What RUINED Sega? - The Fall of an Empire

[Music] back in the mid-to-late 1980s Nintendo was the undisputed champion of the gaming world they controlled the majority of the industry and very few stood a chance against them but there was one who was up to the challenge Sega the underdog who against all odds was able to knock Nintendo off their throne and shake up the gaming industry by reading the cultural landscape of the consumer they were able to make the necessary changes to compete against Nintendo to give themselves an edgy look that came across as more appealing to some gamers by deploying these methods they were able to rise to the top and throw down with Nintendo to truly give them a run for their money Sega found massive success and could have continued their growth but it all came crumbling down when you look at Sega today they are a shadow of their former self no longer do they make home consoles instead they just focus on developing and publishing games so what exactly happened how did this Titan of the gaming industry fall so far from grace what events led them down this path of failure well if you don't know the answer may surprise you so we are going to find out what ruined Sega the history of Sega is one of hope and drama where battles were fought between it and its main competitor Nintendo how people would go behind the backs of others where pride would overwhelm a person sensible nature and lead them down a path of failure that's ultimately what happened to Sega but before any of that it was a small company in Honolulu Hawaii called service games founded in 1940 it originally manufactured slot machines and jukeboxes for the American military but in 1951 the company moved to Tokyo Japan there it would cross paths with another company Rosen enterprises Rosen enterprises led by David Rosen was another American company that was based in Japan there they provided photo booths that would print pictures for work and travel IDs but after a while Rosen enterprises began to work in the world of electromechanical arcade games around 1964 Rosen enterprises and service games merged together from it a name for the newly formed company surfaced Sega enterprises it wasn't until 1966 that Sega would start making their own original arcade machines and their first big hit was periscope it was large it was expensive to play but people loved it other games to follow included riflemen and helicopter Sega's known for their quality arcade games and the 1970s was just the beginning for them pinball machines were being replaced by arcade machines ones that were built with micro processors another addition to the company was the purchase of a distribution company headed by Nakayama he would eventually become a key player in Sega's future and would become the CEO of the company also in 1976 the company switched its logo over to the one that we all know today Sega continued to provide a string of quality arcade games Zacks on turbo Buck Rogers they were quite the contender in the world of arcades but Sega would eventually make the transition over to home consoles unfortunately though they did this right when the gaming market took a massive dive one that many people believed killed off the industry in 1983 the gaming market crashed in America due to over saturation everybody was jumping into the gaming trend and providing their own games and consoles there was little to no regulation and many companies joined in just to cash in on the video game craze the market was flooded and the quality of these games worked garbage one of the more notorious titles being ET the game despite the mess that was the crash of 83 two companies in Japan were brainstorming on how they could roll with the punches both have the unfortunate luck of releasing their home consoles during 83 oddly enough Nintendo and Sega released their systems in Japan on the exact same day July 15th 1983 in one corner you had Nintendo with their family calm it would be known as the nests when it came to the states in 1985 in the other corner you had Sega with their sg-1000 which never came to America this first round of fighting clearly went to Nintendo they had the better system better games and a better strategy to get back into the gaming market Nintendo basically revitalized the entire gaming industry and was the main shareholder of it it was said that they controlled almost 90% and the table scraps went to Sega in 1986 Sega released the Master System just like before this system could not keep up with Nintendo they just had too much control of the market and had an iron grip contract that forced game developers to only work for them that if they want to make games for the nests it could be only for the nests Nintendo knew that a drop in quality was what led to the game crash of 83 in order to prevent this from ever happening again they took the majority of control and how games are created manufactured and distributed that you had to go through them and give them what they wanted in Nintendo's eyes this was quality to many others it was oppression this did not prevent Sega from trying to make the most of what they had though the Master System wasn't a critical success it provided some solid titles such as fantasy zone and afterburner Sega also pushed to make their own mascot one that could step toe-to-toe with Mario their answer was an Alex the Kidd in miracle world a game that would come prepackaged with the Master System the game and character were kindly received but to never the extent of what Mario was it wouldn't be until the arrival of the Genesis and a certain blue blur that Sega would have the upper hand after experimenting with some ideas that range from storing games on small cards to 3d glasses Sega realized that it had to throw its biggest punch yet to create a system that was from a technical point of view superior to the Ness and their answer was the Mega Drive or as it's called here in America the Sega Genesis what's the hottest 16-bit video game system with true arcade games great graphics real challenge stereo sound and the hottest library tuned with games like for Beast Genesis from Sega Genesis the new generation in video games this was a 16-bit powerhouse one that boasted better graphics and sound than its competition the system was launched in Japan in late 1988 around the same time as Super Mario Brothers 3 this led to a rough beginning as the console only sold 400,000 units in its first year the company was determined though to get back on its feet and sell over a million consoles in 1989 that's when the Genesis arrived in America and the company hoped that this market would boost sales the guy hired to spearhead this charge into the States was Michael Katz this was the fellow whose team came up with the infamous line Genesis does what nintendon't [Music] [Music] he also pushed hard to recruit celebrities and athletes and create games about them such as Joe Montana football and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker despite the work Katz did it ultimately wasn't what the company was looking for yes he created some waves and success but the genesis wasn't performing as well as the company had hoped they knew that they were at a disadvantage both in advertising and game developers and needed someone to really shake things up enter tom kalinske the next president of sega of america tom was a veteran of the toy industry he helped to revitalize the Barbie franchise hot wheels and launch Masters of the Universe [Music] needless to say he understood what made a toy line successful and what people were looking for it just so happened that Sega was looking for him Nakayama actually flew out to Hawaii where Tom was on vacation with his family there he tried to convince Tom to join Sega as the new president of the division in America they made the promise that he could have full control to do whatever he wants after a quick visit to Japan Tom was convinced and joined up in fall of 1990 Tom had a four-point plan to change things up number one to replace ultra beast with Sonic as their prepackaged game with the console 2 they needed to lower the price of the system from 189 to 149 3 they needed to redefine themselves as hip cool and in-your-face in order to do so they required a change in direction in advertising and for Sega must develop games that resonate with its Western audience when Sega of Japan heard these changes they were very upset but ultimately gave in to tom's request Tom honestly thought he was about to be fired but Nakayama said that he promised him that he could do what he wanted and now he had that chance like I said before sonic was the answer to Mario though he wasn't originally called Sonic the Hedgehog his first name was mr. needle mouse a punkish character that had a guitar and a hot human girlfriend this wasn't going to fly in America and the people from Tom's team convinced the artists behind Sonic to change things up so in a way there was a character that looked like a sonic OC before Sonic was even a thing that no good the game itself was created by Yuji naka so they plugged Sonic into the game and it became a huge success the people of Sega of America knew that they had something special on their hands and that it had the potential to knock the wind out of Nintendo and on June 23rd 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog was released and was a massive hit Danita stokes president of Haag it's bad enough that Sega Genesis has the most 16-bit games but this new Sonic the Hedgehog oh he really does bye guys they say he's incredibly fast well what's the hurry mister hmm and about his attitude smarty pants why can't it be more like that nice boy Mario [Music] get sonic free when you buy a Sega Genesis system at a price of one $49.99 overtime Tom and his team were able to change the tides of the console war they were able to break down the stubbornness of Walmart and convince them to sell the Genesis at their store other third-party developers began to pledge their support to the system including EA Sega's advertising was cutting deep and resonated with consumers with the battlecry welcome to the next level the Sega Genesis has blast processing Super Nintendo doesn't sowhat's blast proccesing do Sega was on the attack and temporarily had Nintendo on the defense what if you don't have blast processing but the good times though sweet were not to last and rough times were on the horizon for sega hey guys I just wanted to take a quick moment to let you all know that I finally have my merch shop up on pixel Empire now you all can get my beautiful face on a t-shirt also they have a bunch of other cool stuff that ranges from posters phone cases and apparel of all your favorite movies games and more and lastly we're also doing a giveaway for ironically a Super Nintendo classic plus some $50 gift cards if you want to enter check out this website for your chance to win link is down below one of Sega's most admirable traits was their desire to be on top to keep pushing the envelope and make better consoles and games to be experimental and try new things that Nintendo would shy away from unfortunately this was also the attitude that led Sega down a path of failure a rising technology on the market was the CD and Sega wanted to join in so they introduced an add-on to the Genesis called the Sega CD the idea here was that it could get their feet wet and get people warmed up to the new technology on the horizon the Sega CD was different in how it had games that allowed a person to play a movie games such as super shark and night trap did well at first but it was a dying trend [Music] [Applause] [Music] again sega is an innovative company they have made leaps of faith before with technology that was ahead of its time back in 91 Sega released the Game Gear a handheld device that would compete against the Game Boy hey there's an easier way to get color get a game gear the full-color portable with over 150 games like the new echo portal 2 and sonic triple trouble it could run better games it had a backlight and it could even tune in to television channels but it was expensive to run as the battery life was pitiful and would quickly drain batteries the big problems for Sega started to arise when they began work on their next console the Sega Saturn Humankind stands on the edge of the interactive age introducing Sega Saturn Sega of Japan was constructing the new hardware while Sega of America waited to see what they would develop the final product was a complicated device that had two CPUs two graphic chips and other processors basically it was difficult to work with and would be a challenge for developers one of the biggest challenges for Sega throughout this story has been the back and forth between Sega of Japan and Sega of America the two rarely saw eye to eye and would often disagree on things Sega of Japan held the most power though and would pass down decisions for the few years that Sega succeeded it was due to Sega of Japan letting Sega of America do what they needed to do but things were changing and Sega of Japan was less inclined to listen tom kalinske tried to find some alternatives to the Saturn one was from Silicon Graphics a company that had a chipset that was ideal for a console despite being better in speed graphics and audio Sega of Japan turned this option down ironically this device would eventually become the Nintendo 64 that no good this was just the first of a string of mistakes by Sega back in the day Sony tried to team up with Nintendo and work together ultimately Nintendo was afraid of this option as it would have given some control to Sony and they did not want that so Nintendo went behind Sony's back and teamed up with Philips instead the company that would produce infamous content such as the Zelda CDI games Nintendo would not be the only company to turn down Sony Sega had a chance to team up with them tom kalinske pushed for this and fostered a relationship between the two they even worked together on the Sega CD so there was already proof that the two could find common ground the idea was that Sega and Sony would work together to manufacture the hardware and then develop games for it each one would collect the money on what they individually made since Sega was more experienced in software Tom knew that they could make some serious cash from this possible agreement yet Sega of Japan hated the idea they wanted to stick with a Saturn and never look back and just like before Sega missed out on a great console the PlayStation so ii missed out on picking up the n64 and the PlayStation two pieces of hardware that kolinsky fought for after that he stepped down from his position at Sega and left in 1996 so now Sega lost one of its most valuable players and was stuck with a Saturn a 32-bit device that had some technical innovations such as online play but ultimately proved to be a headache it's out there while moving forward with the Saturn Sega decided to cut off the Genesis despite it having some life left to it also the 32x was introduced around this time as a cheaper upgrade for Genesis owners despite all of these products being out the chaos at Sega would only continue to snowball downhill wreak some havoc the Saturn was launched in 1995 but had a short lifespan people at Sega just did not believe in it and that included the new president of Sega of America Bernard Stoller he saw the Saturn as a lost cause and was already looking toward the future now that's not to say that the Saturn was without any great games Panzer Dragoon and Virtua Fighter were well received but it was never enough to save the console in 1997 at e3 Stoller said the Saturn is not our future this was only two years after the console was launched so things were not looking good for Sega many of their fans were upset and felt betrayed by them but Sega was too busy looking toward the future to worry you're gonna get ruined shut up why'd you pick Sega went to work on the development of the Dreamcast just like the Saturn this console - had online gaming capabilities something that was ahead of its time on September 9th 1999 the Dreamcast was officially launched in America and it was very popular it had 18 launch titles to pick from and broke records for the company and the gaming industry from Sonic Adventure to Soul Calibur things were starting to look good once more for Sega unfortunately though the final blows to Sega's console rain were nigh and came in the form of a console that could play DVDs the PlayStation 2 this competition was just too much for the Dreamcast to handle Sony had now controlled the majority of the gaming industry with Nintendo right behind Sega had fallen from grace and could no longer compete in the console war yet this was almost a welcomed conclusion for the people in charge at Sega Nakayama had stepped down from his position and the new leadership Okawa desired for Sega to only provide software in the gaming industry so from the sounds of it the leadership at Sega really never had their hearts set out to make consoles and hardware instead they were just ready to fall back on their software and just provide games instead the last thing that made the situation so sour for Sega was their meeting with Microsoft Microsoft sent a team down to Sega to learn more about the console business and even offered to put Windows CE II on the Dreamcast this makes one wonder if this was another chance for Sega to team up or sell their company to Microsoft but they never really went for it and just stayed the course so in theory not only did Sega miss out on the n64 and the PlayStation but also the Xbox in 2001 Sega was bleeding money and announced to the world that they would be stepping down from providing consoles they discontinued support for the Dreamcast in 2001 and after 18 years in the console business they finally admitted defeat in conclusion a string of bad decisions from the company and bad timing led to the ultimate demise of Sega plus the release of the PlayStation 2 was the final nail in the coffin but that should not take away from what Sega has accomplished they are one of the most influential video game companies in history they provided a broad range of video games with memorable characters one that could even throw down with the most popular character in the industry they took chances tried new things and were ambitious in their work after the fall of the Dreamcast they continued to release hit titles such as Super Monkey Ball and the Yakuza series also they continued to produce games about Sonic and funny enough and some twist of irony Sonic has appeared in Nintendo games such as Super Smash Brothers and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics [Music] from the arcades to the Genesis Sega was willing to take a chance at greatness and made history along the way even though they lost the console war at the end they still shook up the industry and will always be remembered for their contributions to the world of gaming hey guys I just wanted to give a shout out to some of my top tier patreon pledges toon grin Chad Butler screen flare mauka vo moon doggy illegally sane Julius leader and mr. skids also I want to thank my friend paleo console wars and the IGN article about the history of Sega all of that really helped out so thank you you

Channel: Saberspark

Views: 2,802,151

Keywords: sega, what ruined sega, sonic the hedgehog, sonic, what ruined, saberspark, saber, video games, nintendo, video essay, analysis, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, sega saturn, NES, Super NES, sega master system, sega console

Id: GH7R2PEvzXo

Length: 26min 19sec (1579 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 08 2017