Derrick,
At 09:46 AM 7/31/01 -0400, Derrick Castiglione wrote:
>ok Ian i see what your saying But didn't Nintendo themselves ADMIT that they
>messed up reliseing the SNES so late allowing other companes (NEC and Sega)
>to get a toehold in the industry
I don't recall Nintendo ever officially going on record and saying that,
but I could've missed it if they did. However, Nintendo head man Yamauchi
is very stubborn and extremely self confident, so I'd be surprised if he'd
either sanction such comments to be made publicly or not know about them if
they were made. As for NEC and Sega getting a toehold in the industry, I
think Sega definitely did with the Genesis, but NEC got nowhere in North
America with the TG-16 or Duo. They were never a force but essentially just
an afterthought. I think it'd be fair to say that all Turbo platforms in
North America were abysmal failures.
>you have to admit they didn't plan that! i wonder if SEGA would have left
>the hardware industry sooner if the SNES and Genesis came out at the
same time.
I think Sega would've stuck around if the SNES had been released at the
same time as the Genesis. Back when the Genesis launched Sega actually had
a pretty sharp, savvy guy in charge named Tom Kalinske. He seemed to
realize the importance of positioning key titles properly and advertising
not only heavily but intelligently. I think most of us remember the "Sega!"
ad campaign pretty well. Ads like that moved games which, in turn, moved
hardware. Unfortunately, once Kalinske left Sega the company was never a
force in North America again. I think that has a lot to do with his
successors - Bernie Stolar and Peter Maine - who I have to admit I don't
think much of, insofar as their abilities to lead Sega (and obviously my
feelings have been validated by Sega's failure under both their watches).
What could've been for Sega.....sigh.
Best,
-Ian