Sega nomad was Nintendo Switch in the 90's

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Salnax said:

I get what you're saying. The fact that the Nomad flopped whereas the Switch most certainly succeeded can probably be spun into a number of narratives.

Did the Nomad fail because

• Sega had already moved on from the Genesis? (Absolutely)
• A general lack of 16-bit game development? (Probably, since the Nomad was awkwardly stuck between the 32+ bit future and the 8 bit handheld markets)
• The price was too high? (I doubt it, since the Nomad only cost $180, which is less than the Switch was in 2017 even adjusted for inflation)
• The technology wasn't there yet? (Based on that 30 minutes per battery performance, yeah.)
• The Game Boy renaissance brought by Pokemon? (Probably didn't help)
• It was an American exclusive? (Why was it never brought to other countries with strong Genesis fandoms?)

Yep, in the end the execution matters.  The Wii Remote and the Power Glove also were using the same basic concept, but the Wii remote was obviously executed much better.  The Nomad had the concept right, but it was also an afterthought while Nintendo bet all of their chips on the Switch.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 17 March 2021