The Big Boo, I have a correction to make, SEGA has announced that a new Sonic game will be made exclusive for X-Box [and yes, X-Box is a big piece of junk].
The real reason for SEGA's demise is this:
After the failure of SEGA's Saturn [due to the phenominal success of the original PlayStation], SEGA was suffering both financially and economically. They knew that the only way for the company to survive was to make a risky comback to the console market. And they did so by creating the Dreamcast.
SEGA knew that in todays world, graphics usually outnumber gameplay, so they fitted their system with a powerful [at the time] 128-bit graphics processor and Dolby digital sound.
SEGA also created plans for a new feature that had never been previously used in other consoles at the time: Internet connectivity. SEGA fitted their Dreamcast with a built-in modem for "online gaming", the first console to ever have this feature.
When the Dreamcast finally launched in 1998, it unexpectedly broke all of the sales records that had been previously dominated by the original PlayStation. Many people [including SEGA] praised the Dreamcast as the "ultimate gaming system".
SEGA seemed to have the gaming industry in the palm of their hand. Even Sony was starting to feel the crunch, as the PlayStation1 was becoming old news [it was released in 1995]. Sony then began plans for their "next-generation" system: the PlayStation2.
That's when things unexpectedly turned for the worse. When the public learned of Sony's plans for the PlayStation2, the hype began all over again, only to a more extreme amount. The following year [1999] passed by, and things seemed to be going well for SEGA.
But when the year 2000 came along, SEGA knew that their Dreamcast wouldn't survive the PS2 launch [which was in October of that year]. People were already selling their Dreamcasts in order to pay the $300 for the PS2. When the PS2 launched, it was total chaos. 500,000 units were sold in ONE DAY [I remember all of the news channels reporting it], a huge amount compared to the Dreamcast's launch.
From that point on, SEGA's future went downhill. Even the recent releases of "Phantasy Star Online 2", "Crazy Taxi 2" and Sonic Adventure 2" failed to lure the attention of the PS2 lovers.
Finally in January of 2001, SEGA announced that they would quit production of their Dreamcast and instead make games for other companies as an independent 3rd-party publisher.
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Edited by - Mario Maniac on 7/18/2002 6:45:59 PM
