Soundwave said:
Sega successfully targeted older players, they kind of had no choice because Nintendo was so dominant in the early 90s.
Sony didn't even really target "adults", it was more teenagers, and Sega was already doing that.
Crash Bandicott wasn't any more "adult" than Sonic the Hedgehog (a blatant rip off actually) nor was Toshinden any different from Virtua Fighter. NFL GameDay? Sega had been doing football sims for ages starting with Joe Montana Football. Attacking Mario in TV commercials? Pshaw, Sega did that years before, Mr. Bandicoot.
The Genesis was already the jock/college dorm console of choice because it was heavily aligned with EA Sports titles like Madden NFL. Sony was basically just copying Sega's playbook.
What Sony brought to the market was a more level headed approach, Sega and Nintendo were too prone to wildly bizarre decision making mostly due to their Japanese corporate structure. Sony being a more global company was willing to delegate moreso to their European and American divisions and that lead to a more "harmonized" attack whereas Nintendo and Sega seemed to be in a constant tug of war between the US/Western and Japanese divisions.
That and Sony really just had to sit and wait for both Sega and Nintendo to shoot themselves in the foot, and sure enough they both did with multiple bad decisions.
The "Play Station" (sounds like a Fisher Price toy) actually looked more like a toy, the Genesis/Mega Drive always looked like a pretty chic home stereo component, not a toy.
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Please. The Genesis/32X/Sega CD looked like an abortion! lol. Playstaion played CD's (a big deal) and offered games that had never really been seen before like Twisted Metal, Resident Evil, Metal Gear, Syphon Filter, GT etc. Sega focused on arcade ports and Japanese styled games like Nights and Panzor Dragoon which I have to admit, were awesome, but totally niche and geek in retrospect.
Sony had the image and games that took the industry out of basements and into the mainstream. No one had done that yet. That's why they dominated.
