Which competitor is more responsible for the demise of Sega?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Chrkeller said:

Just my honest 2 cents. Part of the problem is Sega's 'glory' days is grossly overrated. Sonic was never as good as Mario. Phantasy Star was nothing compared to Final Fantasy. Sega never had anything that competed with Metroid and Zelda. Sega had arcade games.... but the world has moved on from arcade style games.

I'd have to say that Sonic was not as good as 8-bit Mario.  However, 16-bit Sonic was definitely better than 16-bit Mario.  I liked Super Mario World when I first played it, but I also felt it was somewhat disappointing.  It didn't hold a candle to Mario 3, and I think they destroyed the difficulty in Super Mario World which is what disappointed me about the game the most. 

However, this isn't even the worst part.  The worst part is that Super Mario World was the only 16-bit Mario game.  Meanwhile the Genesis had 3 regular Sonic games, Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic CD.  They really, really delivered when it came to high quality platformers and that is what the market wanted at the time.  Nintendo's answer to Sonic wasn't Mario.  It was Donkey Kong Country.  I personally do not think the DKC games are nearly as good as either Mario or Sonic.

Also, you are right that Sega had awesome arcade games, however you are wrong that the world has moved on from arcade style games.  Here are some games that have been made fairly recently that could easily work in an arcade with some minor modifications:  Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Just Dance, Guitar Hero/Rock Band/any rhythm game, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Wii/Switch Sports, Splatoon, Flappy Bird, etc....  People still like arcade style games, but outside of Japan, the venue doesn't really exist like it used to, and Nintendo would rather make arcade style games for their consoles.