Sega sure does have a lot of dormant franchises (pic: Sega)

A reader is frustrated with being a Sega fan and worries that the publishers is never going to regain its former glory unless it’s bought by someone else.

I’ve just bought Sonic Origins Plus, which must be at least the fifth time I’ve bought the original Sonic The Hedgehog Mega Drive games, going all the way back to the early 90s. At that time the Mega Drive, and by association Sega, was the coolest thing imaginable and everyone I knew was deeply entrenched in the console war with Nintendo, even though I only knew a couple of people that even owned a SNES.

It wasn’t that we hated Nintendo, really, it was that we loved Sega and yet within just a couple of years they’d ruined it all and were absolutely embarrassed by Nintendo and Sony, in their attempts to switch to a new generation of consoles. One minute they made the most popular console and games in the world, and had tons of state-of-the-art arcade machines, the next the only thing they’re making money from is PC strategy games and terrible Sonic The Hedgehog games.

Sega has been an industry joke for pretty much three decades now and while I should’ve moved on long ago I still, somehow, can’t really believe it. In my mind Sega still equals quality and yet I know that in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth. Occasionally there’s hope that the next Sonic game will actually be good, or that they’re going to bring back one of their other classic franchises, but it never happens. Sega are losers and apart from those precious few years in the 90s they always have been.

It’s hard to admit that, because not only is that the complete opposite of how I remember things as a kid, but I keep hoping that they’re just on the cusp of a big comeback; that they’re going to have made enough money from all their boring PC games to bring back Golden Axe or Shinobi or anything else interesting. They even tease it occasionally, with things like this super game nonsense, but it never turns out to be anything.

Just think of all the classic franchises Sega owns: Shinobi, OutRun, Altered Beast, Phantasy Star, Skies Of Arcadia, Space Harrier, After Burner, Shining Force, Thunder Force, Golden Axe, Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon, and Jet Set Radio.

Who other than Nintendo, and maybe Capcom, can boast that size and range of classic games? And there’s probably tons I’m missing out as well. And what have they made in recent years? Nothing. Only Streets Of Rage and they got an indie developer to do that and had nothing to do with it themselves.

Perhaps that’s for the best but I don’t care who makes the games as long as they actually get made. I think for a long time it’s been obvious that the only way any of this is going to happen, is if someone buys Sega, but because they’re owned by Sammy it’s all too complicated and expensive for anyone to bother with. Plus Nintendo, who are probably the best ones to buy them, don’t really like doing that sort of thing.

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I know it sounds ironic, to want Sega’s archrivals to buy them, so they can make their own games better than they can, but that’s how low they’ve sunk and, frankly, they deserve that final humiliation. I don’t think any games company has failed to realise their own potential quite as much as Sega has in the last few decades and it pains me to admit it.

Will they ever redeem themselves? I don’t know, but even while I hope they do I can’t help thinking of that definition of insanity quote: ‘doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.’ That’s Sega with their Sonic games and fans like me hoping that one day they’ll get it right.

By reader Gordon

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A reader is frustrated at being a Sega fan and worries the publisher will never regain its former glory unless it’s bought by someone else.