Play Value - Sega Vs. Nintendo

Play Value Episode “Sega vs. Nintendo” Jeff: In 1989 Nintendo owns the videogame market. They're operating for all intensive purposes as a monopoly. Atari tried to take them down but was completely unsuccessful. Not even close. Really the first bump in the road for them is Sega and the Genesis. Josh: Up through the 80’s really Nintendo was dominating the videogame market, killing Sega’s Master system, basically installing themselves in almost every kid's home in America. Sega needed to combat that. Dan: What does Sega do? They put all their money into R&D; they develop the Genesis, a fantastic new console. They put the Genesis out there and then just like a political campaign step one, flood the market with negative advertisements, try to knock Nintendo down a notch or two in the public eye. Josh: They came out with this crazy marketing campaign, Sega does what Nintendon't. I mean Sega was so aggressive when the Genesis came out. Dan: Step two, grow the market. If Nintendo has a lock on the 10 year olds well then go after the older brothers, go after the high school seniors and then if they like Sega and think that it is cool, their younger brothers will eventually come along and go, oh I want to play the cool system too just like my big brother. TJ: You know, in Sega's advertising there like, well you know what Nintendo is for little kids. We are for you, we are for the teenagers, we are a little bit more edgy, and we are cool. That is baby stuff. Dan: Now how is Sega going to get their hands on these older kids? Well they released a lot of sports games that is always popular with high school and college kids. And then they signed up a lot of celebrities. They had Arnold Palmer golf. They had Pat Riley's basketball. They had Michael Jackson's Moon Walker. Jeff: Sega went out there and got a lot of endorsements, a lot of celebrities. And that is something that Nintendo had really avoided. Nintendo made a celebrity. They had Mario they had Zelda, those were their celebrities. Sega did not have anything like that so they had to go out and get people like Madden, Buster Douglas boxing, Joe Montana Sports Talk Football. TJ: Granted their games may or may not have been great, but they used names that this older group of people would recognize. Dan: And they also brought back all the arcade classics, like Golden Ax and Shinobi. A 10-year-old is not going to let these are, but if you are in high school or college you are going to remember these and maybe you want them for your home system. Josh: Basically Sega had a history of making really good arcade games. For the first time you could play arcade like version of Strider, Altered Beast, Space Harrier. TJ: Sega also produced games that were more intellectually stimulating you should say. Like games that are geared towards older kids. Sword of Vermilion is a good example, these are complex role-playing games. Jeff: More complex adult games like Fantasy Star, or Populous, which to this day I cannot figure out. Dan: And then Sega also had wackier more indie fair, they had a Ren and Stimpy game, they had Toe Jam and Earl, to kind of appeal to that artsy cool crowd. Jeff: Same with Echo the Dolphin. It was a very original game that is not like anything out there, and there may be reason for that but you have to hand it to them it is unique. Dan: Now everything is going well for Sega but they are missing one thing. Nintendo, while they have got mascots. They have Mario, they have got Zelda, they have got Donkey Kong, and they have got all these great characters. TJ: Nintendo has this cast of characters, that have worked their way into people's hearts. And whenever you think of Nintendo I instantly think of Mario. Now the Sega does not have this yet. Dan: So they have a big board meeting and they go what can we do, what kind of character can we come up with? And amazingly, they actually come up with something cool; they come up with Sonic the Hedgehog. It was fast, it was furious, it was kind of out there, it was a little edgy, he had spiky hair, he had attitude. It was everything that was Sega. Jeff: And it was huge, it was a reason to buy the system. And a reason to buy a new system before the super Nintendo came out. It is one of the great games. Its cannon, Sonic is part of a cannon. TJ: Sonic came on the scene, kicked ass, and then their problems began again because Nintendo releases the Super Nintendo. And now the battle has to start all over again. Jeff: Super Nintendo comes out, so now technology wise they are even and now it comes down to the games, and now it is a real slugfest just going back and forth. Dan: Nintendo has ads like Nintendo is what Genesisn't. And Genesis fights back by starting a price war. And everyone starts cutting the cost of their consoles and making them cheaper for gamers. Jeff: Nintendo landed Final Fight, which was one of the biggest arcade hits. And Sega could not get that so they made Streets of Rage, which is a pretty good competitor, in a lot of ways superior. Sega does not have Final Fantasy so they made Fantasy Star. Dan: Now you can go back and forth on which system was actually better or more powerful, but the fact is that the Genesis actually had more fun games come out more often. Jeff: Nintendo has a lot of big franchises, and they drop one maybe two a year. These are classic games like Super Metroid, or Mario World 2. And of course, I haven't even thought about it yet but Mario Kart. TJ: And Nintendo’s strategy is we are going to sit around and wait for the next Mario title or the next Zelda to come around and then we will release it. Sega develops a think tank for games basically, the Game Institute. Dan: And they came up with all kinds of new games and new ip’s and they just kept throwing them out there and they were all really good. So if you wanted to play more good games, well then you had to get yourself a Genesis. Jeff: Sega was basically hammering you with B’s, while Nintendo was waiting and once a year they would drop an A+. Dan: It just keeps going on and on and by the time the smoke clears Sega actually has the edge on the marketplace, owning about 65% of the console market. Jeff: Sega got a toehold in the market with technology, and that is what they figured is going to win this game, and this is just the classic mistake you see hardware manufacturers making over and over again, worrying about the console, and not about the games. TJ: They had the lead, and all they had to do was nothing to maintain it. But instead they did everything, and destroy themselves. Jeff: They released the Sega CD and there is nothing even resembling a reason to buy the Sega CD, every game on it is terrible. And then there's the 32x, which no one can name a 32X game. You know, I don't even know anybody that has seen a 32X. I am skeptical they exist. TJ: One system is CDs this is the future. The next system, oh we are back to cartridges. The next system, oh we are back to CDs again. Sega looked like a company who had no idea where they were going, no idea how they got there, and no idea what to do right now. Dan: What is Nintendo doing in the meantime? Nothing, selling games, selling consoles, counting money, waiting for Sega to burn itself out. Jeff: Nintendo just sat on the Super Nintendo and said this is it, and focused on making great games for that for five years. They did not even release a 32-bit system they went from 16 to 64 bit. Libi: So Sega is telling everyone that their systems have the latest technology and that it is so important to have the latest technology. And then Nintendo comes out with Donkey Kong Country. A16-bit game which looks and plays so much better than anything that Sega has put out. Jeff: It made Sega look silly. Why spend all this money on add-ons when the greatest most advanced games are on the old system? Josh: Sega died as a hardware company. The Dreamcast was its last gasp, with all that Sega pulled back, got out of the hardware business. They just started making software. TJ: And the first time that you booted up your Nintendo and saw Sonics face you knew it was over. When Sonics face appeared on a Nintendo machine, game over man. Game over. Josh: And it's like I never think we would see this. But later in 2007 we are getting a Sonic, Mario joint title. Libi: Which is a Mario and Sonic Olympics game, it is always been Sega versus Nintendo, Nintendo versus Sega. And now kind of that competition is fully realized in this game where it is sonic versus Mario. Who is the better Olympian? We shall see. Jeff: It is hard to imagine that with all this bad blood between Nintendo and Sega they were able to sit down in a room together and hammer out this deal. I mean it was 10 years ago which is not that long but in software that is an eternity and it is just ancient history now.

Play Value | October 25, 2007

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