Would a SEGA Console Sell these days?

[Cyb3rkn1ght]

I know, a tad Controvertial, but i need to hear from the fans. Honestly, I think yes. if it was handheld, plays like a DREAM, and has all of Sega's Games on there, I would definitely buy. For Certain if they bring back Lock-On. As @Shiny Gemssaid in his own Topic, I think Lock-On would be a good selling point. sure, there would be PLENTY of Controversy, but Think about the possible outcomes of locking Sonic Colors with MANIA for christ sake! Some people think that may be a tad redundant, I say probably, but worth it. all they need to do is build a good reputation as a company, and then, its prime time.

So, what do you guys think?

[Shiny Gems]

I am not sure, honestly. It may have been a while, but Sega almost went bankrupt after the Dreamcast. I do think if they tried a new console and it fails, it could be the end of them, and I am not sure how much it could sell.

Besides, I do think lock-on, as I described and how it worked for Sonic and Knuckles, is not new of a concept.

[Cyb3rkn1ght]

Lemme make this clear real quick: i am NOT guarding my opinion. its way to finiky to be a sturdy opinion to stand on.

[GX -The Spindash-]

Depends on what you define as "selling."

In the abstract, it's easy to just... like, want one, but the nature of hardware design has changed significantly since the days of the Dreamcast. If they were making a novelty along the lines of the Astro Mini cabinets or the Genesis mini where they're just cramming a machine on a chip into a fancy shell for easy-to-emulate retro games, then yeah. That's something that they've done before and they could do again.

But SEGA wouldn't have the component company relationships with companies like Intel/AMD/NVidia anymore that they once might have, or even just the straight-up capital, to make hardware that would even remotely compete with Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft on hardware OR software. Further, now that we're outside of the extreme low-interest days of the pre-pandemic, money's gonna be harder for them to risk on a major gamble like that. Having a novelty like Lock-on wouldn't resolve this, and would in fact make the thing more expensive to produce and less likely for third parties to want to make something for it. And considering that game sales continue to move further towards digital distribution, it would quickly become an albatross around their necks.

At best, I can see them producing a device like that weird Atari PC from a little while back, but even then, can they afford to dump money into making games for a novelty console?

[Solister]

As much as I used to defend this idea a while ago, I don't think it would make sense in the current days. I don't want another company to lock their games on an exclusive console that I'll need to pay the price of the console plus the price of the games themselves (many of which I probably already own on different platforms) just because my favorite company did so.

If any, maybe just some launcher to compete with Steam, Epic Games, and GOG where I could have all my SEGA-related stuff in one place, but then, what would be the point if Steam already does the job?

As for the Lock-on, it's not like DLC or checking if a certain game is installed on your computer to open new features isn't a (actually very old) feature.

Even if just for their image of being "on pair" with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, developing a new console would be hella expansive not to mention the insecurity of how many people would trade their current console enterprises for a (relatively) completely newbie (as mentioned, the consoles changed a lot in the nearly 25 years since the Dreamcast).

[Shiny Gems]

8 minutes ago, Solister said:

As much as I used to defend this idea a while ago, I don't think it would make sense in the current days. I don't want another company to lock their games on an exclusive console that I'll need to pay the price of the console plus the price of the games themselves (many of which I probably already own on different platforms) just because my favorite company did so.

If any, maybe just some launcher to compete with Steam, Epic Games, and GOG where I could have all my SEGA-related stuff in one place, but then, what would be the point if Steam already does the job?

As for the Lock-on, it's not like DLC or checking if a certain game is installed on your computer to open new features isn't a (actually very old) feature.

Even if just for their image of being "on pair" with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, developing a new console would be hella expansive not to mention the insecurity of how many people would trade their current console enterprises for a (relatively) completely newbie (as mentioned, the consoles changed a lot in the nearly 25 years since the Dreamcast).

Yep, I agree! Sega has been third party for a while now…

Given how many parties have not made a console of their own, you can probably imagine how expensive that would be.

[Cyb3rkn1ght]

1 minute ago, Shiny Gems said:

you can probably imagine how expensive that would be.

yeah i can see that now...

 

12 minutes ago, Solister said:

but then, what would be the point if Steam already does the job?

and this (Man I have no solid info on this-)

[Wittymations]

It's a risk vs reward thing.

If SEGA games sold well enough in large enough numbers that they could want to reenter the console wars with their own system and felt like people would be excited enough to buy a new SEGA console AND were capable of giving third party devs reason to port their work to that console, they probably would. Their first party games would have smaller development costs knowing their own architecture and wouldn't feel beholden to any assumed trends their games have to follow for specific console players or have to argue with the developers of the console. They could carve out an identity of their own again. There's advantages to it.

There's a huge disadvantage though, like really huge. Hardware manufacturing is really DAMN EXPENSIVE. They'd have to hope people are excited enough, have to compete with three other manufactures, plus PC. And people probably couldn't justify getting a new SEGA console without any interesting longterm gimmick. Besides their loved IPs, Nintendo survives the console wars with pretty well designed features that actually are interesting.

At best, a they can just cash-in on nostalgia, like the mini Genesis. A mini-Dreamcast would excite some people. But it's not a long-term product for most.

Edited April 11 by Wittymations

[GX -The Spindash-]

Just now, Wittymations said:

If SEGA games sold well enough in large enough numbers that they could reenter the console wars with their own system and feel like people would be excited enough to buy a new SEGA console AND give devs reason to port their work to that console, they probably would.

That's also kind of it too. A game selling 3 million units for SEGA is a success. But for many other third-party publishers making full-priced games, 3 million would be seen as a failure.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Not unless they made a straight up PC system like the Steamdeck or ROG Ally, if you ask me. And even then, it depends on the specs and the selling price.

Amazon and Google tried to get in on this and make a console, and they failed. So I doubt Sega could even think of getting back into making consoles and having any success in spite of their brand.

But there is an idea there—micro gaming PCs. I’ve been into small form factor PCs with desktop-level power that you can take with you anywhere. Now, they’re expensive depending on what you get, but the sheer versatility in them would be amazing…but then why bother with Sega when there are other manufacturers already at it?

All in all, that’s a lot of R&D that Sega will have to invest in. They can do it, but that’s not a guarantee it’ll take off.

[kuroX]

I think it would if they had a strong enough list of exclusives. Sega fans are incredibly loyal

[Shiny Gems]

Well, with what I have seen, while I do not know about physical consoles, things like Steam's online market and other things digital seem to be popular nowadays. Heck, overall with digital things, places like malls are shutting down because people prefer online. I can't say for sure how physical consoles will fare against the digital and things like Steam's online marketplace, but even Microsoft said something about going digital once or more than once. I don't think, for those reasons, that now is a good time for Sega to join back in on the console business, anyway.

[Tornado]

Microsoft is the most valuable company in the world and they are having internal meetings for whether they want to parachute out of the market.  International multimedia conglomerate Sony has effectively controlled the entire videogame market for 25 of the past 30 years and even they are suffering so much from spiraling costs that they had to take a hatchet to their entire development stable, including one of their most reliable studios that had just released a 10 million seller.

 

The industry is just too expensive for a company of Sega's size.

[Rabid-Coot]

Feels like sega has a hard enough time selling their games already I don't think adding an extra system purchase on top would help.

[SpeedyChilidogs]

OOo Bro I know if they did I would buy. Real talk tho If Sega were to release a new console I'm sure there would be some people out there to try it. Still, we also gotta think of the competitors and all that would go into it honestly, if they were to make a game specifically made for the console that comes out with its release that could change things, it gotta be really good tho; the main reason why I got a Wii and WiiU lol.  It doesn't have to be a Sonic game either. 

[Maple Syrup]

I think no... Unless it works out some kinks other controllers have. I think many collectors would die for a retro SEGA console though!

[SpeedyChilidogs]

15 minutes ago, Maple Syrup said:

I think no... Unless it works out some kinks other controllers have. I think many collectors would die for a retro SEGA console though!

I know I would !!