight risk for a free game or two to the consumers/customer (Us) Pre-downloaded in the console.
6. Mostly for the volunteer developers really wouldn’t want to do all this for free for Sega so Sega would more than likely have to add a royalty payment setup for the developers, like $.50 per download of every purchase from a gamer and the developers get a profit sounds like crap but add up the number like 0.50 x 100,000 = $50,000 not so bad really a goody good gig.
7. Partner up with operating system developer, Microsoft (A no-no since they got Xbox.) Mac (Not a team player.) Linux (Probably may, they are open source ans Steve Bob from Apple attempted to buy Linux but couldn’t.)
So Think of games now like Asura’s Wrath, Mario Galaxy, and Sonic Unleashed (Remove the werehog.)
But you get ma’ drift right?
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i miss u sega : (
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Nice blog, just what the gamer world wants, keep up the good
work!
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