If they make physical exclusive games, unique hardware, and at a decent price, maybe. But if they essentially just make a Sega branded Steam Machine, I see no point. If a console does nothing to differentiate itself from the rest of the market, there’s no reason to really get it over a PC.
That’s the problem Xbox is having and is the same one Playstation is about to have when it drops the disc drive. Look at what Xbox did with the ROG ally. Instead of making an actual unique Xbox device, they just took something that already existed and slapped their branding on it. What reason would anyone ever really have to go for that instead of a less restricted option for cheaper?
kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.world 5 days ago
The Xbox is almost the exact opposite of what I’m talking about, and I think that’s their problem. There’s nothing special about it, it has no exclusives, and it doesn’t have access to the practically infinite number of pc games, mods, emulators, etc.
So what I’m proposing is just a prebuilt pc. A prebuilt pc with a unique case, distro, and maybe a cartridge slot of some description. And with the cultural cache of a company like sega, I think it could easily earn its spot as a prebuilt living room gaming and media pc, much like the steam machine.
Guitar@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I think just a prebuilt PC would be pretty niche for the average person. I think they’d need to do something a little more innovative to compete. A cart slot could be one part that could help it’s appeal. But I think they’d need to give it a controller and make exclusives for it. And maybe include some new kind of feature that other systems don’t have. If it’s just a PC in a Sega case, unless it’s a great price, the only reason to really get one would be nostalgia.
kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.world 5 days ago
It would be niche, but it would be relatively low investment and low risk. Going full console with exclusives is extremely high investment and thus high risk. They would have to sell enough consoles via those exclusives to make up for what they would make selling the game cross platform, which seems very unlikely. As a publisher, this would also severely hurt relationships with current clients. These are all reasons why they got out of the console game and pivoted to being a game publisher back in the day. I don’t see them making that mistake twice.
Guitar@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I totally agree, I’m just speaking hypothetically. I don’t see much point in them getting back into hardware unless they went big. Most likely, they will just stick to making games unfortunately.