SEGA's 3 Biggest Mistakes

Sega saw a meteoric rise in the video game market share during the early 90's. By 2001, they were no longer making hardware. How can you fall so hard, so fast? Let's take a look at Sega's 3 Biggest Mistakes!

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[GamingHistorian]

Hey this isn't the Tetris episode! Unfortunately I had to put that episode on hold. I'm waiting on assets and approval of some footage. Rather than sit around and wait, here is a new episode! This is a good subject and encourages discussion, so please be respectful when commenting. Have a great weekend!

[muhanc.a.]

SEGA's biggest mistake: SEGA japan vs SEGA America.

SEGA's internal and intercontinental war doomed SEGA itself.

[orius]

Sega's mistakes all seem to boil down to one big mistake: their obsession to beat Nintendo in the Japanese market. If Sega had fully capitalized on their successes outside of Japan, and paid more attention to what their American counterparts were saying, they may have done better in the long run.

[SethAndrew]

$399 was absolutely devastating in the 90's.

The Saturn reminds me of the PS3 fiasco.

[llSuperSnivyll]

So this is how summarize SEGA's downfall:

SEGA of America: "Hey, look! I have this cool idea!"
Japan: "No, that's dumb"

[koenmetekohy]

Man imagine having a rivalry with yourself.

[jaylucien]

I worked at Funcoland during all of this. Another big hit against the Saturn was the memory cart slot in the back of the console. General consumers believed it was there for Genesis backwards compatibility. When they unfortunately discovered it wasn't, they returned the system in mass numbers. I'll never forget that.

[SkulShurtugalTCG]

The Sega Saturn blunder.... Hard to believe that wasn't intentional. You can't make up stupidity that bad.

[Anakunus]

I think that Sega's biggest mistake was not to give Tom Kalinske full control over business decisions regarding North American market area. The man was a genius.

[Lugmillord]

Man, the lead of Sega Japan was horrible at making decisions.

[keinlieb]

"Sony doesn't know how to make gaming consoles" most regrettable comment in history.

[Tradeofjane]

"Sony doesn't know how to make hardware" ~ Sega of Japan.

Neither did Atari but that didn't prevent Sega of Japan from being scared of the Atari Jaguar.

[julianconcha]

Imagine an alternate timeline where SEGA and Sony are just one, big, blue technological/gaming juggernaut against Nintendo.
SEGA kinda accidentally helped Nintendo survive through that generation...

[shawn]

That "299" speech is awesome. Sometimes you can say the most by saying very little.

[DragonMan]

I think Sega's biggest mistake is they absolutely HATE delaying games.
As Shigeru Miyamoto said "a late game can be turned good, a bad game is bad forever"

[Kodeb]

I always imagine the CEO of Sega of Japan as a fat demon with a suit, and the CEO of Sega of America as a hip 90s skateboard kid with a backwards cap.

[stephencook]

Moral of the story: Finish late prepared rather than early roll with Sony when they ask you for your help

[mattzeyro]

Great episode as always Norm! I had no idea that both Nintendo AND Sega had a hand in creating their biggest rivals. Unbelievable.

[joelggundam]

One correction, roughly 4 retailers were selling the Saturn in May 1995 (Software Etc, EB Games, Babbage's, and Toys R Us). Most of the large retailers were also left out. Walmart was so furious that they discontinued selling Sega products from their stores, which was the biggest blow for the Saturn in my eyes.

[TheReal_Pim_Tool]

I always wondered why Sega came out with so many systems and add on systems in such a short period of time. It did make them seem greedy and ruined their loyal fan base. I was always a fan of the Genesis because they had so many great games. It seems they just didn’t have a clear plan on how they were going to take their consoles into the gaming future.