I do a quick Google sometimes and see what I can find along the lines of "Will Sega make a comeback" or "Will Sega make a new console".
It's full of people like me, people who grew up in the 90's playing on a MegaDrive (Genesis for those of you out of the UK) Saturn and (my personal favourite console of all time Dreamcast).
First of, many people like to hope that Sega will make a comeback (myself included), but realistically speaking can they actually do it?
Answer: YES
Sega for the past years have been making money solely from Sonic, Football Manger, Rome Total War and from releasing old classics such as Sonic onto the Google Play Store / iOS.
Strictly speaking, Sega can indeed afford to do it...but I know what you're thinking, there's going to be a but... you're right.
the but is... it would take a lot (if not pretty much every single bit of capital) that Sega has meaning that it'll be a make or break for Sega i.e. no "if this fails we can go back to software like the last few years". As a logical thinker, this is one of the biggest reasons I don't think they would do it, it's a HUGE risk.
Moving on, I'm surprised this hasn't popped up on any posts (that I've found anyway)...
Who out of today's generation knows who Sega are?
If you say to a 12 year old "Do you know who Sonic the Hedgehog is"? They'll mostly respond with "Yes". Fair enough, you're now thinking why did I post that?
Well If I said "do you know who makes Sonic the Hedgehog?", again I would think that a 12 year old would say "It's Sega isn't it?". Again so far my original argument of "today's generation won't know who Sega are" isn't looking to great, but then think about this...
If I said "What games are you playing these days?" to a child or teenager aged between 12-16, they'll most likely turn round and say "Call of Duty" or "Grand Theft Auto" or perhaps even Halo, Assassins Creed or Skyrim. Now at this point I can almost guarantee you're thinking that these games are all 18+ but when you're next in a game shop or a car boot etc. just look around and you'll see that due to the marketing, their friends, older siblings or perhaps even parents etc. They'll know about these games (or at least of their existence), and from what I've witnessed first hand for the last couple of years now, is that most of today's released games designed for an older audience i.e. 18+ are what really captures the younger players eye.
Coming back to the original point...Sonic, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Sega Rally etc. are these the sorts of games that the youth would still be interested in? or are they just amazing game memories stuck in my generations past.
To conclude with this point, would games that are adventurous, fun, arcade and overall generally an easy-going pick up and play game appeal to today's audience? If not, it would again mean that Sega (supposing they released a new console) would immediately flop, as who would want to play Sonic Adventure 3 instead of an online multiplayer shoot em up?
Could Sega compete with the likes of Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation?
My honest opinion...No, not a chance. Microsoft's original Xbox was OK, not amazing, not ground breaking, not wow this is superior to the PlayStation 2 etc. but just OK.
However, when Microsoft released the Xbox 360 in 2006, this made them go from the new guy in the console wars to the top guy in the console wars.
Pretty soon it was clear that PS2 graphics went from hero to zero, as the new generation of consoles had arrived. I remember the first time I played on an Xbox 360, I played Just Cause and when parachuting and looking down on a golden beach, crystal clear blue water with rippling and wave effects, lush green foliage etc. I knew this was going to blow peoples minds...the graphics were just incredible!
Years later and there's questions on "Who's graphics are better" still to this day.
Getting back to the title question, could Sega compete with the likes of Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation? well...as I said at the beginning, from my point of view definitely not.
Again since 2006 Microsoft and later Sony (when releasing the PS3) have dominated the console wars, no longer is it Sega Vs. Nintendo, but now it's Microsoft Vs. Sony.
Xbox and PS3 all make games with incredible graphics, realistic features, lifelike simulations etc.
Seeing Sega pop it's head up and saying "hey, we've made a new console 14 years later and here's a new Shenmue game exclusive to our own console"...umm, hooray for those that have been waiting years, here's 1 million sales. Then what? how could Sega enter the market 14 years later with many of today's youth not knowing who they are fully and offer Sonic, Shenmue and other Sega exclusives AND regularly maintain the same 6-7 year lifecycle for their console?
The other thing is that if Sega did think "We need to appeal this to the original generation" Then (again from my opinion) if Sega (like Xbox and PlayStation) targeted the culture of today's generations love of more violent and shooter games to be on their platform it would make me think (personal opinion remember) that they were just sell outs and lose all respect for what was once the giant of gaming. On the other hand (welcome Nintendo for the first mention in this post), if they decided to be like Nintendo and be targeted for family, youngsters, youth and adults (overall an all round audience), they could again see themselves be on a rocky road. Sure it'd be great at first like the Wii was (Wii Sports, New Mario Bros, Zelda) etc. but where has the Wii got to now? it's depreciated in cost value faster in comparison to the Xbox and PS3, and again a lot of today's youth don't want Mario and Zelda, they want Call of Duty and GTA because it's what all their friends and family play.
What could a new console bring?
Megadrive - brought 16bit home gaming, exclusive games and my personal favourite... a built in headphone jack complete with volume slider.
Saturn - ported arcade classics such as House of The Dead, Die Hard Arcade, Virtua Cop etc. as well as a built in CD player
Dreamcast - First console with online play, a VMU, the best graphics (at the time of it's release).
New console - ?
What could a new console from Sega bring? what more could you want from a video game console?
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