Yes they did drop large amounts  not to the extent of today but it still cost a lot  in terms of R&D and associated costs and gets more expensive each year, the arcade was a great stream of revenue and  using a custom chip set based on the home console meant you could port the games over cheaply both ways  and has to whether they based the home console off the arcade board or the other way around I'm not to sure on but either way it  gave them another revenue stream one that Sony also benefited from  as well with Namco using custom PlayStation chip sets but all said and done that was an aspect of the industry thats pretty much done and dusted ,Sega today would have to borrow heavily to re enter the business.

him>bobby kotick

His programming made the original game possible, or at least made it what it is.

True but he didn't create the game. There were three people behind the character. Naoto Oshima, Hirokazu Yasuhara, and Yuji Naka. Naka was the programmer. Oshima was the artist. Yasuhara was the gameplay and level designer. If any one person were to be credited as the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog it would be Hirokazu Yasuhara since Yasuhara actually designed the levels and gameplay. Naka just programmed what Yasuhara created. Even with that said Naota Oshima designed Sonic the Hedgehogs character.

That's why when Yuji Naka took over the Sonic games by himself the quality began to suffer. He wasn't the creative force behind Sonic's success. Yasuhara was the most important factor behind the success of the Sonic titles. Yuji Naka is the Japanese version of John Romero. An arrogant prick that was in the right place at the right time.

True but he didn't create the game. There were three people behind the character. Naoto Oshima, Hirokazu Yasuhara, and Yuji Naka. Naka was the programmer. Oshima was the artist. Yasuhara was the gameplay and level designer. If any one person were to be credited as the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog it would be Hirokazu Yasuhara since Yasuhara actually designed the levels and gameplay. Naka just programmed what Yasuhara created. Even with that said Naota Oshima designed Sonic the Hedgehogs character.

That's why when Yuji Naka took over the Sonic games by himself the quality began to suffer. He wasn't the creative force behind Sonic's success. Yasuhara was the most important factor behind the success of the Sonic titles. Yuji Naka is the Japanese version of John Romero. An arrogant prick that was in the right place at the right time.

Wow, that's not completely fair.  There are a ton of assumptions in here.  We have no idea why Naka ended up being the public face of Sonic.  It might be because the others didn't WANT to be that face or maybe all involved felt his contribution was the most significant.  Regardless, Naka went on to find some successes as a producer (NiGHTS into dreams, Sonic Adventure, Phantasy Star Online) as did Yasuhara as a game designer (Uncharted: Drakes Fortune).  Why turn this into some talk show shhh???