Newsflash: Angry Man in Commercials Can’t Sell Sega CD Consoles
In the late 1980’s, Sega became Nintendo’s largest competitor in the video game market. A major selling point of the Genesis was that the games were edgier, more powerful, and, to put it bluntly, not for wimps or losers. Several Sega commercials used metaphors to suggest the differences between Sega and Nintendo, including the display of Sega’s game engine as a racecar that raced against a dilapidated Nintendo milk truck, and a young boy who learned that playing Genesis games would be the best way to combat bullies. Much like the “hardcore” Sega Genesis commercials, the Sega CD followed the same trend. Perhaps the most memorable Sega CD commercial involved a man getting the attention of a gamer through his own TV and yelling, “What do you mean you don’t have one yet? Are you waiting for Nintendo to make it?” While this ad’s motto was “Welcome to the Next Level,” the Sega CD was in no way the system of the future and the commercial instead inadvertently illustrated the system’s flaws.
To a certain extent, these commercials were true and Sega games were not meant for the faint of heart. After all, Sega had a plethora of games such as Mortal Kombat, Streets of Rage, Slaughterhouse, and Shinobi that were exceedingly more violent than anything produced by Nintendo. Despite this, Sega’s sales lagged in comparison to Nintendo’s productivity, mostly because Nintendo appeared to be quite content with marketing its games to all audiences. Sega, on the other hand, aimed for the older and more “extreme” gamers. Because of this, Sega was ready to launch its next piece of hardware just a few years after circulation of the Genesis.
Enter the Sega CD, a project so covert that not even the console’s designers knew they were working on it until the system was unveiled to the public. What was the initial appeal of the Sega CD? It played CD’s, a technological advancement unheard of in the realm of gaming at the time. The system also promised a greater color palette, a huge library of games, and an experience never before witnessed in any video game system. Although the “angry man” commercial was supposed to detail how extreme and advanced the Sega CD was, it really became the only lasting impression of the system. In terms of Aristotle’s definitions of rhetoric, the angry man in the Sega commercial displays an accurate portrayal of forensic oration in that he isn’t advertising the benefits of the Sega CD, but rather attacking a rival company, Nintendo, in an ad that has nothing to do with the creators of Mario.
These attacks on Nintendo and its affiliates initially produced results. The Sega CD worldwide managed to sell six million units before its demise, even though most of the units were sold during its initial release. However, such attack ads eventually only served as a cloak for Sega CD’s flaws. Several gamers immediately fell victim to the rhetoric of the Sega ads while others pointed out that the unit was nothing more than a Sega Genesis that happened to play CD’s. There was a little bit of truth to this matter in that one had to buy a Sega Genesis before he or she could purchase a Sega CD. Unlike the Super Nintendo that sold for a retail price of approximately $200, the Genesis sold for approximately $200 while the Sega CD had a price tag of $300 during its launch.
Nowhere in this commercial is there any mentioning of the price, but if someone had it, they supposedly would be cooler than their friends who owned Nintendo consoles. Yet instead of marketing towards gamers who actually had the funds to purchase both a Genesis and Sega CD, the geniuses at Sega decided to pander to the social miscreants of the time, the broke, pot-smoking, Nirvana-listening, grungy teenagers. Every Sega commercial- - current advertisement included - -consisted of a teenager or group of teenagers coming to terms with becoming Sega fan. Of course, someone had to yell at these teenagers to buy Sega products because they were too stupid (in terms of the actors on-screen) to pick up the “right” system and could be swayed to purchase Super Nintendos without a swift kick to the rear. If these teenagers were too stupid to unleash the “power” of the Sega CD, then how on Earth could they apply for a job and find the necessary funds to invest in Sega? It would seem that Sega’s target audience was in fact the group that still sponged off their parents, and in an era when video games were seen as nothing more than a waste of time as well as very expensive by older generations, Sega’s choice in marketable individuals was suspicious to say the least.
Perhaps gamers could reason (or explain to their parents) that owning a Sega CD would pay dividends because, despite the cost, they would have two systems that would no doubt dominate the market into the years ahead. However, while the Sega CD commercial claimed to be more powerful than the Super Nintendo, others noticed that it was only as powerful as its sister system, the Sega Genesis. Something that was actually shown in the commercial at hand was the games that were promoted by Sega.
Ruggill mentions in “Corporate Cunning” that “a shift in game business that began in the late 1980s and the 1993/94 joint Congressional hearings on game violence contributed to the birth of the game film” (56). Although Rutgill is correct in this assessment, the birth of the film game occurred in 1990-91. Most of these “film games” were not about actual games or even movies based on theatrical releases, but rather full motion videos. In fact, one heavily publicized title known as Night Trap was banned in the United States for suggestive content, even though “T” games by today’s standards are far more risqué. The initial gimmick of this Sega CD commercial was that such full motion videos would be the future of gaming and it would be like controlling a movie. Would Sega actually be able to sell Sega CD’s on the theory that gamers could watch movies on the new system, even though if they really wanted to, gamers could have turned on the TV or have gone to the theater?
Suffice it to say, the full motion videos were not well-received despite Sega’s insistence that the technology would eventually find a gaming niche. This seemed highly improbable considering how grainy the graphics appeared on screen as well as the fact that loading times were atrocious. Furthermore, Sega wasn’t the only company of the era to utilize the CD, for the CD-I by Philips was released in 1991. Despite its asking price of $400-$700, if gamers were truly willing to spend their money on full motion videos, they would have purchased the model designed by Philips. These CD-I FMV’s had no visible grainy graphics and were completely interactive, albeit universally panned. In truth, CD-I was far more capable of utilizing the power of CD’s as Philips produced technology very similar to modern-day DVD’s. However, Sega could have learned from Philips that FMV games were never going to appeal to the typical gamer and both systems failed miserably. Still, when the actor in the commercial asks, “You still don’t own a Sega CD?!” it can be implied that most people recognized that such a pricey investment was not worth the cost of technology that would never survive into the future. Perhaps the target audience wasn’t as dense as Sega originally expected.
The rhetoric of the Sega CD commercial may have captivated a group of supporters, including those who sided with Sega during the era of 16-bit gaming. However, Sega’s seeming reliance on the aforementioned full motion video games resulted in a very limited library. As alluded to earlier, several critics noticed that the Sega CD was nothing more than a modified Genesis. Not only did the Sega CD have very similar graphics to its predecessor, both systems also produced nearly the exact same titles. Pitfall, Echo the Dolphin, Mickey Mania, Streets of Rage, and Golden Axe are examples of games that received little to no modification and yet were highly publicized titles. Naturally, when gamers began to wise up to Sega’s antics, they began to think of other ways to spend their money. Yet, like every system, the Sega CD console had a library of cult hits that flew under the radar. Unfortunately, these titles were not as publicized because the Sega CD soon became unmarketable and Sega had already begun work on the 32X and the Sega Saturn. Not surprisingly, these cult titles were not in the “angry man” commercial either because they arrived late in the Sega CD’s lifetime or because they went against the grain when it came to the “hardcore” nature of the console’s games.
Among these titles included Sonic CD (a game that many people consider to be the greatest Sonic ever), Shining Force CD, Popful Mail, and Lunar: Eternal Blue. One must wonder why Sonic CD was not included in the commercial, considering that Sonic the Hedgehog was Sega’s landmark series that would rival Super Mario Brothers in sales (if only momentarily). If the executives at Sega were willing to spend money on full motion videos, it seems absurd that they would be unwilling to market Sonic CD considering how effective the hedgehog was at drawing in large audiences.
The other three games were exclusive RPG titles for the Sega CD. Role-playing games belonged to a genre that Nintendo marketed long before Sega. In fact, with the exception of these titles (as well as the Phantasy Star and Shining Force series seen on the Genesis), Sega didn’t even venture into the genre. So why weren’t these RPG’s marketed by Sega and added to the company’s commercial lineup? It can be implied that these games specifically catered to the audience that Sega called “uncool” since its creation. These games were cute, contained less violence and more fantasy elements, and employed Japanese animators to draw two-dimensional sprites. As a result, Sega began to create games the same way that Nintendo was doing for years, but it was far too late due to the fact that the Sega CD was discontinued in 1995. In reality, the Sega CD games that many people wanted to play are the ones that generally were not accessible to the public (the days before Amazon were unkind to collectors). Furthermore, several of these classic RPG’s are not available to collectors aside from the option of buying a vintage Sega CD unit that most likely will not operate. Can the “angry man” commercial be blamed solely for Sega CD’s flaws? No, but the ad does show Sega’s arrogance in the gaming market at the time when instead of capitalizing on a wide variety of games, the company catered to those looking for a gaming experience that would quickly outlive its usefulness.
Sadly, no Sega console has ever rivaled Nintendo, including the Genesis which was outsold by nearly twenty million units. The Sega CD was discontinued in 1995 and was followed by the 32X (another Genesis peripheral that died even faster than the Sega CD), thus adding to the company’s financial hardships that suggested a rift between Sega of America and Sega of Japan.
This “angry man” commercial should have set limits as to how Sega should and should not market its games. Instead, the company continued to use inflammatory ads directed towards Nintendo and the wildly successful Sony Playstation. By this time, however, the Sega Saturn wasn’t able to compete with the new gaming giants and the advertisements fell on deaf ears. It wasn’t until Sega developed the Dreamcast when their ads began to focus on their own games and remarkable system capabilities that people began to pay attention. Although the Dreamcast lagged in sales and was eventually discontinued like its predecessors, critics have commented that it was ahead of its time and perhaps faced a premature death.
There are many lessons to learn from Sega’s past investments, primarily the Sega CD. Perhaps the designers should have created fewer games that were exactly like their Genesis counterparts. Maybe technology that is widely panned shouldn’t be the focal point of a company’s new system. It probably would have been a good idea not to release the 32X and Saturn at the exact same time. More RPG’s under Sega’s watch could have benefitted the company by catering to a wide variety of gamers. However, perhaps the most important lesson to learn from Sega’s turbulent past is that abrasive commercials like the one containing an angry man who will jump out of a TV screen and proceed to pummel everyone who refuses to accept how awesome Sega is will only leave much to be desired in terms of gaming once players realize a system’s flaws. We could ask Sega to try again, but thanks to the commercial failures of the Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, and Dreamcast, the company has lost its credibility in terms of making marketable systems.
• “Corporate Cunning and Calculating Congressmen: A Political Economy Of the Game Film.”
• “The 10 Worst-Selling Consoles of All Time.”
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