Sega - Blast from the Past - Awesome Read

[Super XP]

Hi everybody, this is a really amazing read. It's cool to hear that the Sega Genesis was outselling SNES by as much as 5 to 1 and the Sega Dreamcast was the most successfully selling gaming Console of all time in North America. All I have to say is Thank you very much Sega, you've paved the way for the Future of Console Gaming!Anyway, EnJoY

Sega of America in the early 1990s
These days it might be Xbox 360 vs PS3,
but back in the day it was Genesis vs SNES and contrary to belief. Sega Genesis was doing really well (Awesome) back in the 1990s, and so was the Game Gear and Sega CD.

I got this article from factiva, it's a electronic library journal. If you go to a university you should have access to these types of resources.

BANNER SALES YEAR FOR SEGA'S GENESIS, GAME GEAR AND SEGA CD
651 words
6 January 1994
Business Wire
English
(Copyright (c) 1994, Business Wire)
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The numbers are in. Year-end sales figures show Sega of
America, Inc., won the crucial Christmas selling season with the 16-bit Genesis home entertainment system
outselling The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) by a significant margin; the color portable
Game Gear posting increased sales of over 200 percent of last year's record setting pace; and the Sega CD,
the CD-ROM peripheral to Genesis, achieving an industry-leading total installed base of nearly one million
units.
"The holiday selling season, which is critical in our industry to gaining market share, was a complete
blowout for Sega," said Tom Kalinske, Sega president and CEO. "In fact, several key retailers have
reported that sales of the Genesis system surpassed our competition by as much as five-to-one and
software sales are running just as high. While we are extremely pleased with Sega's performance in 1993,
we are looking forward to 1994 as being our best sales year ever."
Sega's extensive library of software, including blockbuster titles each selling over one million units in 1993,
contributes to the continued success of Genesis. Last year's hit titles include games based on original Sega
characters such as "Sonic Spinball," great sports games such as "NFL Football '94 Starring Joe Montana,"
number-one selling comic book favorite "Marvel Comic's X-Men," and movie-based titles, "Disney's Aladdin"
and "Jurassic Park" expand on the success of the year's biggest blockbusters.
Another testimony of consumers' preference for Sega titles was a recent Toy Test conducted by "CBS This
Morning" which enabled hundreds of kids to play and rate new video games for the holidays. Six of the top
10 video games chosen by kids were Sega titles including, "Jurassic Park" and "Disney's Aladdin" for Sega
Genesis at Number 1 and 2, respectively, and "Final Fight" for Sega CD at Number 3. Rounding out the top
10 list were "Shinobi III - Return of the Ninja Masters" for Sega Genesis and "Ecco the Dolphin" and
"Batman Returns" for the Sega CD.
As all early indicators pointed to heavy demand for Genesis over the holiday selling season, Sega shipped
record numbers of systems. Since September, Sega shipped over a million Genesis systems to stores
nationwide every month. The color portable Game Gear also reported record sales and continued to gain
market share throughout 1993 even after Nintendo lowered its Game Boy price. In 1993, Sega increased its
Game Gear market share to over 57 percent for an installed base of nearly 4 million. With a stellar lineup of
games, some of Game Gear's best-sellers last year included "Sonic Chaos," named best title in the
hand-held category on the CBS Toy Test, followed by "Jurassic Park" for Game Gear, "Quest For The
Shaven Yak Starring Ren Hoek & Stimpy" and "Ecco the Dolphin."
Consumer demand for Sega CD has remained strong since its November 1992 launch, making it the most
popular CD-ROM video game platform ever. With a competitive price of $229 and an impressive software
library of over 55 hot titles, Sega CD is the ultimate video game platform that gives players tomorrow's
entertainment experience today. Contributing to the fast-paced sales of nearly 700,000 Sega CD systems in
1993 were several must-have titles including "Silpheed" and "Sonic CD," as well as Digital Pictures'
productions of "Prize Fighter" and "Double Switch," featuring real video footage shot live on-location with
real actors, directors and sets.
Sega of America, Inc., which markets and distributes to North America, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of $3.0
billion Sega Enterprises, Ltd., Japan. Sega is a worldwide leader in home video entertainment systems.
Document bwr0000020011028dq16002w0

I like to thank "welcometothenextlevel" for his research and post on this matter.
http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?99947-Sega-of-America-in-the-early-1990s

Legacy
The Dreamcast introduced numerous features that would be standard to future consoles. All models were shipped with modems allowing users to browse the net and play games online via dedicated server through SegaNet (Dreamarena in Europe), a precursor to services such as Xbox Live. Alien Front Online was the first online console game to feature live in-game voice chat. It also featured such early downloadable content, such as items and missions for games such as Phantasy Star Online and Skies of Arcadia. Jet Set Radio, a Dreamcast original, popularized cell shaded graphics. Shenmue had introduced a game with vast scope and Seaman was one of the first virtual pet games for a console.[25] In 2009, IGN named the Dreamcast the 8th greatest video game console of all time, out of a field of 25.[26]

Independent commercial games such as Feet of Fury, Last Hope and DUX have also been released.[27] And on June 10, 2010, at E3 Sega announced that Dreamcast titles would soon be available on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. The first two titles to be released are Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi.[28]

On November 27, 1998, Sega launched the Dreamcast game console in Japan. The Dreamcast was competitively priced, partly due to the use of off-the-shelf components, but it also featured technology that allowed for more technically impressive games than its direct competitors, the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. An analog 56k modem was also included, allowing gamers to play multi-player games online on a home console for the first time, featuring titles such as the action-puzzle title Chu Chu Rocket, Phantasy Star Online, the first console-based MMORPG, and the innovative Alien Front Online, the first console game with online voice chat. The Dreamcast's launch in Japan was a failure. Launching with a small library of software and in the shadow of the upcoming PS2, the system would not gain great success, despite several successful games in the region. The Western launch a year later was accompanied by a large amount of both 1st party and 3rd party software and an aggressive marketing campaign. It was extremely successful and earned the distinction of "most successful hardware launch in history," selling a then-unprecedented 500,000 consoles in its first week in North America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega

 

[stuartb04]

great read there xp

yea i grew up with the genesis vs snes era
best gaming memories ever

would like to see the figures for uk sales tho

 

[Sir_Real]

The dreamcast was killed off by piracy. I remember when copyed dreamcast games where selling on carboot sales world wide. Best of all no hardware mod was needed to run copyed games

 

[mlee49]

The Sega Game Gear sucked balls, I had it and hated it. Would have loved a Gameboy

The Dreamcast was an amazing system that still is played today.

 

[JC316]

Still have my Genesis/Sega CD and the Dreamcast. I still hold the dreamcast as the best console ever made and I wish that Sega would stop being 3rd party and actually make a Dreamcast 2.

 

[erocker]

I still have my Master System, Genesis w/32x (Sucked), and the venerable Sega Saturn. The Saturn was one of the biggest purchasing mistakes I've made, especially since it wass $499.

 

[pantherx12]

It's global sales that count in global buisiness

 

[kurosagi01]

I heard somewhere you can play ps1 games on the dreamcast aswell or something along those lines..

 

[streetfighter 2]

I still have my Sega Saturn. I have an Action Replay (or whatever the hell it's called) so I can play Japanese games. I mostly play X-Men Vs. Street Fighter (predecessor to Marvel Vs. Capcom) and Radiant Silvergun (both are Japanese originals). I bought the Saturn long after it was considered retired in the states for only a few dollars.

These days I rarely boot up the Saturn because my PC can emulate the Saturn just swell. What really killed the Saturn was that they weren't importing enough games from Japan (or so I hear). A lot of the best Dreamcast games never made it stateside either.

Interestingly enough xbox live now has Ikaruga (and lots of other lost classics), my personal favorite game that was Japan-only on the Dreamcast (though later released on the GameCube in the states). I finally bought a copy of the gamecube version of Ikaruga which I play occasionally on my Wii.

I've never owned a Genesis but I spent a lot of time playing it back in it's heydey. I regularly play the classic SNES and Genesis games on my PC, the way god intended them to be immortalized.

 

[JC316]

I heard somewhere you can play ps1 games on the dreamcast aswell or something along those lines..

It was called Bleemcast and sony shit canned it FAST.

 

[Zen_]

Genesis, CD, Saturn, Dreamcast...owned 'em all! Toe Jam and Earl were just too cool for Nintendo. I don't even remember what the tragic end of the Dreamcast was caused by. Sega was producing some of their finest games ever and suddenly all the 3rd party developers jumped shipped. I still got mine, gota get a play through of Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II and Shenmue in every 2-3 years. Oh and the days of ChuChu Rocket!

 

[KainXS]

Dreamcast got hit hard, DVD was all the rage at the time and the DC was expensive when it launched, and I remember I bought one Day 1 for like 200 or 300 bucks on christmas and the price dropped so fast I felt like bitch slapping myself, the PS2 came out and sony spammed, it plays dvd's it does everything, microsoft did the same thing with the xbox and then GC had the cheap spot for kids even though the GC was the same price i think, nintendo just has that name that resonates, Sega was just left out to the side and it had some decent games but it seemed like a console more directed towards the japanese market than the worldwide market, piracy helped also but it would have still run out of juice either way.

 

[DM3K]

I just pulled my old genesis/sega cd out of storage a few day ago, and the games are still just as fun.

 

[segalaw19800]

I still have doom for the 32x .

 

[JC316]

I still have doom for the 32x .

32X lol... Angry videogame nerd on the 32X...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvR_3OTxs8A

 

[Super XP]

The Sega Game Gear sucked balls, I had it and hated it. Would have loved a Gameboy

The Dreamcast was an amazing system that still is played today.

Sega's mistake was they should have made a hand held Game Gear that played Sega Genesis games or something, that would have been a big winner IMO.

 

[JC316]

Sega's mistake was they should have made a hand held Game Gear that played Sega Genesis games or something, that would have been a big winner IMO.

They did. It's called the Sega Nomad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Nomad

 

[RadeonProVega]

The dreamcast was killed off by piracy.

I really can't say that was the direct cause of dreamcast dying. I think dreamcast died IMO, because of the sega saturn. IMO, sega could of kept the dreamcast going, because of this:

#1 According to Bernie Stolar, former President and CEO of Sega of America, the Dreamcast was discontinued because the new chairman of Sega wanted the company to focus on software

Follow up with this:

#2 at the end of 2004, dream-cast had 9 million fans

------->

Estimated hardware sales by end of 2004

North America 4 million
Europe 2 million
Japan 3 million
Worldwide total 9 million

They could of kept the dream-cast alive, but looking at #1 and number #2, they made a decision to close its doors, which i think was a horrible idea. They could of created a team to just work on dream-cast games and gather some 3rd party companies to continue working on them, bringing in some profit, and still had the other side focus on software games like they are doing now.

Btw, quoting 9 million , what i was getting it, thats enough to continue with the system, so #1 is really the cause of death of the dreamcast

 

[TheMailMan78]

I call BS on some of these points. The Dreamcast did not sell more then the NES in the US. There is a lot of "fluff" in that article.

 

[Super XP]

They did. It's called the Sega Nomad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Nomad

Goodness Freaking Sakes, for a Sega fan I didn't know about this DAM, double DAM It's too bad it got released way too late in the game. If Sega released this instead of the Game Gear, it would have been a success IMO. But anyway, here's a link, it sold about 1 million units as of 2007...
LINK:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Nomad

I call BS on some of these points. The Dreamcast did not sell more then the NES in the US. There is a lot of "fluff" in that article.

They did sell that many units.

 

[sliderider]

The dreamcast was killed off by piracy. I remember when copyed dreamcast games where selling on carboot sales world wide. Best of all no hardware mod was needed to run copyed games

No, the DC was NOT killed off by piracy. It was killed off by the PS2. Once Sony announced the release date for PS2, DC sales died out and everyone pre-ordered PS2 instead because it did more than play games. Sega continued to support the Dreamcast in Japan for years after it was discontinued in N. America and Europe. New consoles and games were still being sold as late as 2006 and there were still some small, independent developers releasing games for it through unofficial channels as recently as 2010.

 

[sliderider]

They did. It's called the Sega Nomad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Nomad

The Sega Nomad was good, but the problem was who wanted to carry around a bunch of Genesis carts? It's even worse with something like the Game Axe that plays NES carts. Large cartridges kinda defeat the purpose of going portable.

 

[CJCerny]

Yeah, I think that so-called news article is really just one big quote from the Sega president. No news agency would use the word "stellar" when referring to sales. It certainly doesn't paint an accurate picture. Most sources place the total SNES sales at about 3 to 1 over the Sega systems.

 

[BumbleBee]

I still have my Sega Saturn. I have an Action Replay (or whatever the hell it's called) so I can play Japanese games. I mostly play X-Men Vs. Street Fighter (predecessor to Marvel Vs. Capcom) and Radiant Silvergun (both are Japanese originals). I bought the Saturn long after it was considered retired in the states for only a few dollars.

These days I rarely boot up the Saturn because my PC can emulate the Saturn just swell. What really killed the Saturn was that they weren't importing enough games from Japan (or so I hear). A lot of the best Dreamcast games never made it stateside either.

Interestingly enough xbox live now has Ikaruga (and lots of other lost classics), my personal favorite game that was Japan-only on the Dreamcast (though later released on the GameCube in the states). I finally bought a copy of the gamecube version of Ikaruga which I play occasionally on my Wii.

I've never owned a Genesis but I spent a lot of time playing it back in it's heydey. I regularly play the classic SNES and Genesis games on my PC, the way god intended them to be immortalized.

Sega is releasing the Ultimate Dreamcast collection this year. the Genesis collection was really good.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Goodness Freaking Sakes, for a Sega fan I didn't know about this DAM, double DAM It's too bad it got released way too late in the game. If Sega released this instead of the Game Gear, it would have been a success IMO. But anyway, here's a link, it sold about 1 million units as of 2007...
LINK:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Nomad

They did sell that many units.

Yeah? Well it also said it was the "Dreamcast" was the most successful selling console in north America? Well I got news for ya buddy. The NES sold 61.91 million units world wide. If it wasn't for the NES we would have lost video games to the 1983 crash. That article you posted is a lot of fluff. I mean for f#@K sake they only made 10.6 million units of the Dreamcast. Nintendo won the console wars man. I'm a huge SEGA fan but lets be realistic here.