10 Biggest Risks In Video Games (That Didn't Pay Off)
5. The Sega Saturn And Dreamcast Lose The Console War, Sega Withdraws From Hardware Production
Nowadays the big three in the gaming industry are Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation, but back in the day, you could add Sega to that list as well.
As a hardware manufacturer, Sega enjoyed a large amount of success with its arcade business, then with the Master System in homes, before exploding in popularity when they debuted the Genesis/Megadrive, a strong rival for Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Sega hoped to keep the momentum going with their hardware after the Megadrive's capabilities were no longer good enough, and their successor, the Saturn, was their big hope to do that.
Unfortunately, the Saturn had extremely stiff competition in the form of the original PlayStation. After years of an ongoing price war between them and Sony, the final nail in the coffin came when Nintendo also released the Nintendo 64, effectively killing sales of the Saturn completely.
Not admitting defeat, Sega then unveiled the Dreamcast in 1999. Despite being hailed as being way ahead of its time with built-in internet connectivity and several innovative games, the Dreamcast didn't sell very well, and once again was hit hard by Sony's announcement of the PS2.
In 2001, just two years after the Dreamcast's release, Sega admitted defeat, shut its hardware division and became a software developer for other platforms.