Howdy,
Today I was doing a little research about one of my favourite PS2 games (Crazy Taxi). I wasn't surprised to find that it was originally a port of a Dreamcast title, nor was I surprised to find that there had been a sequel on the DC. What I did find odd was that there was a Crazy Taxi 3, which was Xbox/PC only. And it got me thinking about other odd movements of Sega franchises after the Dreamcast collapsed.
Perhaps because I'm looking at it from the outside, it isn't as bad as it appears, but it seriously appears like Sega just scattergunned their franchises across the big 3 (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) and gave some games to one, some games to another, and the rest to the third. You've got things like:
- Microsoft: Panzer Dragoon, Crazy Taxi 3, Jet Set Radio Future, OutRun 2, Shenmue etc.
- Sony: Yakuza, Rez (originally), Altered Beast, Ecco the Dolphin, Shining Force, Shinobi, Valkyria Chronicles etc.
- Nintendo: Sonic Adventure/Colours/Black Knight/Secret Rings, Nights, Samba De Amigo, Skies of Arcadia etc.
I mean, obviously not everyone is going to like every one of these franchises, but I'd just compare it to a similar situation for me as a Sony fan - if they became software-only and released across Microsoft/Nintendo consoles, I'd have serious trouble deciding where to go (and would probably end up getting both consoles, although it would depend on which franchises ended up where).
So, without intending to come across as rude to Sega fans: Was there an obvious direction for you to go after they left the console market? Did you end up buying multiple conoles after the Dreamcast? Did you ever consider buying a different console because a Sega release wasn't where you expected it to be?
Just genuinely curious :)
