The 90s game market is ages ago anyway, there's really not a lot to be gleaned from what Sega (or Nintendo) did like 35 years ago. Those days are over.
The industry (for worse and for better in different respects) is totally different now. Sega blitzed Nintendo with aggressive TV marketing riding tail winds of an MTV-tuned generation and a swing in teenage pop culture towards being hyper edge lords listening to Snoop Dogg/Dr.Dre/Nirvana/Green Day when they were all about New Kids On the Block and Milli Vanilli just 2-3 years prior (lol). Today that same generation doesn't even have cable TV and haven seen a music video maybe once in their life, lol, MTV barely exists as a brand.
Kalinske was brilliant for his time, but that was his time, he's a He-Man toy exec that socked Nintendo in the gut using 90s culture. Full credit to him and Sega, they did what was borderline impossible (seemingly). A lot of what Sony gets credited for was really just taking what Sega was already doing. But it's not applicable to much today though.
Most gamers at that time were also children, whereas today that's not the case even for Nintendo's fanbase (not even close). The 90s was a great time and the industry was arguably a lot more interesting back then, but as the late 80s/90s Roxette song goes ... "It must've been good, but it's over now".
Last edited by Soundwave - on 04 May 2025
