| Justagamer said: Pretty sure the genesis is at 29 million lifetime. |
32-bit era and beyond
In order to extend the life of the Genesis, Sega released two add-ons to increase the capabilities of the system: a CD-based peripheral known as the Sega CD (Mega-CD outside North America), as well as a 32-bit peripheral known as the Sega 32X.[56]
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By the end of 1994, the Genesis had sold 29 million units worldwide, including 14 million in the United States, 3.5 million in Japan, 2.1 million in the United Kingdom, and 800,000 in Germany.
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Its add-ons were less successful, with the Sega CD selling 2.7 million units worldwide by this time, and the 32X selling 665,000 units.[76]
By the end of 1995, Sega was supporting five different consoles—Saturn, Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear, Pico, and the Master System—as well as the Sega CD and Sega 32X add-ons. In Japan the Mega Drive had never been successful, and the Saturn was beating Sony's PlayStation, so Sega Enterprises CEO Hayao Nakayama decided to force Sega of America to focus on the Saturn, executing a surprise early launch of the Saturn in early summer of 1995. While this made perfect sense for the Japanese market and also beat Sony's 32-bit console launch in North America, it proved to be a disastrous move in the latter territory: the market for Genesis games was much larger than for the Saturn, but Sega was left without the inventory or software to meet demand.[77]
By contrast, Nintendo concentrated on the 16-bit home console market, as well as its successful handheld, the Game Boy, and as a result Nintendo took in 42 percent of the video game market dollar share, despite not launching a 32-bit console to compete directly with Sony's PlayStation and Sega's Saturn.[77] Due to Sega's decision to cut support to its 16-bit business to focus on the Saturn, Nintendo was able to capitalize by its continued focus on the SNES and the Game Boy from 1995 onward. The 1995 release of a Genesis-based handheld, the Sega Nomad, suffered from a poorly timed launch after the release of the Saturn and near the release ofPokémon, a Game Boy game that would become very popular. Further new releases for the SNES, such as Donkey Kong Country 3and Super Mario RPG, also proved to be successful for Nintendo.[78] While Sega was still able to capture 43 percent of the dollar share of the U.S. video game market as a whole,[79] Nakayama's decision undercut the Sega of America executives. CEO Tom Kalinske, who oversaw the rise of the Genesis in 1991, grew uninterested in the business and resigned in mid-1996.[80]
Sega continued to sell the Genesis worldwide through 1997,[47][49] selling 20 million units in the United States through that time.[81]
In 1998, Sega licensed the Genesis to Majesco in North America so that it could rerelease the console. Majesco began re-selling millions of formerly unsold cartridges at a budget price, together with 150,000 units of the second model of the Genesis.[49]
It later released the Sega Genesis 3,[82] projecting to sell 1.5 million units of the console by the end of 1998.[49]
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Final sales estimates for the Genesis stand at approximately 40 million units sold;[83][84] of these, approximately 3.58 million were sold in Japan,[85] 8 million in Europe,[86] and 3 million in Brazil.[87]
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While the system sold 9 million less units than the SNES overall, this gap was less than the 47 million unit gap that separated the sales of Sega's Master System and Nintendo's NES in the 8-bit era.[83]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis
My grammar errors are justified by the fact that I am a brazilian living in Brazil. I am also very stupid.
