The Great Console War: The Story of Sega vs Nintendo (Complete Series)

today sega is one of japan's largest publishers of video games over the last decade they've produced hits like bayonetta valkyria chronicles the yakuza series and of course sonic the hedgehog turning the clock back over three decades presents a very different version of the company in the late 1980s sega was best known for their arcade machines and creating yet another game console that failed to make an impact in a market controlled by nintendo nintendo's dominance however was about to be challenged like so many other companies before it sega was planning to release a new console that spelled the end for nintendo's nes and usher in a new generation of gaming this is the story of the great console war between nintendo and sega in this part we'll be taking a look back at the early days of the sega genesis in both japan and america we'll also be taking a look into the creation of one of gaming's most iconic characters and whose popularity was only rivaled by that of mario's sega got their start in 1946 under the name service games in the american territory of hawaii sega initially created and imported various amusement and slot machines from north america into the hawaiian territory but shifted focus after the us outlawed slot machines and territories in 1952 sega looked to other markets and sent employees to japan to try and save the import business of various games in 1954 service games shortened their name to sega and began seeing more success in japan throughout the 1950s and early 1960s in 1965 sega acquired rosin enterprises another importer of coin op games david rossen the founder and head of ross enterprises became sega's new ceo by the late 1960s sega's massive success with the import business encouraged them to begin developing their own games sega's continued success caught the eye of gulf and western industries an american multimedia conglomerate in 1969 sega was bought by gulf and western and kepp rossen as ceo of the new subsidiary after the release of the popular game pong sega began releasing their own video games with the first one coming out in 1973. pongtron a pong clone developed for japanese audiences put sega on a new path throughout the 1970s and early 80s sega became a powerhouse in the booming arcade scene sega made many acquisitions during this time most notably esko trading an arcade distributor led by hayao nakayami nakayami became the head of sega of japan after the acquisition and chartered a new course for the company by the early 1980s the arcade market began to shrink and with it golf and western's interest in video games gulf and western sold its north american manufacturing and licensing rights to bayley manufacturing in 1983. gulf and western still controlled sega's japanese subsidiary however seeing the writing on the wall nakayami took the opportunity to turn sega's interest away from arcade machines and instead focus on the growing home console market in july of 1983 sega released the sg-1000 in japan the system was released on the same day as nintendo's famicom it was a modest success moving 160 000 units before it was discontinued in 1984. due to the success of the sg-1000 nakayami rosin and a group of investors purchased sega's japanese assets from gulf and western for 38 million dollars after gulf and western began divesting from their various holdings after the buyout nakayami became ceo of the newly independent sega enterprises in 1985 sega released the sega mark iii or as it's known in america the sega master system the console was a new iteration of the sg-1000 boasting more powerful hardware the master system became sega's first international console after it released in north america europe and brazil while successful in europe and brazil the system failed to make an impression on japanese or american audiences moving only 1 million units in japan and 2 million units in north america while more successful than past iterations sega was unable to match the dominance of nintendo's line of home consoles in 1987 a new player entered the console market nec a computer manufacturing giant nec teamed up with hudsonsoft to release the pc engine the new game console served as a threat to both sega and nintendo due to its more powerful hardware the pc engine marketed itself as the first 16-bit home game console to showcase how advanced it was compared to nintendo and sega's offerings with declining sales of their hardware a change was needed if sega ever wanted to hold a presence in the worldwide console market in june of 1988 japanese magazine beep revealed the sega mark v to the world the name wouldn't last long as sega wanted to usher in a new name with their upcoming system the new system became known as the mega drive sega's first 16-bit console based on system 16 an arcade board used by many of sega's popular arcade titles the mega drive released in japan on october 29th 1988. the mega drive was released alongside arcade ports of space harrier 2 and super thunderblade the timing couldn't be worse for sega however just a week before super mario bros 3 released in japan drowning out much of the hype sega anticipated for their new system the mega drive managed to ship 400 000 units in japan during its first year on the market but that was barely a drop in the water compared to the success of nintendo and even the pc engine were receiving sega turned their attention across the pacific in 1989 with one goal in mind 1 million units in early 1989 sega announced their plans to release the mega drive in north america albeit under a different name the sega genesis at the time sega didn't have an american branch for distribution the master system had been licensed out to tonka for the region and sega was dissatisfied with the results tonka had achieved they took the genesis to atari once the king of the north american video game market atari's ceo jack trammell was uninterested in the system and declined to bring it to the west for sega but sega did leave a good impression with one atari executive michael katz katz was an industry veteran who worked for mattel and calico while they were in the console business to cats the genesis had potential but he was unable to sway his superiors on the matter sega ultimately decided to release the console themselves establishing a north american branch of their operations in los angeles california the genesis received a regional launch in new york city in los angeles on october 14 1989 the system retailed for 189.99 and included the arcade hit altered beast as a pack and title the remaining north american lineup included space harrier 2 tommy lasorda baseball alex kidd in the enchanted castle and ghouls and ghost the rest of the united states would receive the consul before the end of 1989 just in time for the holiday season sega's goal for the genesis was to sell 1 million units within its first year on the market and established sega as the next big name in gaming nakayami tasked the american division to establish sega as a force in the west and brought on atari's michael katz to do so katz became the president of sega of america just a month after the genesis launch in order for the genesis to meet its lofty goal of 1 million units katz devised a new strategy to appeal to american gamers sports games were seen as a strong avenue for sega to follow and cats set out to bring big names from american sports to the genesis sega acquired the license for the likes of football star joe montana to create a football game for the genesis and it became the first big hit on the system the game developed by electronic arts was joe montana football based on the first john madden football that was released on home computers the title was released in january of 1991. sega licensed other celebrities for video game titles most notably michael jackson in august of 1990 sega developed and published michael jackson's moonwalker for the sega genesis based on the 1988 film of the same name moonwalker is an action platformer game where players control the king of pop himself both joe montana and michael jackson would continue to work with sega during the 1990s on various video game releases sega seemed like they were getting on to the right track sega's focus was squarely on nintendo but other console manufacturers were entering the north american scene the turbografx 16 an american version of the pc engine came out the same year as the genesis in 1990 arcade superstar snk released their premium home console the neo geo aes the console market was getting crowded and fast to differentiate itself sega of america turned to its marketing department this had been one of sega's biggest challenges during the early days of the genesis in north america after the video game crash of 1983 nintendo was synonymous with gaming with cats at the helm of sega of america they decided to shift gears with sega's tagline their first tagline we bring the arcade home had limited appeal as arcade machines grew less and less popular sega would fire the first shot of the console war with their new ad campaign genesis does what ninten don't the new ads were meant to highlight sega's differences with nintendo and the aging nes backed by more powerful hardware and well-known names the ad campaign was successful at pushing the genesis to 500 000 units sold in north america by the end of its first year unfortunately it wasn't enough to save cats in 1990 katz was replaced as president of sega of america by tom kalinski the former ceo of mattel unlike cats kolinsky had little experience in the video game industry having spent most of his career creating and marketing toys for big names like mattel and matchbox like cats however kolinsky believed in the potential of the sega genesis as well as many of the titles being developed for the system in japan kolinsky continued sega of america's aggressive marketing campaign but opted for more risky ventures in other areas the first was a price cut for the genesis and replacing the pack in title altered beast with an upcoming sega game executives at sega's japanese headquarters were stunned by this not only did kolinsky suggest selling the genesis for less but he opted to include one of the system's biggest upcoming games with the console despite pushback nakayami gave kalinski the go-ahead with his plan but knew the failure of this new business plan could bring an end to sega's console ambitions beyond the japanese market the price cut for the genesis would go into effect in june of 1991 bringing the system down to 149.99 the system's packing title was changed as well altered beast was out and a new title sonic the hedgehog would make waves across the gaming world during the days of the master system sega's mascot was alex kidd the star of some of sega's most popular arcade and master system hits by 1990 however alex kidd had lost his luster nintendo was sweeping the world with their iconic plumber and sega needed a new mascot to differentiate themselves from the competition an international coalition was brought together from sega of america and japan to design a new character that would appeal to western audiences meanwhile an internal development team at sega began working on a new game for this character to start in various proposals were drafted for the character including a wide array of animals due to the design of the game concepts were narrowed down to animals that could roll into a ball the team eventually settled on the star of this new game being a hedgehog then sega of america president michael katz hated the idea of a hedgehog being sega's new mascot claiming americans wouldn't care about a character based on an animal they didn't know about it didn't help that initial designs of the hedgehog created by naota oshima were received poorly by sega of america the character was clad in a leather jacket and given a madonna s girlfriend revisions were quickly put into place for the character giving him a simpler design and a can-do attitude with this sonic the hedgehog was born the internal team at sega of japan that was creating sonic the hedgehog was led by programmer yuji naka walnaka is best known today as the father of sonic the hedgehog at the time he was a simple programmer working for sega on various titles like fantasy star naka's idea for sonic's gameplay came from a tech demo he created featuring a ball rolling through loops long before the blue hedgehog was even thought of levels for sonic were designed by hirokazu yasuhara early impressions of the game were incredibly positive and sega began to drum up hype for the title through various gaming outlets released on june 23 1991 in north america in july 1991 throughout the rest of the world sonic the hedgehog was an instant success the game's focus on speed was used to directly contrast the title with nintendo's super mario series sega's marketing only magnified this the game was a critical success with many gaming outlets praising the game's graphics as well as how much faster the genesis and sonic were compared to nintendo and mario sonic the hedgehog helped push the genesis into the limelight and saw sega outselling nintendo in north america for the first time ever during the holiday season of 1991 sega had finally broken free of obscurity thanks to strong marketing and a new mascot but their future successes wouldn't come easily nintendo wasn't going to sit around and let's say you release a powerful 16-bit console all alone a successor to the nintendo entertainment system was in the works and the true battle between sega and nintendo was just beginning in the early 1980s the north american video game market was thriving coin up arcade machines and home consoles designed with interchangeable cartridges were dominating young gamers time and wallets the good times wouldn't last forever in 1983 the north american video game market crashed as gamers turned away from arcades and purchased less software for consoles like the atari 2600 the revival of games in the region came from an unlikely source nintendo a japanese game developer first founded in the late 19th century nintendo survived many of the hardships japan faced over the last century in 1985 nintendo released the nintendo entertainment system as a limited launch in new york city to test the waters of the north american video game market following the great crash button alongside now classic titles the nes quickly grew in popularity throughout 1986 with aggressive marketing a killer lineup of games and publishing policies that discouraged competitors nintendo's hold over north america grew to the point where they controlled over 90 percent of the video game market in the region nintendo's subsidiary in the region nintendo of america grew from a small warehouse in the mid 80s to a powerhouse of licensing by the end of the decade nintendo's dominance was challenged of course the turbo graphic 16 and sega genesis released in north america in 1989 bringing with them advanced hardware that put the nes to shame the system still had legs however in 1990 the highly anticipated super mario bros 3 kept gamers glued to nintendo despite being on outdated hardware in japan nintendo's grip was beginning to slip super mario brothers 3 released in 1988 to critical and commercial success but the famicom was struggling against the more powerful mega drive and pc engine the japanese equivalent to the genesis and turbo graphics 16. new hardware was already being worked on at nintendo when these new consoles came out but their success had nintendo's rnd team go into overdrive to get a successor to the famicom and nes out as soon as they could the first details the public would hear of a famicom successor came in 1988 when nintendo president hiroshi yamauchi revealed the specs for the new system alongside a handful of new games among these titles were sequels to major hits on nintendo's 8-bit machine notably super mario bros 3 and dragon quest 5. a year later in july of 1989 nintendo held a press event to showcase their new system now known as the super famicom greater details on the system's hardware was revealed and nintendo showcased an early prototype of the system to japanese press super mario bros 4 now known as super mario world and a game titled dragonfly an unreleased predecessor to pilotwings were shown off for the console unfortunately the super famicom was delayed indefinitely following the reveal giving sega and other console manufacturers plenty of time to continue their rule over the 16-bit gaming scene in late 1990 nintendo released their first new home console in seven years with the super famicom in japan nintendo's push to release their own new hardware came off the back of sega and nec's new 16-bit consoles retailing at 25 000 yen the new console housed more colors a better sound chip and improved graphics over nintendo's 8-bit machines although the launch lineup was small only having two games the super famicom was an instant success in japan and kept nintendo on top in their home country 300 000 units were made available to retailers on day one with all of them being sold out within a few hours while nintendo was successful in japan north america proved to be their more lucrative operation in 1990 more americans had an nes in their home than personal computers with some estimating that as many as 30 percent of all u.s households owned the nintendo console to say that nintendo had a strong foothold in north america would be an understatement sega's push into north america didn't go unnoticed by nintendo with the successful japanese launch of the super famicom all eyes turned to the west like the nes before it nintendo opted to redesign the super famicom for the north american market this redesign wouldn't be as drastic as that of the nes however nintendo brought the super nintendo to the summer consumer electronics show in 1991 in advance of the console's release many gamers got their first chance to try out the new system here and experience nintendo's take on a 16-bit console nintendo wasn't alone at ces that year sega was bringing their games in full force alongside other third-party developers sega was ready to prove that the genesis was a real powerhouse in the region nintendo's focus however wasn't on sega but their own trade deals when creating the super famicom nintendo opted to use a sound chip designed by sony this strong relationship between the two developers was meant to continue at the summer ces event of 1991 sony unveiled the playstation unlike the system we know about today this version of the playstation was based on the super famicom not only did it play super famicom games but it had a built-in cd-rom player showing that both sony and nintendo were looking to the future the next day nintendo announced that they would be partnering with phillips rather with sony the blow came in part due to sony's contract regarding the playstation that would give the company a cut of every disc sold for the system cutting out nintendo's profits on the console others however have noted that nintendo never really wanted to partner with sony and opted out in an attempt to keep sony out of the home console market a cd-rom for the super nintendo never materialized instead games licensed out by nintendo were made for the philips cdi system six games were released on the cdi featuring nintendo characters three from the super mario series and the other three coming from the legend of zelda all six titles are best remembered now as poor interpretations of their respective series and generally bad games in north america the super nintendo entertainment system launched on august 23rd 1991. the system retailed for 199.99 and came bundled with a copy of super mario world the latest adventure from nintendo's popular plumber f-zero a racing game was available on launch day as well just like it was in japan three additional games came out for the system too nintendo published pilot wings in sim city while konami released gradius 3. despite the sparse lineup the variety and quality of games impressed those who could get their hands on the system nintendo's confidence in their new home console shouldn't be understated despite sega's recent efforts the genesis still didn't have the full reach of nintendo's products the later release of the super nintendo also helped nintendo beef up their new system by most metrics the super nintendo proved to be more powerful than genesis nintendo even spent a considerable amount of energy showcasing mode 7. this graphical showcase allowed for rotating and scaling of backgrounds to give a 3d effect titles like pilotwings and f0 featured mode 7 prominently in many of their game modes the holiday shopping season for 1991 was a strong one for video games sega was sonic the hedgehog and nintendo with super mario alongside dozens of other high profile games released for the genesis and super nintendo sonic was sega's biggest game of the year and sega rode that wave of momentum with a port of their arcade classic outrun once again showcasing the genesis speed sega also continued to release original titles for the genesis and became many of their most beloved series on the system decap attack streets of rage shining in the darkness and toe jam and earl all hit the genesis in september and october of 1991. sega didn't want to be slowed down by nintendo anymore third party publishers were also releasing new games for the system one of the genesis biggest supporters was electronic arts e had published games for the nes before but the bulk of their titles were for home computers after engineers at ea created their own development kit for the genesis sega offered ea the opportunity to create their own genesis cartridge and release as many games for the system as they wanted ea immediately began releasing games for the genesis including 1990s smash hit john madden football in 1991 alone ea published more than 15 titles for the genesis including ports of the immortal marble madness and john madden football 92 ea also published road rash a racing combat game exclusively for the genesis in september following the super nintendo's launch nintendo's only other release for 1991 was super tennis in november the rest of the holiday lineup was left wide open to third party publishers many who were eager to showcase their new titles enix released actraiser for the super nintendo in november although the game originally released on the super famicom a year earlier square and konami both returned to the system with highly anticipated games final fantasy 2 in super castlevania 4 came out in november and december respectively bringing two more massive hits to the super nintendo capcom doubled down on their support for the new console a new beat-em-up called final fight made its way to the super nintendo in september this was followed up by super ghosting goblins in november the super nintendo hit the north american market in stride the system had better hardware and better name recognition than any other console even with sega's new mascot the libraries of the sega genesis and super nintendo seemed evenly matched after the 1991 holiday season but for the first time since the release of the nes nintendo wasn't the winner of the big holiday rush in 1991. sega's genesis console had done what no other console managed to achieve before not only did the genesis outsell the super nintendo in north america that winter but it was holding a larger share of the 16-bit gaming market than any other competitor smart marketing campaigns a price cut and the packing game sonic the hedgehog pushed sega ahead of the gaming giant like a true underdog sega's success however would not go unchallenged they may have won the first battle but for nintendo the war was just beginning [Music] before the nes nintendo was best known for two things in north america one where their popular arcade titles like donkey kong and mario brothers the other was a series of handheld systems known as the gaming watch developed by nintendo's r d1 unit that was led by legendary game designer gunpei yokoi game and watch units were simple cheaply made and very popular in the home country of japan yukoi and his team were masters of creating handheld game consoles and the popularity of the famicom and nes prompted yokoi to try his hand again designing a revolutionary handheld gaming system the original idea behind what would become the game boy was simple the new system would feature a dot matrix display as opposed to the lcd overlays featured on the game and watch systems secondly the system would have a cartridge slot to allow players to interchange cartridges much like the nes as the game boy continued development the d-pad and two face buttons from the nes controllers were incorporated into the system's design powered by four double-a batteries in a sleek compact design the game boy looked like a surefire hit for nintendo on april 21st 1989 the game boy launched in japan for 12 500 yen four games were available for purchase with the system including super mario land mario's first portable adventure developed by yukoy's team at r d one within two weeks the game boy was sold out in japan with over three hundred thousand units in gamers hands a north american launch followed a few weeks later when the game boy debuted on july 31st for 89.99 like in japan the game boy was an instant success selling 40 000 units in its first day north america saw some of the same launch games as japan and a new title tennis was also available on day one the most popular game for the game boy however was the pack-in title of tetris developed by russian computer engineer alexei pagenov tetras seemed like an odd choice compared to the previous titles nintendo included with their consoles the rights to tetris were spread between a litany of companies for publishing at the time hank rogers founder of bulletproof software wanted to pursue licensing the game for the game boy and nes rogers was a strong advocate for the game and approached nintendo of america's president menorah arakawa about including the game as a packing title for the game boy arakawa didn't seem interested as they planned to have super mario land as the pack in title rogers gave a quite famous rebuttal in response mr arukawa you need to include tetris with every game boy if you want little boys to buy your game boy pack in mario but if you want everybody to buy your game boy pack in tetris arakawa was convinced by rogers to include the game with every game boy bulletproof software acquired the license for the game from various parties and nintendo published the title tetris went on to become the best selling game boy game of all time with over 35 million units sold a european launch of the game boy followed in 1990 like in north america the game boy was bundled with tetris and featured the same lineup of games excluding tennis the game boy was well received by both fans and critics however the game boy wasn't in a perfect position despite its successful launch the game boy wasn't exactly a powerhouse gaming console while later titles would push the hardware to its limits early game boy games looked worse than their nes counterparts the game boy's monochrome display and lack of a backlight made games difficult to play outside of well-lit rooms to make matters worse the game boy wasn't alone in the handheld gaming market by the end of 1991 three other major game console manufacturers would release their own portable gaming devices less than two months after the game boy hit store shelves in north america a more powerful competitor was released on september 1st 1989 the atari links launched for 179.99 the lynx was significantly more powerful than the game boy and the atari name still held sway in the north american gaming market the lynx was created by atari corporation not to be confused with atari inc the pioneers behind the successful atari 2600 jack tramell founder of commodore international purchased the name and assets of atari from warner communications in 1984. atari corporation had seen some success in the world of video games in 1985 the company released the atari st the first in a lineup of personal computers in 1986 atari corporation attempted to get back into the console gaming with the atari 7800 although their new system wasn't able to put the atari name back on top at first the lynx was a moderate success and seemed to be giving the game boy a run for its money the links featured a colored lcd screen and boasted beefier hardware than nintendo's game boy by the end of 1990 the link sold over half a million units worldwide but the lack of notable software and a higher price of entry kept nintendo's game boy on top of the gaming world the next major handheld console didn't hit store shelves until the end of 1990 when nec released the turbo express in both north america and japan like the lynx the turbo express had a full colored lcd display the turbo express was a powerhouse of a system all hue card games for the turbo graphics 16 were playable on the turbo express giving players a real console experience on the go the turbo express however would not make much of an impact beyond the thai specs sound issues plagued the system from land with many units having sound failure right out of the box screen issues were also a common occurrence the unit launched at a retail price of 249.99 in north america and 44 800 yen in japan far higher than its competitors at the time the turbo express was an energy hog as well it took six double a batteries to power the system those six batteries lasted anywhere from two to three hours facilitating some to invest in power adapters to save on batteries all of this led the turbo express to have a very small adoption rate in both north america and japan late 1990 saw one final player into the ring for the title of handheld gaming king and it was none other than sega on october 6 1990 the game gear released in japan for 19 800 yen the game gear was developed at first as a portable sega master system with a full color display and backlight production of the game gear was rushed however after sega saw the success nintendo had when they launched the game boy in 1989 the japanese launch of the system was successful selling 90 000 units within the first month of release but it was a far cry from the success of the game boy and like other handheld systems with color and backlit displays the game gear sucked the life out of batteries fairly quickly with six double a batteries lasting three to five hours six months after the japanese launch the game gear made its way overseas to north america and europe and was released in april of 1991. sega of america now under the leadership of tom kolinsky continued their aggressive marketing campaign against nintendo ads for the game gear put the full color screen of the system in a side by side comparison to the game boy's black and white screen it was no secret that the game gear was more powerful than the game boy and sega wanted to make sure their new system was a premium experience by the end of 1991 the game gear had what all of the game boy's other competitors lacked a robust software library shinobi ninja gaiden castle of illusion and even sonic the hedgehog were on the system offering a stark contrast to the other handhelds with its top of the line games that couldn't be played anywhere else just like on the console front the battle for the handheld market was shaping up to pit nintendo against sega once again in 1991 while nintendo was preparing to launch the super nintendo in the united states the game blue was firing on all cylinders portable entries from the final fantasy series castlevania mega man contra and more gave the system more than enough classics to stand up to its competition nintendo was still publishing and developing games for the system including titles like metroid 2 but it was largely third party publishers who were innovating on the small machine to create games that rivaled their home console counterparts 1992 would continue that trend with the release of two landmark titles the first was kirby's dreamland developed by hal laboratory kirby's dreamland introduced the world to the pink buff ball who has gone on to become a nintendo icon directed by masahiro sakurai and programmed by satori iwata kirby's dreamland saw our hero kirby go on adventure to stop the evil king deity kirby's dreamland was first released in japan in april before releasing throughout the rest of the world in august the gameplay was fairly simple and the graphics were nothing to write home about but kirby quickly became a star over 5 million copies of kirby's dreamland were sold on the gameboy making it the 11th best-selling game for the system kirby was unique in two ways for the game boy for one unlike mario and other series on the gameboy kirby was an original character making their debut on the system adding a bit of character to the gameboy's lineup secondly it helped launch the career of two of nintendo's most notable designers with sakurai and iwata working on many games for nintendo in the years to come the second landmark title for the gameboy came at the end of 1992. super mario land 2 6 golden coins hit the game boy in japan and north america that fall with a european release coming in early 1993. the sequel to the game boy original was once again developed by nintendo r d1 and took many design elements and ideas from the super nintendo title super mario world while it wasn't quite as popular as the original super mario land super mario land 2 was still a massive success selling over 11 million copies furthermore it helped establish another major nintendo franchise wario the antagonists of super mario land 2 went on to star in his own series of games after this starting with 1994's wario land super mario land 3. the game boy wasn't the most powerful or best looking game console of the era its low price point however became a sticking point as it surpassed its competition in the handheld gaming market that isn't to say sega didn't offer new software with the game gear in 1992 ports of classics like joe montana football prince of persia and streets of rage all made their way onto the small machine even original titles like shinobi 2 the silent fury saw success on the system and helped establish it as a true gaming machine but sega wasn't as focused on taking down the game boy as they were the super nintendo for sega winning the war with the genesis was more important than ever and as 1992 began sega laid the groundwork for the biggest genesis game to date sonic the hedgehog 2. [Music] since the early days of home consoles games were either pre-installed on a game console or were produced on interchangeable cartridges game cartridges were incredibly popular with almost every major gaming system using them during the late 70s and 1980s this wouldn't last forever in 1982 sony and phillips came together to create the cd or compact disc while the cd was originally conceived as a successor to vinyl records developers quickly made note of the storage capability cds offered compared to cartridges of the era cds could have a thousand times more storage and offer higher quality audio to boot the only downside to the medium worth longer load times and the cost for consumers cds were mostly used for music after their introduction video games got their first cd player with the turbografx cd when it launched in japan in late 1988 a north american launch followed in 1989 and it didn't come cheap the turbografx cd retailed for 399.99 and came with no pack-in titles in 1990 phillips launched the cdi the first fully disc based gaming console although the cdi featured more functions than just gaming the cost was still steep with the basic consumer model launching at 799.99 for sega the cd was the future of the video game medium the sooner they released their own cd-based gaming machine the better development of a cd add-on for the genesis began shortly after the system's launch in japan at the time sega was focused on beating the turbografx cd's capabilities with more ram to speed up load times and process more power sega's cd unit was kept under wrap for years as engineers worked on the future accessory the sega cd ran into issues early however additional cpus were needed to fully power the unit and an increase in ram caused the system's development costs to skyrocket while sega had initially planned on selling the sega cd for less than 200 around the same price of the genesis the high production cost made this a losing bed it didn't help that sega was already losing money on the genesis following its price drop in 1991. sega shifted gears and prepared its marketing campaign the sega cd was announced in late 1991 and was released in japan on december 12th a north american launch followed almost a year later on october 15 1992. europe wouldn't receive the add-on until 1993 despite the large sega fan base across the continent in north america the sega cd launched at a staggering price of 299.99 sega promoted the add-on as a premium piece of hardware that could play games far too powerful for nintendo's year old super nintendo the launch lineup for the sega cd was nothing to write home about but decent games followed in the months after release most notably night trap came out just a month after the sega cd released before its controversial rise in popularity in the coming years with the sega cd segan managed to hit a home run despite stock shortages at launch two hundred thousand consoles were sold by the end of 1992 and put the ball directly in nintendo's court the super nintendo's cartridges couldn't offer fmv cutscenes or cd quality audio to outperform sega the designers at nintendo needed another avenue to cram more power into the super nintendo if nintendo dominated the gaming world in the late 80s and atari controlled it before them who was the biggest name in video games before all of that it wasn't a publisher or a console manufacturer it was a place the arcade from the release of pong until the great market crash of 1983 arcades were the go-to venues for hot new video games arcade titles were still popping up here and there but by the late 80s and early 90s the arcade scene was mostly dried up one genre of video games was stronger than ever in arcades fighting games some notable fighters of the late 80s and early 90s included snk's fatal fury series and street fighter first released in 1987. street fighter wasn't a huge success at the time of its release but capcom the publisher of the game saw promise after the completion of street fighter the game's director and planner both left capcom to work for snk on what would become the fatal fury series in their place a new team stepped up to work on street fighter 2 being led by producer yoshihiko okamoto street fighter 2 hit arcades across the world in march of 1991 and quickly became a major hit the game's focus on combos and command-based special moves made it even more popular as gamers lined up around arcade machines to watch for new finishers and crisp 16-bit animated glory street fighter 2 also included 6 buttons for control becoming a pioneer controller layouts for future fighting games street fighter 2's popularity helped turn its characters for you can chun-li and more into instant gaming icons like many great arcade games at the time it was only a matter of time before street fighter 2 made its way to home consoles while a new version of street fighter 2 known as street fighter 2 championship edition hit arcades in early 1992 a much hotter release was well on its way in june and july street fighter 2 was released on the super nintendo in japan and north america respectively a european version arrived a few months later in december while the super nintendo version paled in comparison to the arcade original it gave gamers a chance to finally play street fighter 2 at home released on a beefy 16 megabit cartridge street fighter 2 on super nintendo was just a big hit in homes as it was in arcades over 6 million copies were sold for the super nintendo making this release of street fighter 2 one of capcom's best selling games of all time and the fifth best selling game on the super nintendo sega's wait for street fighter 2 would be excruciatingly long but well worth it in the end street fighter 2 special championship edition was released in the fall of 1993. sega wasn't the only one getting in on the action either japanese exclusive version of street fighter 2 championship edition was released on the turbo graphic 16 in june of 1993. just like the super nintendo version street fighter 2 was a big hit on the genesis it sold over one and a half million units on the system and became the seventh best-selling game for the console capcom's loyalty to nintendo marked this as a decisive win for the super nintendo as the year head start gave street fighter 2 fans all the more incentive to pick up a super nintendo critics also claimed that the genesis version was inferior to the super nintendo version the biggest difference came from the controllers while the super nintendo had only four face buttons the included shoulder buttons let programmers map street fighter 2's six button layout across the controller on the other hand the genesis only had 3 face buttons on the standard genesis controller complicating gameplay sega did release a 6 button genesis controller to help combat these issues but it did little to help the original release of street fighter 2 for the system street fighter 2 saw additional releases on both the super nintendo and the genesis street fighter 2 turbo hyper fighting released on the super nintendo in august of 1993 being almost identical to the genesis version of street fighter 2 special championship edition the genesis and super nintendo both received super street fighter 2 during the summer of 1994 following the game's original release in arcades in 1993 street fighter 2 was even ported to the game boy in 1995 although a sega game gear version was never released street fighter 2 not only helped revitalize the arcade industry but it helped make fighting games more than just a niche genre since its release street fighter has become one of capcom's most popular game series with new entries still being made today it's estimated that street fighter 2 has generated more than 10 billion dollars in revenue across the arcades and its various ports to other game consoles street fighter 2 was a major hit on all systems but it was clear that nintendo held the advantage going forward with fighting games unfortunately for nintendo the next major fighting game was just around the corner and it was unlike anything else in arcades sega's holiday win over nintendo in late 1991 gave the company some much-needed momentum especially the north american branch sonic was a hit and could go toe-to-toe with mario it seemed like only a matter of time before a sequel would be green lid the only problem sonic's creator yuji naka left sega after finishing development on the game naka wouldn't be gone for long he was convinced to rejoin sega to help develop a sequel to sonic the hedgehog however it wouldn't be with the team that made sonic in japan he would be creating sonic 2 in america naka joined sega technical institute based out of sega of america's headquarters in california sega technical institute or sti was a new development team led by game design protege mark cerny naka and cerny were joined by other members of the original sonic development team including hirokaze yasuhara the lead level designer production began in late 1991 for a 1992 release development was progressing over at sti the team led by naca was experimenting with 3d on the genesis and creating new characters for the sonic series and much like sonic 1 the marketing team at sega was ready to make sonic 2 the biggest release of 1992 armed with over 10 million dollars sega began showing off sonic 2 at events like ces and on television with shows like nick arcade the release date for sonic 2 also marked a monumental shift for games during the early days of the genesis super nintendo and well before then video games were shipped from manufacturers to stores and distributors across the country once the games arrived they were placed on the shelf to be sold there were no street dates for video games leading some areas to get new games months before others could for sonic 2 sega opted for something different the first worldwide launch of a video game for the team at sti this quickly put them on a timer delaying the game would cost sega millions and caused the game to slip out of the coveted holiday release additional employees were flown out from sega of japan to help finish the year-long production of sonic 2 and help it meet its release date sonic the hedgehog 2 released in north america and europe on november 24th 1992. on a day otherwise known as sonic 2's day japan received the game a few days earlier on november 21st and australia the final region to get the game saw it released on december 1st although it didn't meet its goal of a true worldwide release the marketing buzz was more than enough sonic the hedgehog 2 debuted to strong critical reception and phenomenal commercial success sonic the hedgehog 2 would sell more than 6 million copies on the genesis becoming one of the best selling games for the system at the end of 1992 sega once again won out the holiday season selling more sega genesis consoles than super nintendo's but across the sea sega was beginning to struggle sega of america managed to dent nintendo's armor in the west especially in europe but the japanese branch of the company was no match for nintendo in their home country the war was just getting started and the bloodiest battles between sega and nintendo were just around the [Music] corner sonic the hedgehog 2 and the sega genesis were the talk of the town at the end of 1992 but that didn't mean there weren't quality games coming to the super nintendo in the year after its launch mario had his time to shine with the launch of the super nintendo but following games wouldn't see the plumber in a platforming game the hottest holiday title for the super nintendo was a racing game set in the mushroom kingdom itself called super mario kart the first entry in what would become one of nintendo's best-selling sub-series super mario kart was a massive success on the super nintendo selling over 8 million units before the system was discontinued another mario spin-off mario paint came out in august of 1992 bundled with the super nintendo mouse accessory mario paint offered up a simple to use but insanely deep artist studio for gamers it didn't offer much in the way of intense gaming but the software helped spark an interest in art and music for an entire generation of creators another accessory for the super nintendo hit store shelves in early 1992 in north america the super scope was a follow-up to the popular nes zapper giving the super nintendo its own variation of the light gun the super scope came bundled with the game super scope 6 which offered six different games on the cartridge to play with the accessory the super scope came to pound territories later in 1992 and japan saw a limited release of the accessory in 1993. unfortunately the super scope was never as successful as the nes zapper and only a total of 12 games were released for the super nintendo that were compatible with the accessory additional super nintendo games rolled out onto the system throughout the year with many classic nes games receiving sequels on nintendo's 16-bit machine konami's contra series received a third installment with contra through the alien wars in early 1992 square developed an original final fantasy for the super nintendo called final fantasy mystic quest released first in north america in 1992 the spin-off rpg was an attempt to make the genre more accessible to american gamers releases in other regions followed in late 1992 and 1993. nintendo's legend of zelda series saw its third entry as well when the legend of zelda a link to the past debuted in north america in april of 1992 after being released in japan the year earlier unlike zelda 2 on the nes a link to the past returned to the top down style of play that zelda 1 featured future titles in the series would continue using this format until the advent of 3d games the super nintendo was building a library to match any other game console but the system was starting to become outdated by the end of 1992 the new cd-based accessories for the sega genesis showed what the future of gaming was slowly becoming to make matters worse a new batch of consoles even more powerful than the super nintendo were just around the corner with the first fifth generation consoles launching at the end of 1993. for nintendo innovation was necessary to keep their new super nintendo afloat the solution to this problem was a small chip included in every copy of nintendo's most technically advanced game to date star fox development of star fox was handled by nintendo ead and argonaut games with shigeru miyamoto designing the characters and producing the game gameplay and level design was primarily handled by nintendo with inspirations for the series coming from star wars the puppet drama thunderbirds and even the simbo tory gates at a nearby shrine that was just a few minutes away from nintendo's headquarters on the hardware side argonaut games wanted to push the super nintendo to its limits argonaut previously worked with nintendo on the gameboy game x that released in 1992. like star fox x was a 3d space shooter designed by dylan cuthbert unfortunately for cuthbert and the other designers at argonaut the super nintendo didn't have any way of processing 3d images to the extent necessary for the team custom hardware was needed to truly make their ambitions come to life a team of designers came together to create a new chip that could be put into the cartridges of these super nintendo titles originally under the code name super mario fx the super fx ship made its debut with star fox in the first half of 1993. the added chip made star fox a sight to behold on the super nintendo this wasn't a mode 7 illusion star fox featured fully polygonal graphics for its gameplay with sprites used for its hud and menus the super fx ship came with a downside the high cost associated with manufacturing the chip led to higher retail costs and few other super nintendo games would use the chip still star fox was a major hit selling over 4 million units and spawning a series of sequels on future nintendo systems sega was riding on the momentum of sonic the hedgehog 2 going into 1993 however a new platforming sonic game for the genesis wouldn't come out until early 1994 instead sega focused on other ips leading up to the holiday season in july shining force came out on the genesis following up the 1989 original game shining in the darkness konami released rocket knight adventures in august giving the genesis one of its best games to date in september treasure's gun star heroes was released published by sega gun star heroes showed off the power of the base set genesis rivaling that of nintendo star fox december saw the release of toe jam in earl panic and funkotron a sequel to the genesis original in japan the fourth title in sega's rpg series fantasy star was released in december although a version for north america wouldn't release until 1995. sega's big holiday title for 1993 was sonic spinball a pinball game starring sega's mascot all of these releases were accompanied by a new model of the sega genesis known as the genesis 2. compared to the original model released in 1989 the new model of the genesis was slightly smaller and sleeker but came at a cost many audio options from the original model were not included in the second model the sega cd saw new releases too while the user base for the sega cd was much smaller than the genesis notable games were still coming to the system in the latter half of 1993. lunar the silver star hit the sega cd in december of 1993. the biggest game for the sega cd came in november of 1993. developed primarily by the remaining sonic 1 developers in japan sonic cd was the killer app the sega cd needed to bring onboard gamers sonic cd featured fmv cutscenes high quality audio and the fast-paced sonic gameplay players loved a new model of the sega cd was also introduced the new model acts the motorized disk drive of the original and featured a smaller design like the genesis model 2. the handheld front was quiet for most of 1993 outside of ports and licensed games the game boy and game gear only received a handful of notable releases on the game gear sonic chaos released in november of 1993. it was the first original sonic game developed for the game gear as past entries were developed based on the genesis originals for the game boy the legend of zelda links awakening continued the trend of bringing nintendo's biggest ips to the handheld link's awakening was a huge hit on the system showing gamers that a title almost as complex as a link to the past on super nintendo was available on the 4 year old system link's awakening has since been remade twice once for the game boy color with links awakening dx and recently with a full 3d remake for the nintendo switch a few other big games hit the super nintendo in the second half of 1993 that summer super mario all stars was released all stars included full 16-bit remakes of super mario bros super mario bros 2 and super mario brothers 3. a fourth game titled super mario brothers the lost levels made its western debut in the collection originally released as super mario bros 2 in japan the game was replaced with a redesigned version of doki doki panic for western audiences for third parties square continued their streak of quality releases on the super nintendo with secret of mana an action rpg that released in the latter half of 1993. 1993 was the first year that multi-platform releases between the super nintendo and sega genesis were becoming more popular thanks to nintendo loosening their restrictions on games being published for their system zombies ate my neighbors from konami was a hit on both the genesis and super nintendo although the super nintendo version came out two months before the genesis one of 93's biggest multi-platform releases came via disney and their smash hit movie aladdin unlike other multi-platform games however the licensing for 1993's aladdin was split up between different consoles on the super nintendo an arcade platformer developed by capcom came out in november just before the holiday rush aladdin was a big hit on the super nintendo but all eyes were glued to the genesis version developed by virgin interactive aladdin on the genesis was a sight to behold the gameplay wasn't quite as tight and platform heavy as the super nintendo version but it featured some of the best animations seen in a video game to date virgin's version had the luxury of being designed in partnership with the animators at disney giving the genesis a game that looked like no other in the end the genesis version was the victor selling over 4 million copies compared to the 1.8 million copies sold on super nintendo but aladdin wouldn't be the biggest game on the genesis that year instead the news cycle was dominated by a port of a fighting game that was released in arcades just a year earlier street fighter 2's release in 1991 set off a flurry of copycats and clones in an attempt to capitalize on the fighting game's success the game caught the attention of several developers including the team at midway games a small team of developers at midway led by ed boone and john tobias set out to craft a game that was visually superior to street fighter 2 and one that gobbled up just as many quarters in the arcade development of the game was handled by only four people and completed in around a 10 month period the title was mortal kombat as soon as the game hit the arcades in october of 1992 it was a massive success the game featured a unique five button control scheme and digitized graphics of real people but the real draw of mortal kombat came from the excessive blood and gore in the game punching or kicking enemies caused buckets of blood to fly in every direction mortal kombat also had finishing moves known as fatalities after beating an enemy in combat the words finish them would appear on screen if the winning player entered the right button presses a fatality would play out with characters being killed in a manner of different ways the popularity of mortal kombat quickly grew and ports to home consoles were inevitable acclaimed entertainment acquired publishing rights for home consoles and began a massive marketing campaign for its upcoming release taking a note from sega's playbook acclaim opted to release mortal kombat in north america with a street date dubbed mortal monday mortal kombat hit the genesis super nintendo sega game gear and game boy on september 13th 1993. mortal kombat's popularity came with controversy however the large amounts of blood and gore caught the eye of advocacy groups and a public discussion surrounding violence and video games began fearing backlash and wanting to keep their family-friendly image safe nintendo opted not to include blood in the super nintendo version of mortal kombat the red blood was replaced with gray pools of sweat sega followed suit with the genesis version but included a secret code to unlock the blood and gourd from the original arcade release the difference was stunning while mortal kombat sold a total of over 3 million copies across all systems the genesis version was by far the most popular with some estimates saying it outsold nintendo's counterpart three to one the controversy surrounding mortal kombat didn't stop with concerned parents with calls from constituents across the country the united states congress intervened in december of 1993 holding the first congressional hearings on violence and video games led by connecticut senator joe lieberman no one in the video games industry was spared from congress's oversight this included nintendo and sega both of whom sent representatives to washington to avoid congressional intervention into the blossoming games industry nintendo chose vice president of nintendo of america howard lincoln to testify for them lincoln a lawyer by profession came in guns blazing against sega during the hearing lincoln claimed that nintendo kept violent games off their system noting mortal kombat's lack of blood on the super nintendo lincoln even made the statement that night trap another game under the microscope of the hearing would never appear on the nintendo console sega was represented by bill white vice president of sega of america white struggled more than lincoln during the congressional hearings but tried his best to paint sega in a good light rather than try to downplay the mature themes in their games white argued that games like night trap and mortal kombat were meant for adults rather than children white also took swipes at nintendo for not having their own rating system something sega had implemented a few years earlier the senators in attendance felt like their concerns were not addressed following the testimonies wisconsin senator herb cole gave nintendo and sega an ultimatum either come up with your own rating system but the united states government would do it for them after years of competing with one another sega and nintendo had no choice but to work together to create an entire rating system for the whole games industry creating a rating system from scratch is hard enough it's even more difficult when multiple parties want to say in the process sega and nintendo managed to escape new regulations during the first round of hearings in 1993 but a second round loomed overhead progress was necessary if nintendo and sega hoped to keep their game content independent early proposals for a rating board went nowhere sega implemented their own rating system after the release of night trap in 1992 and offered to make it the industry standard unfortunately the rivalry between nintendo and sega made this dead on arrival after nintendo objected other ideas included using the film industries guidelines set by the mpaa however the mpaa objected to the fuse wanting to keep its rating system exclusively for movies with a second hearing fast approaching sega and nintendo joined forces with popular third party publishers electronic art and acclaim entertainment together they formed interactive digital software association later known as the entertainment software association the group began lobbying other publishers console manufacturers and retailers to help establish a rating system before the end of 1994. the second hearing occurred on march 5th 1994 with senator joe lieberman presiding once again representatives from electronic arts walmart and babbages spoke at the hearing and made it clear the video game industry was coming together to create its own rating board with retailers committing not to sell titles that would be deemed too mature to audiences in the following months the entertainment software ratings board was developed and announced to congress on july 29 1994 lieberman satisfied with the video game industry taking up the task to grade its own content dropped his proposed bill that would have created a government body to regulate video game content the esrb launched a few months later and became the industry standard for software ratings to this day 1994 saw the launch of several games and accessories for a variety of consoles arcade ports were still popular as well and many of them came to as many consoles as possible in 1994 the most notable releases were nba jam an arcade basketball game and mortal kombat 2. the follow-up to the record smashing original on the handheld side of things the game boy received a fantastic port of the original arcade donkey kong in the first game in the wario land series a new accessory also launched during 1994 called the super game boy the device allowed game boy games to be played through a super nintendo with added colors and borders for the game gear sonic triple trouble came out in november giving the game gear one of its best titles to date echo the tides of time came out on the genesis in august of 1994 with a sega cd in game gear port following in november contra and castlevania made their debut on the genesis with contra hardcorps in august and castlevania bloodlines in late 1993 and early 1994. on the super nintendo several series made their debut on the console mega man x a sub series of the popular mega man games came out in north america in early 1994 super metroid the third game in the metroid series hit the snes in the spring of 1994. finally final fantasy 3 came out in october all three titles are considered not just some of the best super nintendo games but some of the best games of all time the biggest games of 1994 however were going head-to-head in the holiday season petting sega and nintendo against one another again after finishing development of sonic 2 sega was ready to have another sonic game out as soon as possible a third sonic game would be another massive hit on the genesis and it was needed if sega wanted to keep their popular system up and running before a slew of new consoles began releasing the task of creating sonic 3 once again went to yujinaka and his team at sti production for sonic 3 began in early 1993 with early concepts for the game being an isometric 3d title this concept known as sonic 3d was shelved after developers realized they wouldn't have enough time to get the game up and running before sonic 3's intended release date of february 1994 instead the team looked to create a more traditional sonic game and the same style as sonic 2. production however wasn't smooth sti was still divided into a group of american and japanese developers who had issues communicating with one another sti set out to develop the biggest sonic game ever using new ideas and leftover concepts from sonic 2 to create a massive experience new characters a new story and dozens of new levels were designed for the game music was handled by legendary pop musician michael jackson who went uncredited due to controversy surrounding the artist production wasn't going great however sonic 3 was just too big of a game for sti to make before the intended release date the massive size of the game also cut into production cost as it would require an even bigger cartridge than ever before to make sure the game was released on time sega cut sonic 3 into two separate titles the first one sonic the hedgehog 3 released in north america and power regions in february of 1994 japanese release followed in may like previous titles sonic 3 was praised by critics and genesis owners bought over 1 million copies of the game making it a smash hit the other half of sonic 3 continued development at sti for much of 1994 with a new name sonic and knuckles the developers at sti had always envisioned the separate releases as a single game and luckily there was a way to do that lock-on technology was sega's new key phrase sonic and knuckles was developed to interact with copies of sonic 3 and even older games like sonic 2. locking the cartridges together created sonic 3 and knuckles the full experience sti set out to create when production started sonic and knuckles was a massive game leading up to its release sega backed their new game with a 45 million dollar advertising campaign commercials full game ads and even a championship tournament similar to the nintendo world championships took place to promote the upcoming release sonic and knuckles released worldwide on october 18 1994 finally achieving the simultaneous release sonic 2 tried two years earlier like previous sonic games sonic and knuckles was well received by critics and gamers ate it up over 1 million copies of sonic and knuckles were sold for the genesis and it helped keep sega on top for another holiday season in north america following the success of aladdin on the sega genesis executives at nintendo began a search to outperform the stylish game the result of nintendo's surge was an independent game developer based out of the united kingdom called rareware rare was best known at the time for games like battletoad on the nes and other arcadey action games rare released multiple games for the nes but hadn't made very many contributions to the super nintendo library at the time the reason behind this was the company's latest investment high-end silicon graphic workstations these state-of-the-art computers came at a hefty price but the results were phenomenal nintendo was impressed by rare's demos and purchased a minority stake in the company starting at 25 percent before increasing it all the way up to 49 with their investment rare was now a second party developer for nintendo work on a new game for the super nintendo began in mid 1993 with rare being given the opportunity to revive a long dormant nintendo franchise they chose donkey kong the original antagonist of the 1980 arcade game of the same name it was a gamble to go with dk over other ips at the time donkey kong's last game was 1983's donkey kong 3 although a gameboy port of the original donkey kong was in development at the time a core team of 12 developers were brought together with chris and tim stamper the heads of rare serving as directors for the new game nintendo took a hands-off approach to the development of the title leaving much of the game to be developed solely by western developers development progressed quickly as the team at rare worked long hours to get the game up and running at ces 1994 the game was revealed to the world as donkey kong country initial impressions were shocking some ces attendees thought the game was for nintendo's next generation home console as it wasn't revealed to be a super nintendo game until the end of its announcement others couldn't believe the game was running on a super nintendo with no additional accessories or internal chips donkey kong country made a huge impact at ces and retailers quickly lined up to purchase copies from nintendo donkey kong country released around the world in november 1994 only one month after sonic and knuckles the game was an instant success for both rare and nintendo nintendo backed the game up with a 16 million dollar advertising campaign a vhs tape called donkey kong country exposed was sent to nintendo power subscribers further increasing the hype surrounding the title critical reception for donkey kong country was strong reviewers praised the pre-rendered 3d graphics in gameplay donkey kong country won multiple end of the year awards including game of the year from both electronic gaming monthly and nintendo power fans quickly purchased the game as well helping nintendo gain a slight upper hand against sega in the holiday 1994 shopping season donkey kong country sold a staggering 6 million copies during the end of 1994 alone the advanced graphics and massive marketing campaign made donkey kong a star once again and kept the super nintendo relevant in the face of a new generation of consoles the fourth generation of gaming was still going strong in 1994 with sega and nintendo still selling millions of consoles during the year but a new generation of consoles were already on store shelves on october 4th 1993 the 3do interactive multiplayer was released for an astronomical 699.99 the 3do was followed up by the atari jaguar the next month the 3do was a 32-bit disk based system created by the 3do company the atari jaguar claimed to be the first 64-bit console although this is debated by enthusiasts as to whether the jaguar was a 64-bit system or if it was just marketing by atari interactive neither console dented sega or nintendo's claim over the industry however neo-geo continued to control a niche corner of the market in 1994 despite the high price associated with the neo geo aes in late 1994 the neo geo cd launched in japan and pal territories for the equivalent of 400 u.s a north american launch didn't happen until 1996. while the neo geo cd still boasted a high price point it was considerably cheaper than the aes system that ran for 650 dollars the neo geocd games were also significantly cheaper than its aes counterparts running anywhere from fifty to seventy dollars compared to the two hundred dollar cost of aes cartridges nintendo opted to stick to its current systems at this time focusing its r d efforts on the upcoming nintendo 64 and a cancelled successor to the game boy sega on the other hand was going all in to keep the aging genesis relevant the sega cdx launched in 1994 for 399.99 the system combined the sega cd and genesis into a single unit and came bundled with multiple games it even functioned as a portable cd player the cdx however was a failure sega sold the unit for a hundred dollars more than a standalone genesis and sega cd unit the high price and bulky design kept consumers away from using it as a portable cd player either dooming the unit to obscurity sega opted to try a different route in the fall of 1994 with the release of the sega 32x a 32-bit add-on to the genesis retailing for 159.99 sega hoped to keep its genesis players around while they waited for the next sega console to come around while it sold well initially moving over six 000 units before the end of 1994 the 32x was another failure for sega at the time of its release sega's next console was already out in japan and north american launch of the system was coming the next year sega of japan released their own fifth generation console on november 22 1994. the sega saturn offered a 32-bit processor a cd drive and enough processing power to make 3d graphics possible without additional hardware needed the saturn did well in its first month on the market but a new player entered the gaming market just a few weeks after the saturn's launch on december 3rd 1994 sony released the playstation in japan like the saturn it offered 32-bit graphics and cd quality audio for its games and in the end the playstation and sony's entrance into the gaming scene would be the beginning of the end for sega in the console arms race [Music] in early 1995 the super nintendo and sega genesis were still as strong as ever with major releases on the horizon nintendo published two major titles that year yoshi's island in the spring and donkey kong country 2 in the fall yoshi's island subtitled super mario world 2 pushed mario into a supporting role as the player character yoshi tried to reunite him with his brother produced by shigeru miyamoto yoshi's island was in development for four years and became one of only three games to utilize the super fx 2 chip the game was a big hit thanks to its unique art style that opted for a coloring book aesthetic as opposed to the pre-rendered graphics of games like donkey kong yoshi's island went on to become its own sub-series in the super mario franchise with new installments still being released as recently as 2019. donkey kong country 2 diddy's conquest was another smash hit for nintendo and rare while it wasn't quite as popular as the first donkey kong country it still managed to sell over 5 million copies making it the 6th best-selling super nintendo title other notable releases for the super nintendo included rare's fighting game killer instinct and the cult classic earthbound platformers weren't the only big releases for the super nintendo in march of 1995 square released the critically acclaimed chrono trigger in japan a north american release followed in august of that same year enix finished off 1995 on top as well with the release of the sixth game in the dragon quest series dragon quest 6 realms of revelation only released on the super famicom dragon quest 6 sold over 3 million copies in japan making it the best selling game to remain exclusive to the region although the sega saturn launched in japan at the end of 1994 sega still had plenty of games to support the genesis with in early 1995 rystar released on the genesis to strong critical reception in the fall comic zone and vector man rounded out a surprisingly strong 1995 for the genesis unfortunately for sega these critically acclaimed exclusives weren't massive commercial successes compared to the likes of sega's earlier titles support for sega's add-ons the 32x and sega cd also dried up a few games were released for the genesis that required both pieces of hardware to work but these titles did little to keep the genesis hardware from looking outdated on the sega cd the most notable releases for the system were for third parties in january of 1995 hideo kojima snatcher was ported to the sega cd with a full english localization at the time of this video snatchers never been re-released in english coupled with poor sales of the sega cd version of the game stature has become one of the most expensive sega cd games in the modern retro gaming market september saw the final major sega cd release with lunar eternal blue the second game in the lunar series sega's biggest release for the genesis family of systems was knuckles chaotix a sega 32x game that was released in april of 1995. the title was a commercial flop in part due to the 32x's low install base it was also the final 2d platforming sonic game released for the genesis hardware line sonic wouldn't have another original platforming adventure until the release of sonic adventure in 1998 on the handheld front the game boy remained the last system standing the atari links and turbo express were discontinued in 1995 and 1994 respectively neither system was able to match the game boy's low price point in library of games sega's game gear was slightly more successful and managed to sell a total of 10 million units by early 1996 but it too was unable to slow down the game boy by 1995 the release lineup of new game gear games had dried up with the only major titles hitting the system being ports of master system and genesis titles even though it was the victor in the handheld side of the conflict the gameplay's release lineup was growing smaller every year 1995 saw the release of kirby's dreamland 2 a full sequel to the game boy original produced by shigeru miyamoto and satori iwata kirby's dreamland was a big hit on the now 6 year old system selling over two million copies 1995's most popular game boy title was donkey kong land a watered-down port of donkey kong country developed by rare donkey kong land was a big hit selling almost 4 million copies worldwide and becoming the best selling donkey kong game on the handheld on the hardware side of releases sega pumped out one final piece of genesis hardware released in october of 1995 the sega nomad was a north american exclusive handheld that played almost all of the genesis releases the nomad was a commercial flop selling only around a million units however sega's innovative streak didn't just stop with hardware at the end of 1994 sega launched sega channel an online service for the sega genesis sega channel worked through a cable connection and allowed gamers to play dozens of genesis games for a monthly subscription costing around 13 at the time sega channel was an innovative and unorthodox way of playing games the modern equivalent would be something like xbox game pass as sega channel offered its biggest game shortly after launch and rotated the lineup of games over time sega channel wasn't a massive hit with consumers the late release in the genesis life held many people back from committing to the service sega channel lasted until 1998 when it was shut down in the lead up to the release of sega's final home console the sega dreamcast nintendo attempted to get into the online scene as well released exclusively in japan the satellite offered gamers a whole new lineup of titles when it launched in april of 1995. the satellite view offered two ways to play the first method allowed gamers to download certain games and software during a window of time these titles were saved to the memory of an included satella view cartridge the second method of play was called soundlink games and can only be played during certain broadcast times some soundlink games featured fully orchestrated music or live narration over gameplay the satellite service remained online until 2000 when nintendo officially ended all broadcasts for the service a total of 114 titles were released for the sotela view with some still being lost gaming archivists and historians have worked non-stop to bring these games back with many of the roms being available for download online and playable through a super nintendo emulator with the popularity of video games growing in the early 90s so did nintendo and sega's presence at the consumer electronics show gaming had gotten so big that it needed its own expo from may 11th to may 13th 1995 the electronic entertainment expo finally gave the video game industry its own place to shine the first e3 was a major event with dozens of games being shown off nintendo was the odd one out at the event rather than showcase their next generation console nintendo focused on the upcoming virtual boy atari made their presence known as well featuring multiple atari jaguar and jaguar's cd games at the conference even the 3do made an appearance at the event with a handful of games however all eyes were on sega and a newcomer to the console business sony the launch of the playstation and saturn were planned for the fall of 1995 and the successful launch of both systems a year earlier in japan led pundits to wonder who would come out on top in north america sony approached the conference with a handful of games for the playstation but their biggest announcement would make e3 history after a series of discussions around the business productions of the playstation sony computer entertainment of america president steve reyes came out to make a statement while race had full remarks prepared and advanced he only said one thing 299 the launch price for the playstation the news came as a blow to sega who previously announced that the saturn would launch in september of that year for 399 dollars but sega made yet another move that helped doom the saturn during sega's keynote sega of america president tom kalinski announced that the saturn was available for purchase right now the news was shocking to both third party publishers and retailers the immediate release of the saturn was meant to undercut sony and give sega a much needed head start over the competition in a region where they were best the backlash however was too much only six games were available for purchase on launch day with new releases months away some retailers even refused to stock the saturn as stores like toys r us and babbages were sent shipments of saturn's on day one while others were left out in the cold for sega the gamble didn't pay off and the saturn struggled to remain relevant for years to come going into 1996 the final few games for the super nintendo and genesis were trickling out new releases for the sega cd and 32x were gone as sega discontinued the system in 1996 to focus his hardware efforts on the saturn the base genesis received a few notable games like vector main 2 and sonic 3d blast both of which released in november of that year sonic 3d blast was notable for being the final sonic game in the genesis and the first sonic game on the sega saturn a port titled sonic blast was even released on the game gear at the same time for nintendo much of their focus was on the worldwide release of the nintendo 64. but a few big titles were eked out on the super nintendo in early 1996. super mario rpg a collaboration between square and nintendo came out in japan and north america in early 1996 to critical acclaim a european version was never released on the super nintendo kirby received his first platforming game on the super nintendo when kirby superstar hit the system that spring finally donkey kong country 3 dixie kong's double trouble rounded out the year when it released in november dkc3 was a big hit especially in the face of the recently released nintendo 64 but sales were still below that of previous entries the game boy seemed to be entering its twilight years in 1996. the seven-year-old handheld was already underpowered at the time of its release but a handful events called the game boy to get a second lease on life the commercial failure of the virtual boy in 1995 led nintendo to quickly pull a plug on the awkward handheld system an updated model of the gameboy called the game boy pocket hit store shelves in giving the system a much needed smaller design biggest shot in the arm for the game boy however came from japan in february of 1996 pocket monsters green and red were released for the game boy these titles weren't released worldwide for a few more years but in japan they were phenomenon kicking off pokemania the end of the generation was coming the playstation and sega saturn featured 32-bit graphics and cds as opposed to cartridges the days of the genesis and super nintendo were done and on june 23 1996 it was over officially in japan the nintendo 64 launched and with it all major players in the console business were focused squarely on the fifth generation of home consoles the war between the genesis and super nintendo was finally over the 1996 holiday season was dominated by the playstation saturn and nintendo 64. but the genesis and snes weren't done just yet in north america both systems moved over 1 million units in 1996 with europe and japan contributing further sales for both consoles going into 1997 all eyes were on a new generation of consoles rather than the last generation in north america the genesis and game gear were all discontinued by the end of 1997. new software was still being published for the genesis in north america in 1997 in march a port of virtual fighter 2 hit the genesis giving the console one final in-house developed sega game the final game published by sega for the system was jurassic park the lost world based on the steven spielberg movie of the same name the lost world came out on september 16th 1997 over two years after the release of the sega saturn in north america sega sold the licensing rights for the genesis hardware to a company called majesco in 1998 a new model of the genesis called the genesis 3 was out on store shelves unlike the first two models the genesis 3 was incompatible with many of the genesis accessories including the sega cd and 32x majesco also acquired many unsold sega genesis cartridges and model 2 systems that they sold at budgeted prices majesco ended production of the genesis 3 in 1999 bringing an end to the genesis in the three major game markets in brazil however tech toy acquired the license to the genesis and continues to sell emulated versions of genesis hardware and software in the country the game gears library was largely complete by the end of 1996 as sega shifted their focus solely to the sega saturn the final first party release for the system was the same as the genesis jurassic park the lost world production on a successor to the game gear was considered by sega at the time but the company opted against it fearing they wouldn't be able to match the success of the game boy like the genesis the game gear was revitalized as a budget console by majesco after sega ended official production of the console a budget version of the game gear hit store shelves in 2000 with a handful of additional games being released for the system for 15 each the final official release on the game gear came out in 2001 and was published by majesco super battle tank a port of the super nintendo and genesis original finished off the game gears library the super nintendo received a new model in 1997 called the new style super nes this slimmed down snazz retailed for 99.99 with some models including yoshi's island as a pack-in game a similar redesign for the super famicom was available in japan under the name super famicom junior nintendo's final first party release for the super nintendo wasn't far off however on november 27 1997 kirby's dreamland 3 hit north american shelves roughly a year after the release of the nintendo 64. a japanese release followed in march of 1998 the final game released for the super nintendo was a port of frogger released on october 6th 1998 published by majesco entertainment this was also the final sega genesis game officially released in north america the super nintendo was officially discontinued in north america in 1999 eight years after the console made its debut in the region the super famicom had more staying power in japan where sega was never able to get a foothold in the region rewritable flash cartridges called nintendo powerboard were available for the system in the late 90s alongside the citaview service new releases for the super famicom came out as late as 2000. the final game released on a cartridge in the region was fire emblem thatchia 776 on january 26 2000 the super famicom was discontinued in 2003 after sitting atop the japanese market for 13 years nintendo also discontinued the fame of comet this time bringing it into the system's historic 20-year life the game boy remained in production far longer than its rivals or console counterparts plans for a successor to the system were in place in the mid-1990s with an intended release date of 1996 codenamed project atlantis this gameboy successor would have featured a 32-bit processor and a full-color lcd screen the project was dropped due to cost concerns instead nintendo spent the rest of the 90s releasing new models of the game boy in 1998 the game boy light was released exclusively in japan this revision added a light to the screen a requested feature for much of the gameplay's lifespan at the end of 1998 a pseudo-successor to the gameboy was released worldwide called the gameboy color the new system didn't feature any hardware revisions that made it more powerful than the original gameboy on a technical level the game boy color's main selling point was in the name color after nine years nintendo finally released a handheld with color support all game boy games were backwards compatible with the game boy color with some titles even being released on black cartridges these games were designed in color for the game boy color but were playable on the original game boy as well new software continued to hit the game boy throughout the late 90s in february 1997 nintendo published mulmania for the system one of the final grey cartridges for the system produced by shigeru miyamoto mulmani is considered a hidden gem by many gameboy enthusiasts today the biggest games for the original gameboy were of course pokemon red and blue when they were released in the united states in 1998 pokemania quickly swept the nation and additional releases followed the final original gameboy game released was pokemon yellow in japan in 1998 a north american release followed in 1999 and europe received the game in 2000. officially the gameboy was not discontinued until 2003 although by this point the original gameboy was replaced with the new gameboy color system with sega and nintendo's war over it might seem difficult to find a winner between the two say his dominance over europe and north america for a large portion of the 16-bit era ended nintendo's stranglehold on the region and cleared the path for future challengers with playstation and xbox unfortunately for sega they were never able to topple nintendo's grip over the japanese market the super famicom remained the dominant console in the region during its entire run in the end sega sold a total of 30 million genesis and mega drive units worldwide for the super nintendo sales were strong in all regions 49 million super famicom and super nintendo units were sold worldwide roughly 20 million units were sold in japan and north america each with the remaining units coming primarily from western european countries from a sales perspective the super nintendo held off sega's attempt to control the console market but they did so with one major caveat had it not been for the super famicom success in japan the genesis would have sold better or tied with the super nintendo in most markets on the handheld front the game gear sold an impressive 10 million units beating out atari in nec this pales in comparison with the game boy however it's estimated that roughly 70 million original game boys were sold between the system's launch in 1989 and the release of the game boy color nintendo's official records put the game boys lifetime sales at 118 million this made the game boy the first gaming system to ever cross 100 million units sold and is currently the third best selling game system of all time behind the ps2 and nintendo ds however it should be noted that the 118 million number combines both original game boy and game boy color sales nec atari snk phillips and the 3do company all failed to make a dramatic impact in sales when compared to sega and nintendo none of their systems managed to sell more than 10 million units worldwide of the group nec was the most successful with the turbo graphics 16 taking a distant third in the console race the turbo express on the other hand never took off in part due to its high price point snk's neo geo system managed to outlast its competitors although it was never really in competition with them neogeo's final release samurai showdown 5 special released on april 22nd 2004 the neo geo was officially discontinued after the release of this title the neo geo cd was discontinued in 1997 and altogether the neo geo sold roughly 1 million units across the world atari and the 3do company were hit the worst atari corporation saw only a few million atari links sell and the jaguar bombed with less than half a million units sold worldwide after failing to reclaim the glory days of atari atari corporation merged with jts incorporated in 1996. in 1998 jts sold the licensing and name rights for atari to hasbro the 3do performed better than atari's jaguar but it didn't do much good for the young company after discontinuing the 3do in 1997 the 3do company became a third party publisher the company was officially dissolved in 2003 when they filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy 3do's assets were then auctioned off to a variety of different corporations the cdi didn't fare much better but phillips was able to weather the unit's losses the cdi was officially discontinued in 1998 and phillips has never made another game console in the years following the discontinuation of the fourth generation of systems many of the most notable games made their ways to new hardware and new audiences sega started off by porting genesis sonic games to the sega saturn in 1997 with the compilation pack sonic jam sega continued to re-release genesis era sonic games during the 6th generation of gaming other classic genesis games began seeing ports during this era as well one of the most notable releases being the sega genesis collection for playstation 2 and psp by the seventh generation of gaming multiple genesis titles were re-released on the playstation 3 xbox 360 and wii the advent of digital downloads meant classic games no longer had to be compiled on a single disc or cartridge to see a re-release super nintendo games quickly found a home on nintendo's game boy advance following the handheld's release in 2001 classics like super mario world and the legend of zelda link to the past saw new light on the system with additional features being added to the titles super nintendo games were re-released on the wii virtual console shortly after the wii's launch in 2006. 74 games were released for the wii virtual console in north america with the final few games coming out in 2012 before the launch of the wii u additionally turbo graphics 16 neo geo and genesis games were available for download on the virtual console service with 75 genesis games 54 neo geo games and 63 turbo graphics titles being released super nintendo games were also released on the wii u and 3ds virtual consoles although the 3ds virtual console was limited to the new line of 3ds systems today super nintendo games and genesis titles are playable on the playstation 4 xbox one and nintendo switch and it seems likely that these classics will make their way to the playstation 5 and xbox series x in due time genesis games are also available for download on mobile devices and pc services like steam in 2017 nintendo unveiled and released the super nintendo classic edition retailing for 79.99 the snes classic is a mini console with 21 pre-installed super nintendo games the classic included many hit games and included the first official release of star fox 2 a previously unreleased sequel to the 1993 original sega followed nintendo's footsteps with their own release in 2019 the sega genesis mini launched for 79.99 and included 42 genesis games included in the release was a sega genesis version of tetris a title that was never released on the original hardware in 2020 sega announced plans to continue their line of mini consoles with multiple sega game gear micros so far the game gear micros have seen five variations released in japan with each one containing a different set of games the legacy of these consoles has lasted for more than two decades and will likely continue as the game industry grows older i've had a blast playing both my super nintendo and genesis my super nintendo was the first game console i ever had after it was gifted to me by my cousin it's the same console i received on christmas day in 2002 with many of my favorite games from my childhood still being in my collection i didn't join the sega genesis party until later but i've loved the classics on this system too rocket knight adventures is one of my favorite platformers and i can't wait to dive deeper into the system's library of games in the years to come the great console war pitted executives against one another it caused lines to be drawn in the sand across playgrounds around the world in an era before widespread use of the internet the rivalry between sega and nintendo was a part of mainstream culture no other generation of consoles has seen quite the level of love for their respective sides since despite gaming growing more and more popular and today sega nintendo are on good terms the era of trying to one-up each other is over and an era of mutual respect endures that's the legacy of the great console war that's the legacy of sega versus nintendo thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed the great console war the story of sega vs nintendo if you enjoyed the video leave a like and share the video on your favorite social media sites in the comments i want to know your thoughts on sega nintendo or any of the other companies and products featured in this series be sure to subscribe to catch the next video as soon as it releases and be sure to let me know what types of games or systems you would like to see covered in future videos and once again thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Double Dog

Views: 155,536

Rating: 4.8520203 out of 5

Keywords: sega, nintendo, gameboy, game gear, genesis, super nintendo, snes, mario, sonic, metroid, zelda, pokemon, sony, playstation, microsoft, xbox, 1990s, documentary, video games, streets of rage, ecco the dolphin, phantasy star, esrb, joe liberman, donkey kong, street fighter II, mortal kombat, arcade, congress

Id: KVZXSQYJyYU

Length: 100min 55sec (6055 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021