And we now live in a bizarro world where the best way to play Genesis games is on the Nintendo Switch, via its online subscription service. A series of bad business decisions forced Sega to stop making consoles in 2001 after the Dreamcast lost millions of dollars. And, at least in the United States, the plan worked, with the Sega Genesis outselling the SNES at a rate of two to one for several years. With its electric-blue hedgehog and aggressive marketing to teenage boys, Sega positioned itself as the youthful, cooler alternative to Nintendo’s stodgy traditionalism. This kicked off the “Console Wars,” which pitted the two most high-profile video game companies against one another in a bid for the same audience. In response, Nintendo released its own 16-bit console, the Super Nintendo, in 1990. When the Sega Genesis launched in 1988, it was a 16-bit visual feast, with a bright color palette that juxtaposed sharply with the Nintendo Entertainment System’s 8-bit graphics. This feature was originally published on Nov.
