If Sega actually partnered with Sony

Sega was absolutely ruling the video game industry from 1991-1995. Nintendo did in the 80s, but after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on their console the Genesis (or MegaDrive if you don't live in North America), Nintendo was embarassed. Sega would continue to fight with Nintendo releasing banger games like Sonic's sequels Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles as well as Phantasy Star IV, Bomberman '94, and Mortal Kombat II. However, their popularity would take a really long downfall from grace from 1996 with their Sega Saturn console until January 2001 when they announced they would no longer compete in the console market.
Sega would continue to have smashing success in 1994 including the release with Sonic & Knuckles with their new lock-on technology that when you combie Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, you get Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Wow! Sony started video game competition in 1994 with their Playstation, which made the downfall of Nintendo and more importantly Sega go QUICKLY. What if I told you Sega almost teamed up with Sony? That's right, two rivals almost teamed up. And that didn't happen due to the Japanese Sega staff. See, Nintendo almost teamed up with Sony, but they declined too, so lemme explain. Sony staff came down to Sega of America and asked them if they wanted to partner up for a potential CD-based video game console. Tom Kalinske, who was president of Sega of America at that time, approved of the idea. But there was one problem in his way. Sega of Japan.
Sega of Japan did not agree with the idea of partnering up with Sony, as they thought Sony didn't knew how to make consoles, so the Sega Sony partnership was cancelled. Kalinske later left Sega in 1996. Sony later released the Playstation in 1994 and sold over 100 million copies, a decision that Sega and Nintendo would regret. And then you know the story. Nintendo would continue to be popular while Sega would go into a downward spiral until they retired from consoles in 2001. BUT. What if there was an alternate universe where Sega DID team up with Sony, beating Nintendo, and becoming two of the kings of the video game industry? Well, this is my What If page and this is "What If Sega actually partnered with Sony".
== First Meeting ==
The year is 1993, and Sega is buffed with money. With the success of their Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and other games releasing on their consoles Genesis (or MegaDrive), Sega CD, and Master System, they were dominating the video game industry, beating Nintendo. At that time, Sony was a fairly well-known company, producing movies, but decided to produce video game hardware to sell on the market. Sony pitched the idea of a CD-add on for the SNES, but Nintendo declined to partner with them.
Then, Sony goes to Sega. Sony executives came down to Sega's president at the time Tom Kalinske and said to him "Hey Tom, we really don't like Nintendo. You don't like Nintendo. We have this little studio down in Santa Monica working on video games, we don't know what to do with it. We'd like Sega's help in training our guys. And we think that the optical disc will be the best format. Tom agreed and Sega and Sony soon began partnering up together. They invested in two developers, Sony Imagesoft and Digital Pictures. Engineers at Sony and Sega began working on a CD-based video game console. Kalinske pitched the idea to Sega of Japan, but you might think they say no, but this is my universe. They agreed on the idea and welcomed Sony.
== Public Look ==
In May 1995, during the first ever E3 convention, Kalinske and then Sony president Ken Kutaragi announced to the public that they'd be teaming up. They had not gave it a name yet, but had called it, the Sega/Sony hardware system. On the spot, Kalinske came up with the name for the hardware system. Kalinske contradicted the former statement and called the hardware system, the Dreamcast. News of the new, upcoming Dreamcast hardware was being spread all around the world, with many fans excited. 
In December of that latter year, in an attempt to beat Nintendo with their upcoming Nintendo 64, they released the first ever teaser for the Dreamstation, including a new Sonic game, titled Sonic X-treme. They set it for an release in NA for April 11, 1996, JP on April 29, and Europe on May 3, with a price of $190, compared to Nintendo 64's $199.
== Dreamstations ==
=== Dreamcast (1994-2000) ===
When the system first released on April 11, it was a massive hit. During its first three days on the market, it had already sold 2 million consoles at the time. It was a win-win for Sega and Sony and a loss for Nintendo. Within a week of releasing, Sonic X-treme had released on the console on April 19, the console had been selling ten million units already. When the Nintendo 64 released, it sold one million units in its first week, though Super Mario 64 had made it more popular, with Nintendo hoping to catch up to the Dreamstation. Sonic X-treme and another new game, The Adventure of Crash Bandicoot, featuring the debut of the famous title character, had both reached three million units sold. 
Sega and Sony were making millions and millions of dollars. Nintendo, while not being able to catch up to Sega or Sony, did decently with the Nintendo 64 reaching 4.21 million units sold. At that point, the N64 was selling VERY poorly. The most popular game on the unit was Super Mario 64. By its first two months in release, the Dreamcast had sold 29.7 million units. Nintendo 64 however, only sold 17.9 million. Nintendo was losing a lot of money, and they needed to do something quickly. They released Donkey Kong 64 as well as Mario Kart 64 but while they were very moderate successes, launching the system up to 23.1 million units, it still couldn't catch up to the Dreamstation. In total, the Dreamcast sold 72 million units while the Nintendo 64 sold 52 million units.
=== Dreamcast 2 (1999-2009) ===
In 1997, Sega and Sony announced the Dreamcast 2, a console which would blow the first one out of the water with abilities such as:
* Access to the inernet with the new DreamNet
* Being able to play movies and TV shows on DVD.
* Backwards compatibility with previous Sega and Sony consoles such as the Genesis and previous Dreamcast
* Compilation of Sega and Sony's Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot franchises
* Came with new handheld console called D.C. Portable
* Electronic devices such as PCs be ported to the Dreamcast 2
* New Sonic game called Sonic Adventure set to release on the console
While Nintendo announced new capabilites to the Nintendo 64 such as the Nintendo 64DD, which was a disk drive. Bunch of Nintendo, Sega, and Sony fans were at war. The Dreamcast 2 had included hype from fans for many games such as Crash Bandicoot 128, Ecco the Dolphin II, and more notably Sonic Adventure. When the Dreamcast 2 released on store shelves, it was a banger (thats what she said). It had 13 million units sold on its first day alone, and in its week, ended up selling 25 million. This was proof that Sega and Sony had truly established themselves in the video game console hardware industry. Nintendo had still been salling units of the Nintendo 64, especially when it got more popular when Super Smash Bros, 64 released.
When Sonic Adventure released on the same day the Dreamcast 2 released on September 9, 1999 (9/9/99), it was an absolute success. Sonic X-treme was moderate, but Adventure blew X-treme out of the water, selling 5 million units on its first day. By 2001, the Dreamcast 2 sold 85 million units while the Nintendo 64 sold 64 (get it?) million units. Xbox had came into the game and it sold 17 million on its first day, with Microsoft making sure that Sega, Sony, and Nintendo had serious competition.
=== Dreamcast 3 (2005-2015) ===
=== Dreamcast 4 (2015-present) ===
=== Dreamcast 5 (2020-present) ===
== The Real Truth ==
Want me to tell you the real truth? Okay, fine. Sega didn't end up teaming with Sony because of Sega of Japan and when Sony released the Playstation in 1994, it was an absolute banger, going on to sell over 100 million copies while Nintendo was in second place. However, Sega had fallen from grace in been in third place. In 1998, Sega announced the Dreamcast, a new console that would replace the Saturn. But fans of Sega weren't fans of them anymore and had either moved onto Nintendo or Sony. This is because of Sega's multiple failed consoles such as the Sega Nomad, the Sega CD, 32X, and of course the decisions they made with the Saturn. Even the Genesis (which then again, was a success) couldn't beat the Super Nintendo by a few million units! And this heavily damaged Sega's reputation. The Dreamcast was doing good for a while, but it went downhill in 2000 with the upcoming release of Sony's new Playstation 2. 
And when it released, it was the end of Sega at that moment. And of course with Microsoft joining the battle with their then-upcoming Xbox, that was the final nail in the coffin. And the GameCube. Don't forget that. Sega's at the time president Isao Okawa thought of ending the Dreamcast and turn into third-party developers but Sega of Japan employees were obviously not happy with that. I mean, they made one of the most biggest mistakes in Sega's 63 year history by not teaming up with Sony so it makes sense. Wow, way to go Sega of Japan. Sega was losing money because of the failure of the Dreamcast and losing billions of dollars. Barley anybody had been buying their consoles while ten years ago, everybody was talking Sega, Sonic, and the Genesis. They had to stop this. So they had to do it. 
On January 31, 2001, Sega announced to the public that they would no longer compete in the console hardware business due to the failure of the Dreamcast. They announced that they would switch to being third-party developers and make consoles for Nintendo, Xbox, and Sony (even though they didn't mention Sony at a press conference I saw online. I'd like to imagine that Sega was so mad at Sony that they didn't even acknowledge them) and that they would discontinue the Dreamcast, which was only two and a half years old at the time. But tradegy struck. On March 16 of that same year, the president of Sega Isao Okawa died. Before Isao died, he loaned Sega all of the debt that he owed them and it was able to save the company from going bankrupt. Okay. Can we just take a solid ten seconds to clap for Isao Okawa please? I mean, he literally saved an entire company from going bankrupt from lending them all of his money. His story isn't talked about enough in my opinion.
Nowadays Sega is doing fine now. I'd even say they're going great. With the successes of Sonic the Hedgehog and their other franchises and buying Rovio, which also means they are buying Angry Birds (imagine a crossover game with Sonic and Red the Bird that would be fire), they're doing really great! They develop games for Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox. Nintendo, Xbox, and Sony still make consoles of course. Xbox is the least popular one. Sony, while they're still popular, aren't even getting to the same level of NINTENDO. With the Nintendo Switch, the console has sold 125.62 MILLION UNITS, MY GOD. Looks like Nintendo is back to the popularity they had back in the 80s and the 2000s (with the Wii), and that's good! So yeah. There's a good ending for all these companies. Sega is still alive and in third-party, Sony is still as popular as they were with their Playstation 5, and Nintendo is killing it in the console wars now! Xbox however...yeah no. Even Microsoft admitted that they lost the console wars, they've sold like 21 million units. A happy ending for most of these companies. Nintendo and Sega (Mario and Sonic) went from being enemies to being friends. That's wholesome!
Although many people want Sega to come back into the console business. I do want them to, but I also don't. Here's why. Okay so Sega is not familiar in consoles with Gen Zs. I mean, I bet most people born in 2011 don't even know that Sega used to make consoles and only recongnize them as the guys who make Sonic games. So Sega would have to get pretty familiar with others. Plus, Sega would lose their friendship with Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox, and after being friends with them for 22 years, I wouldn't wanna break the friendship just to make a new console. And the last reason, it would flop. Sure, there are many fans who are willing to buy another Sega console if they had the chance, but they would NEVER rise up to the popularity of Sony or Nintendo, or heck maybe even Xbox! Plus, if the console doesn't sell well, it will be the Dreamcast and Saturn all over again when they almost went bankrupt, except they actually will go bankrupt this time! Maybe a Dreamcast Mini or a Saturn Mini would be a good idea since they are not actual consoles, just remakes of their fathers. But an actual console? They'd go bankrupt. So yeah I went off topic for like, an entire paragraph, but that's why I think its a bad idea for Sega to re-enter the console business! 
Some of you may disagree, some of you may agree, but just remember. It's just an opinion of mines and whatever your opinion is, I respect it. So that ends my Real Life section, and its time for my Fantasy section.
== The Fantasy ==
== Sources ==
* This source is from Gaming Historian on YouTube.
Category:What If?