i guess you guys have heard the april fools joke of sega creating a new handheld machine to rival the sony psp and nintendo ds. this joke was posted by a french website as an april fools joke.

however, there are some real rumors that sega might be releasing a new handheld console. a good idea or a total waste of time.

personally, i think sega has a great library of fantastic console (look at the saturn machine, better than the psx. not to forget the dreamcast, which some says change the gaming industry. not to mention the classic mega drive. must i say more?) the only problem they had was getting their clients, in this case, game designers.

what do you guys think if sega were to introduce a new handheld?

they will fail miserably. i think the portable market has been dominated by nintendo. yeah, nintendo rocks. proud supporter of nds lite.

Haha. Poor, poor Sega. Outside of the Genesis, all of their consoles pretty much tanked. As one of the hardcore Sega fans, I must admit I would be pretty much excited if there was such a thing.

Unfortunately, the reality remains that the industry cannot afford to support multiple console formats. Yes, we are used to the 3-console format wars for a while now, but even then, there will always be a dominant winner. And unfortunately, most console gamers do not favour Sega.

Let's see.....
1. SNES vs Genesis: SNES won. Technically, they were equal. In the US. But overall? The SNES won by a landslide. Except in Europe, where the Megadrive was more popular.

2. Saturn vs PlayStation vs N64: Huh. PlayStation pretty much won by default, if numbers are to be believed. N64, despite having an expensive cartridge format, came in second. Leaving Sega to be 3rd. My, how sad.

3. Dreamcast vs PlayStation 2. Like this battle needs an introduction. Honestly, the Dreamcast was supposed to be the console to win the crowd over. Beautiful graphics, web browsing capabilities, online play (in 1999!), killer launch line-up. But this battle was dead before it ever began. Why? Since a lot of people already gave up on the Sega name, and would rather go to PlayStation. That, and of course, the killer PS2 games announced at E3 2000: Devil May Cry, Ico, and a little title called Metal Gear Solid 2. We all know what happened to the people who were still deciding on Dreamcast or PS2.

OK, now that I got all that off my chest, here's the real reason I think they will fail: Nintendo is too dominant. It's been proven time and again. Back in 1989, Sega released their handheld console, the Game Gear. Beautiful LCD screen, colourful graphics, good games line-up.... marred by absolutely terrible battery life. Nintendo pretty much won the handheld wars pretty easily.

Heck, even other companies have tried and died terrible, terrible deaths; Atari, Tiger Electronics, SNK, and more recently, Bandai. With so many casualties, you'd think other companies have pretty much given up getting into the handheld market. Sony is the only company that has actually given Nintendo a run for their money, but still? Right now, DS is outselling PSP by a huge margin.

As for Sega, I wholeheartedly accept that they are no longer in the console business. They still make killer arcade hardware though, which, in my opinion, is far more profitable (in Japan anyway). I love how Chihiro and Lindbergh games look compared to the System-256 arcade hardware.

Ahem. After all that rambling, the bottom line is that no, I don't think it's a hot idea for Sega to release a handheld console. After all, we already know Sega will be supporting the Wii's virtual console with some of their back catalog of great games. I could be wrong though, given that I am a Sega nut. SEGA!!

i had gamegear once...with the super expensive tvtuner..



like everybody knows, this little thing eats batteries like no tomorrow..still, remember i played world cup on it...sweet days..

if they decide to get back to handheld or console business, i welcome them with open arms. more competition should drive better product with chheaper price..yes, i am a sega fanboy, until now.

I am a die hard SEGA fanboy myself. Having own every peice of SEGA hardware available expect the Game Master and SEGA PC. Ya, I have the obscurde MEGA CD too.

It all boils down to which console has the most pirated game will dominate the market.

i dont think you can judge it this way!!
the snes was great but i think the graphics and the overall aspect of the genesis is more powerful.

and the saturn is actually a more powerful console then the playstation. the only thing that keep the playstation alive was its 3D capability and like the guy said, more pirated games!!

and the dreamcast was called one of the finest console, the console that created the standard of what ps2 and xbox console are today.

yes, the ps2 and xbox and nintendo all won but you need to realize that SEGA set the standards for what console gaming are today. i did some research and SEGA lost because of some poor marketing strategy as well as the failure to obtain game manufacturer or game creator.

because of that, their console system failed and they were losing pretty bad in the market and decided to call it a day. however, SEGA is the one responsible for what gaming is today.

As much as I would like to scream SEGA!! all day long, I have to admit that SEGA is simply not doing that well as a console manufacturer. While I would willingly acknowledge Sega as an innovative console maker, I simply can't call SEGA a successful one. Marketing or otherwise, business is business. And there is nothing more punishing than the video game business.

If we were to simply judge innovation as a selling point, then the Sega Master System should have been more successful than the Famicom. Despite whatever selling point there may be for a game console, it will ALWAYS be about the games. Games determine console sales, not the other way round.

I don't mean to offend anyone here, but the reality remains that SEGA was hit hard by their console failure(s) and decided to cut their losses. I myself was a broken SEGA fan, wondering where it went wrong. But in the end, isn't there more to SEGA than just hardware? Wasn't it the games that charmed gamers enough to buy their console? Remember Golden Axe? Or Shinobi? Those games were, in my opinion, the pinnacle of 16-bit greatness during those times. Hardware be damned, there were no alternatives to those gaming classics. It was SEGA all the way.

the dreamcast was too futuristic oredi. when they had all that online play back in 1999 a lot of ppl didn't have broadband and those kind of thing. damn sad

Before American's launch, Dreamcast ships with 33.6 k and after American's launch, Dreamcast ships with 56k modem. Back then, online games are playable with Dreamcast's dial up modem. Later on, they released Broadband adapters.

i read in games master(UK mag) that the modem is restricted by software.
by entering some disc(i didnt get it with my dc,so couldnt try ) and tinkering with the system settings,you'd be able to use 56kbps.

anyone ever tried this before?

Quote from Wikipedia:



I didn't get the disc too, so I couldn't try.

the bba(broadband adpters) were very hard to get ...

Sega fans, please wake up and smell the roses... SEGA? now?

Name me the Inovative games recently.

Name me the Best selling Games recently.

Name me the prominent Game COmpanies recently.

Nintendo? Sony? Capcom? (surely not banpresto he heee...)

Se what? Sega is not as strong as before. Even in the old days internationally Sega was at most a strong second place contender. Never did revolutionalise the gaming industry. Since when did more powerful graphic processor = good in the console market?

Gameboy is UGLY... but because we want a handheld that can be bring around and not worry about changing batteries... and not more than 2AA. SO they win. Not many people care about colourful screen, the inconvinience was too high.

"People don't want to make game for Sega" whose fault is it? Sega! It is their job to make sure their console are supported. ( wasted DC at home). People don't want ONE great game on their console, we prefer 10 good games.



Really la, history repeat itself now, umber powerful graphic in PSP vs DS... who won? eh eh? Who sold more? Who got more games? Who recently scale down thier UMD movie projects?



What to know what is worse, Being the second best Sega fail to secure their position. Once a strong third party come, Sega got swept out... haha... See how strong Nintendo is, and Sony, Microsoft Pump money like crazy also not much affect. They keep on comming back... I am sure PS3 will find some way to be innovative (with intuative gaming being the word of the future, if sony no innovate... = die, BEcause Graphic vs Gameplay, Game PLay always win.)



Name me a foot print Sega left int he gaming industry. COntroler? Nintendo's cross directional control is still being "emulated" across the board. Controler with memory card that got LCD? Who does that?

Being beyond their time was not call innovative (ie, colour screen on hand held, online gaming...) It is call stupid, trying to bite too much... Unreasonable. Now we can have colour screen and online gaming because technology allows it... it's convinient and reasonable to implement the things. Trying to do so before the market is ready can only be term as Gimmicky....




sorry la Sega, you had some good games, some good times... but... haiii...




Sega fans, sorry if i rub reality too hard on you....

This post has been edited by gliblit: Sep 28 2006, 02:35 AM

Hello. Wake up. Which part of the Saturn is "more powerful" than the PS1? please dun throw around that crap about having more processors being better. The Saturn processor are last-minute slap on coz they realized that the PS1 is way too powerful and the Saturn was a 2D machine, not 3D machine. It's funny to think that from the people who innovate the 3D arcades gaming, will choose 2D instead of 3D. They should have forsee the future, it was their dumb mistake. The Saturn 2D is no doubt better than the PS1, but in a world going 3D, who cares about 2D already...

The Saturn absolutely suck at 3D.
(btw, i own Saturn, Megadrive and ex-owner of that crap Dreamcast).

And oh yeah, SEGA fanboys, wake up and smell the coffe, teh tarik, milo, horlick and whatever.

SEGA has been killing itself slowly the last few years. After dumping the console business, they can't even compete in the software arena even when fully focused. The problem with SEGA is they create arcade games and all their games have this arcade objective in mind. Problem is, arcade is dead and arcade game is meant to last a short period , unlike console games, which can have more depth and longer playability. Somehow, they never dig themselves out of their arcade mentality.

Yu Suzuki and Yuki Nakajima used to have rock star status back in 80's and 90's, but now, i guess nobody really cares about them.

They're obsolete and just can't get out of the rut. This is 2xxx already. Their type of game design just can't fit in this decade.

Really, SEGA should just close down and sell burgers.

glibit i think the idea of memory card with lcd they copy from ps, pocket station le.

i remember this, cos my friend had it. need 6 AA size battery. how much did it cost at tat time? lol

hehe.. the gamegear.. 4 (or was it 6?) energizer batteries can only last 45minutes or less playing shinobi. nice game gadget though... have to plug into powerpoint then only can play whole day... but then it get's darn hot.

huhu.. sega, they bring a benchmark when they brings dreamcast to the market.. a powerful console.. at that time, compared to it's rival, a playstation.. it has much much capabilities.. but dunno why still playstation dominating the market.. maybe because of the price of the console.. and maybe technologies at that time, ppl see playstation is already ok for them..

and very heavy!

dreamcast doesnt have killer games like dragon quest and final fantasy.

for a minute there,i thought you meant microsoft powerpoint..

as much as i hate to admit it,one of the major factors of the DC's quick demise is lack of EA's support

and that too