Sega: ages of innovation

Online gaming and motion sensitivity - why Sega was years ahead of its time

Words: Justin Towell, GamesRadar UK

Innovation is king. Right? Wrong. No matter how great an idea is, if it's too early for the man/woman on the street to appreciate, or for technology to deliver properly, it's never going to succeed. Could Microsoft offer Xbox Live over a 33.6k dial-up modem connection? Could Nintendo sell DS Lite if it only had one-hour battery capacity? Of course not. The jury's still out on Wii as we wait to see how it develops on its initial promise, but the risk there is the same. Innovation is a risky business - and it's been the downfall of many developers. Such as Sega.

Sega was king. In the early nineties, the Genesis was the console to have, before it was challenged by the Super Nintendo. But then something went wrong. Just as Nintendo lost its near monopolous grip on the industry, so Sega suffered from a string of failed consoles and financial losses, until it pulled out of the hardware market altogether in 2001. 

With a whole generation of gamers growing up knowing Sega only as a third-party developer/publisher, GamesRadar looks back to the days when Sega was the biggest name in gaming - when its groundbreaking ideas were up to a decade ahead of their time. Ideas that almost cost it everything it had.

 
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