Alternate History: Sega doesn't drop the ball in the 4th to 5th gen transition

[Mr Puggsly]

JWeinCom said:

Mr Puggsly said:

I think the goal of add-ons was trying to keep users engaged with unique or better experiences. Maybe even to deter them from other platforms. Sega CD wasn't much of a success, but I do believe it had a solid library with numerous titles that were later ported to other platforms. That was certainly the goal of the 32X, but it seems like horribly designed hardware overall.

Ideas I consider bad from Nintendo were the DSi and New 3DS. The DSi was needed for access to digital games. While the New 3DS was a half assed upgrade that gave access to an underwhelming library. They also locked SNES emulation to New 3DS to drive sales.

Its also worth noting Nintendo played with add-ons for NES. They worked on a CD add-on for SNES. The N64 did get the 64DD in Japan as well. When I look at Sega CD, I consider we got some solid games that Genesis couldn't really duplicate or do so as well.

I get what the goal was, but like I said, Sega was a bit ahead of their time. The concept just wasn't ready.

With the DSi and New 3DS, they worked fine because they were replacements for portable hardware, and they had other features that made it more appealing. People are going to replace portables anyway as they get banged up. So they worked as hardware revisions. The exclusive games for them didn't really sell very well.

I'm not arguing that the CD wasn't decent hardware, but it just wasn't a good idea from a marketing point of view.

I don't think it was just a matter of being ahead of its time, I think there were genuine problems with the execution. Price was high, maybe the CDX should have been considered at launch for people who want everything in a small unit. And of course continued support would have been better than ever making the 32X.

I think CD add-ons that give experiences the old cart based hardware couldn't do is actually a good idea. It wasn't ahead of its time because it was a good time for it. Genesis was basically limited to sprites and the little storage of a cart. Sega CD improved the graphics, added more 3D features, basically eliminated storage issues for bigger games, it allowed for more ambitious games in general. If you observe its library you see it did all of that. But was the execution great? Arguably not. Yet its still something people are actually fond of.

I believe Nintendo used the exclusive software of DSi and New 3DS to actually encourage people to upgrade. It wasn't just a revision. Many people opted for 2DS because it was cheaper and the exclusive content of New 3DS was underwhelming.