In the early 90s, for a brief moment, they were on top of the world, but for a while now (where they "went wrong" depends on who you ask, I've seen answers ranging anywhere from 1995 to 2005), they've been sullied by poor decision after poor decision.

Unlike Nintendo they don't seem to believe in quality control and "taking your time" as much, and rush out poorly-made games hastily(*cough*Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06, Sonic Boom). And other than the Genesis they've had little to no success in the console market (even if the Saturn and the Dreamcast were good consoles, they still sold rather poorly), which of course led to them retiring from that market.

As much as anybody is going to say it, Sega has truly been in the crapper for over 20 years now. Ever since they released the Sega Saturn in 1995, they were going through bad decisions which included the discontinuation of the Genesis, and the abandonment of several franchises. Everyone in the company thought that Sega was going to be fine with Sonic, but it was the only franchise that they gave actual respect to. Other add-ons such as the Sega 32x are also responsible for the company to be in massive turmoil. To me, Sega's golden age was truly from 1991 to 1995. At the time, they were already growing fierce competition with Nintendo, along with making several consoles that were more advanced. Especially with their library for the Sega Genesis.

For example:

1991: Sonic 1, Streets of Rage, Shining in the Darkness, Decap Attack, Toejam & Earl, and Golden Axe II
1992: Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2, and Kid Chameleon
1993: Shining Force, Shinobi 3, NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Ecco the Dolphin, and McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure
1994: Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Shining Force II, Mortal Kombat II, Earthworm Jim, Castlevania: Bloodlines, The Lion King (game), and Dynamite Headdy
1995: Ristar, Comix Zone, and Vectorman

However, Nintendo trusted their fans by heart, and had more franchises than any Sega fan would recognize. Then came several graphic chips such as the Super FX that made the Super Nintendo more superior, compared to the Genesis. By 1995 and 1996, Nintendo was already becoming more of a powerhouse than Sega ever was in the early 90s. This was a big deal towards Sega, since they were already trying to make a better console that would kick Sega's ass. Nintendo's response to the Saturn was the Nintendo 64, which gave out a better opportunity to play in polygons instead of pixels. It gave away Sega a lot of money, but they were still trying.

But after six years of struggling against Nintendo, they decided to quit the console business for good, and went on to become a third party company. At this time, they were already making games for the GBA and Gamecube with the Sonic Advance trilogy along with Sonic Adventure DX. They were going through a renaissance with those games, but it ended shortly after one game that changed their history. Sonic '06. When the game was released, a lot of Sonic fans were outraged and considered S06 to be one of the worst games ever made. This gave out a huge embarrassment towards not only Sonic, but Sega as well. They couldn't do anything to regain the trust that they had 15 years ago with the Genesis. They already lost hope with their biggest icon, and it continued to be that way ever since.

Sega doesn't even make consoles anymore and they've said that they are not making consoles ever again.

Sega doesn't even make consoles anymore and they've said that they are not making consoles ever again.


I thought I heard that before. Personally, I think Sega isn't going to rise up from their fame. So I wouldn't be surprised if they don't want to make consoles anymore.

1995 is when they were going down hill, but up until 2005 they were still making decent games. Between 1996-2004 you'd still find decent games like Sonic Adventure, Jet Set Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Space Channel 5, OutRun 2, Phantasy Star Onliine, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, F-Zero GX( the F-Zero series is Nintendo, but Sega was the developer of this game and people see it as the best one in the series), Panzar Dragoon Saga, Crazy Taxi, Samba De Amigo, OutTrigger among other great games. So in terms of games they were fine. However, I'm not sure why around 2005 they just went downhill. Maybe it was new management or something.

As for will Sega ever regain their spark? In my opinion? No (or at least not that I can see right now). In my opinion Sega's best console was the Dreamcast, but even after sometime since the Dreamcast's death a lot of the qualities of the Dreamcast games went into their 3rd party games for the PS2, NGC, and XB. But what's funny today is that western regions barely get any Sega titles that aren't Sonic games now. Also doesn't help that Sega has merged with Sammy (becoming Sega-Sammy) meaning that how the company works has been altered a bit. So the Sega from the late 1980s/1990s/early 2000s may not comeback.

Bob Seger has more chance of a come back!

1995 is when they were going down hill, but up until 2005 they were still making decent games. Between 1996-2004 you'd still find decent games like Sonic Adventure, Jet Set Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Space Channel 5, OutRun 2, Phantasy Star Onliine, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, F-Zero GX( the F-Zero series is Nintendo, but Sega was the developer of this game and people see it as the best one in the series), Panzar Dragoon Saga, Crazy Taxi, Samba De Amigo, OutTrigger among other great games. So in terms of games they were fine. However, I'm not sure why around 2005 they just went downhill. Maybe it was new management or something.

As for will Sega ever regain their spark? In my opinion? No (or at least not that I can see right now). In my opinion Sega's best console was the Dreamcast, but even after sometime since the Dreamcast's death a lot of the qualities of the Dreamcast games went into their 3rd party games for the PS2, NGC, and XB. But what's funny today is that western regions barely get any Sega titles that aren't Sonic games now. Also doesn't help that Sega has merged with Sammy (becoming Sega-Sammy) meaning that how the company works has been altered a bit. So the Sega from the late 1980s/1990s/early 2000s may not comeback.


The Dreamcast is debatable if it was Sega's best console. It did have an interesting controller, was compatible with Windows CE, and had several classics such as Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, Shenmue, and Crazy Taxi. But it didn't have a good lifespan when it was discontinued in early 2001. It's actually sad that a console that had great opportunities was discontinued in less than 2 years. However, they were great as a third party developer for a few years. The last truly good games ever made by Sega (in my opinion) was the Sonic Advance trilogy. There's no doubt that 95% of Sonic fans liked those games, even if it was distributed for a Nintendo console.