Sega all the way, going by the time period instructed in the OP.

Xbox that came after that time period is acting more like a barrier towards Sega's real potential and comeback in todays console markets. It could potentially of been a "riches to rags back to riches" success story.

We would be having a Three way console POWER war between Nintendo, PlayStation, and SEGA if Xbox hadn't arrived in time preventing SEGA's return.

In its best years SEGA has great third-party support as well as Nintendo in those years. They both were basically what we see today between Xbox and PS. And even if SEGA had some troubles with getting third-party games it was because Nintendo was threatening publishers to ban them from releasing their games on Nintendo consoles in the future. Because getting Nintendo Seal of Quality was mandatory to release something on Nintendo consoles, they could manipulate publishers with it.

I doubt SEGA would have ever returned. This has nothing to do with the existence of Xbox. If it hadn't arrived it wouldn't have changed anything.

I voted XB. But, really, I'm a fan of both. We were a Sega family in the 80s and early 90s. I've ownee every system and major peripheral made by either one of them, except Nomad. I voted Xbox because I've put in a lot more hours on Xbox systems than Sega. That's solely because of the huge amount of time I put into Destiny though.

Sega Saturn, Dream cast, ect didn't have good third party support. Also, Sega Genesis was missing key third-party games from Square among other games. For example, I believe Mega Man X and Earthbound never showed up for the Genesis which is a shame because those game were awesome.

I was talking about third-party support in Mega Drive years which was pretty good. As you said, Square and Capcom haven't supported MegaDrive that much though but it was most likely because they were afraid of worsening relationship with Nintendo. MegaDrive had one MegaMan game though. It was re-release of first three NES games in one package. Street Fighter 2 also was there. I think Japanese publishers tried to please Nintendo with not supporting Sega heavily. But, western publishers supported it instead. MegaDrive had lots of western third-party exclusives instead of Capcom or Square games.

P.S. Earthbound is Nintendo first-party game.

Sega my first condole played doom at age 4

This one was really hard for me.

I have a soft spot for Sega as I used to play Megadrive and later Saturn at my cousin's house as a kid. I like their consoles, but I have to admit the 360 is better in my view than any of them. So I voted for Xbox, but I did so with a heavy heart, feeling like I'd betrayed a childhood friend. XD

I wouldn't go that far; the Master System, Megadrive, and Dreamcast were pretty damn powerful for their time of release. Even the Saturn had some real grunt to it when properly utilized, though doing so was difficult due to its over-complicated hardware.

They had the least powerful in each gen they competed in. Considering that they were playing from behind after the 32x and SCD tanked, it didn't help much being first out of the gates they had great games but the OG question was about consoles. The DC did have great Online play though when no one else did.

Western third-party games were laughable back in the day for the most part sadly. The third-party games go beyond Square and Capcom. I believe SNES got TMNT turtles in time from Konami and Sega didn't for example. There is a reason why Nintendo dominated Sega overall.

Also,  Earthbound is only co-owned by Nintendo similar to Pokemon.  Reggie said Nintendo doesn't really own the franchise.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/01/16/earthbound-fans-are-releasing-a-book-about-years-of-hoping-for-a-mother-3-western-release-2

The Saturn was more powerful than early 5th gen systems like the Jaguar and 3DO, the Master System was more powerful than the NES, and the Megadrive was more powerful than the Turbografx-16.