A lot of people have talked about Sega getting back into the Console market – myself included. Alas that doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon, but suppose it did, could Sega re-enter the market and survive?
Hardware
The last few console generations have all been about expensive custom chips and proprietary platforms. It was the advent of this that made Sega leave the market in the first place. Back then designing a console was exceptionally expensive because you had to source so much of the internals yourself. But the current generation changed all that, the PS4 and One are, largely, based around the PC architecture. Sure there are some custom solutions in there but it’s not even close to the old proprietary builds of yesteryear.
All this means that the cost of entry is at the lowest it’s been for decades. Working with a CPU partner (both AMD and Intel provide both CPU and GPU solutions) you can build a competitive console relatively cheaply and quickly. And you can make it even cheaper if you decide to skimp on power and go for an ARM based solution like so many Kickstarters have. A bit of custom work and a decent GPU solution and you won’t have the non-mobile phone in a box feel that surrounds the existing ARM based solutions.
Software
Sega had a hard time with the Dreamcast. What was a fantastic console was let down by a few key publishers (*cough* EA *cough*). Lacking some of those popular titles the Dreamcast was easy meat for the PS2 and then, later, XBox. Things have changed hugely though, Sega is itself a huge publisher now with first party developers making pretty much every genre of game. And allowing easy indie support would fill in a lot of the gaps. Plus I imagine EA are over their snit-fit now and would push their sports titles across – a factor that was, at least, partially responsible for the DCs early death.
The Competition
The last time Sega made a console they were in a three way battle against Nintendo and Sony. In fact, in reality, they were in a battle against Sony. The PS1 had been such an incredible hit that it had redefined the console as a cool device, opening the market to an incredible degree and was undoubtably the catalyst for it’s current size (dwarfing the movie industry). So Nintendo were very much on the back foot and really starting it’s current strategy of not competing and relying on the handheld market, a market that it dominated and still does. Microsoft were yet to release the original XBox and were an unknown quantity.
This time around Nintendo is pretty much out of the Home console game, their handheld devices remain strong but their business is taking a hit from maintaining the flagging Wii U. Sony emerged as runner up in the last gen battle but started incredibly strongly in the next one with the PS4. Microsoft were the out and out winners of the last generation (based on total revenue and game sales) but have had a difficult launch with the One. So Sega would be entering an effective 3 way battle. They’d probably immediately take 3rd place solely because of legacy feelings amongst long time gamers but getting second or even first place would be a hell of an uphill battle – but maybe 3rd would be enough. With enough game sales they could easily make a profit and the number of popular titles Sega has the IP for (Total war series anyone) they could easily take a few converts.
In Summary
Sega could release a console now for less money than at anytime in the last 3, possible 4 generations. Relying on off the shelf components with some custom bridging and security hardware they could quickly have a machine that will be close to the boxes from MS and Sony.
Sega have a huge library of IP that could easily be ported from the PC. They could potentially have the largest release catalogue of any console release ever and even double or triple the library of the current gen machines (not a hard task given the current slow release schedule). Working with indie developers from the beginning could guarantee a steady stream of releases. Marketing would almost write itself and 3rd party publishers should welcome another front with a similar architecture.
