CGI-Quality said:
Sega's games were generic? I HIGHLY disagree. While Streets of Rage was very similar to Capcom's Street Fighter and Final Fight series', it was high quality and very enjoyable. Sonic, of course, wasn't even close to generic (always my preference when compared with Mario), and other stuff like Altered Beast, Phantasy Star, and Virtua Fighter have all made their marks. They failed strictly because they bit off more than they could chew, not because of a weakness in software. Now as for Microsoft, to me, their issue has never been quality, but quantity and questionable business decisions. I'd prefer them to pump their cash into new, fresh IPs by In-House studios, rather than go after every 3rd party exclusive the PlayStation had. They don't stand out because their own studios aren't doing enough (again, just my view) against Sony, Nintendo, and Sega. They have the weakest 1st party of the bunch, but they survived because they had the cash, were smarter than Sega, and did their reseacrh to combat Sony. |
In the early 90's sega wasnt generic, but at some point certain styles like arcade titles lost the style and flair of its era as we started moving towards the new millenium. Nintendo has the disney effect, which bred characters that had a marketable look and color scheme to attract the eye creating timeless characters. Sonic was the only timeless character sega ever created and it saved the Sega genesis vs Mario in megadrive/genesis. I loved Sega, but their 90's arcade approach went stale. Why does Virtua Fighter have such a slim fanbase? Because its generic. Its a pure gameplay with little look or style and very technical. Only the best of the best played it and I did until I started got my Playstation and got Tekken. I stopped playing my 32X on my Genesis and went cold turkey on the Virtua Fighter. It had interesting characters an interesting story and more. Segas games had arcade gameplay quality, but what would prompt me to buy a Dreamcast when I could play the same games at the arcade with my friends? Sega shot themselves in the foot partially for many reasons and one of them was having a superior form of their games elsewhere and playable for cheaper prices earlier on. Second of all even though they only sold like what ten million Dreamcasts, they had a ton of games pirated based on format? The quality of their games were good, but generic in style and they had been sending the wrong message to consumers since the Saturn era, which didn't last very long to begin with.
As for Microsoft, their problem with first party will be rectified by hiring the industries best by pulling out their checkbook. Plain and simple.
