WI: Sega PlayStation

After the deal between Nintendo and Sony went under in OTL, Sony tried to approach Sega with a similar proposal for the development of a new CD-based console: Sega of America's Tom Kalinske was intrigued by the proposal, but his Japanese counterpart Hayao Nakayama wasn't.

What if Nakayama had somehow agreed to a partnership with Sony, providing the ATL Sega Saturn with the 2D capabilities of the OTL Saturn and the 3D capabilities of the OTL PlayStation?

320px-ControlPadPS2Black.jpg
 
After the deal between Nintendo and Sony went under in OTL, Sony tried to approach Sega with a similar proposal for the development of a new CD-based console: Sega of America's Tom Kalinske was intrigued by the proposal, but his Japanese counterpart Hayao Nakayama wasn't.

What if Nakayama had somehow agreed to a partnership with Sony, providing the ATL Sega Saturn with the 2D capabilities of the OTL Saturn and the 3D capabilities of the OTL PlayStation?

320px-ControlPadPS2Black.jpg

Very interesting idea but yeah as Nivek has said I'm working on a timeline for this on my own. I'm just ridiculously slow doing a lot of things because of various factors XD. I can definitely help ya out/work with you/insert similar wording here.
 
Does this mean you two are going to kill off Yuji Naka c. 2000 as well? :p
Sega own miyamoto would be yu suzuki( the arcade genius and shenmue would be his own Zelda) when naka would be more a sakurai with iwata shades as talented in design and programing. Sonic did suffered in both when he leave.

But i can't say more...
 
Sega own miyamoto would be yu suzuki( the arcade genius and shenmue would be his own Zelda) when naka would be more a sakurai with iwata shades as talented in design and programing. Sonic did suffered in both when he leave.

But i can't say more...

I was aware and I was making a joke since he was so influential to Sonic. ;)

In all seriousness, regarding the OP: I think it puts Nintendo in a very precarious spot. 3rd party devs even this early on hated working with Nintendo due to... well, I think how they tend to treat them is pretty well known by now, but having Yamauchi in charge didn't help (like it came out recently when Squaresoft told him they were having problems with FF7 on the N64 and wanted to move to the PlayStation he told them to pound sand and never come back). Sega more or less always had the better working relationship in this era so far as I know and coupled with Sony's CD factories that's a deadly combo indeed. But Nintendo might be forced to adopt the disc medium much sooner because of that fact.

Regardless, Nintendo's strength is in its IPs and, much as I do like Sega, they simply don't have the same 'oomph' that Nintendo does, especially in pop culture. I could see Nintendo merging with another company or seeking assistance from them in the future if things get bad enough. Microsoft seems like the perennial possibility given Bill Gates' interest in the video game industry or even Bandai, which there were talks of a merger OTL but they flat lined due to questions regarding monopolies in Japan, or someone else entirely. Alternatively, Nintendo unlike OTL might become more aggressive in acquiring 3rd party studios to compensate for the better relationship Sega and Sony would have. Capcom and Squaresoft are distinct possibilities if they could somehow convince them; perhaps even Game Freak to secure development for Pokémon if butterflies don't land on it. Western alternatives might be id Software or Maxis as they were on pretty good terms with them too. Maybe they snap up Rareware permanently? Decide not to screw over DMA Design?

One wonders what that means for NEC and The 3DO Company or, heck, even Atari too.
 
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I was aware and I was making a joke since he was so influential to Sonic. ;)

In all seriousness, regarding the OP: I think it puts Nintendo in a very precarious spot. 3rd party devs even this early on hated working with Nintendo due to... well, I think how they tend to treat them is pretty well known by now, but having Yamauchi in charge didn't help (like it came out recently when Squaresoft told him they were having problems with FF7 on the N64 and wanted to move to the PlayStation he told them to pound sand and never come back). Sega more or less always had the better working relationship in this era so far as I know and coupled with Sony's CD factories that's a deadly combo indeed. But Nintendo might be forced to adopt the disc medium much sooner because of that fact.

Regardless, Nintendo's strength is in its IPs and, much as I do like Sega, they simply don't have the same 'oomph' that Nintendo does, especially in pop culture. I could see Nintendo merging with another company or seeking assistance from them in the future if things get bad enough. Microsoft seems like the perennial possibility given Bill Gates' interest in the video game industry or even Bandai, which there were talks of a merger OTL but they flat lined due to questions regarding monopolies in Japan, or someone else entirely. Alternatively, Nintendo unlike OTL might become more aggressive in acquiring 3rd party studios to compensate for the better relationship Sega and Sony would have. Capcom and Squaresoft are distinct possibilities if they could somehow convince them; perhaps even Game Freak to secure development for Pokémon if butterflies don't land on it. Western alternatives might be id Software or Maxis as they were on pretty good terms with them too. Maybe they snap up Rareware permanently? Decide not to screw over DMA Design?

One wonders what that means for NEC and The 3DO Company or, heck, even Atari too.

Nice points and ideas! In my timeline I am thinking of exploring the idea of Nintendo merging with Bandai, and all of that regarding Nintendo is true. Though I also do keep the N64 a cartridge based system (though when the GameCube comes around Nintendo is quick to actually adopt DVD play-ability). I also am exploring the idea of Sony coming to outright own SEGA at one point via-buy out, which would boost SEGA's own IP count because all of Sony's IPs from Uncharted to Sly Cooper to Ratchet & Clank would be SEGA properties practically so I basically give SEGA more of an equal footing to fight with Nintendo. I don't know how believable I have it be at current state though. I have it occur in 2001.

As for Atari I see no possible way to save in this situation really. Only 250,000 people bought an Atari Jaguar according to Wikipedia and I doubt that they'd be off by that large a number so I'm pretty sure Atari is doomed by the SEGA PlayStation's time anyway. Only way to save them would be to basically make the Jaguar be more successful so IDK maybe some ASBs decide to brainwash the entire population of China to buy Atari Jaguars in mass or something XD. (jk that's literally ASB)

That said, Nintendo's IPs are definitely yes like that. Sonic is usually the only SEGA IP most people know of first-hand especially outside of Japan. Though in a world where SEGA was more successful and dominated the late 90's and early 2000's in the same way Nintendo took over the late 80's and early 90's, we could see some SEGA IPs having more notoriety than IOTL. Maybe not to the level as Nintendo's, but to Nintendo this rise in popularity could still be quite alarming.

Nintendo buying out other third party devs is something I haven't done much of in my timeline (I keep Microsoft joining in separate of Nintendo), but I do have Nintendo swoop up Rareware permanently and perhaps I'll add they do the same with Gamefreak too (Not that anyone even notices they do it, most people probably assume the companies are all one in the same anyway because of how much they work together). IDK about those other companies, is an idea though. Though since Microsoft in my TL is separate they would have to be quick about it.
 
That said, Nintendo's IPs are definitely yes like that. Sonic is usually the only SEGA IP most people know of first-hand especially outside of Japan. Though in a world where SEGA was more successful and dominated the late 90's and early 2000's in the same way Nintendo took over the late 80's and early 90's, we could see some SEGA IPs having more notoriety than IOTL. Maybe not to the level as Nintendo's, but to Nintendo this rise in popularity could still be quite alarming.
Yeah Sega would have Virtua Franchise(who would become their tekken) there is shenmue too, Sakura Taisen(a game outsold fire emblem at the time) even if early to anime boom would account something.

The rest Eternal already commented a lot of details we worked in the draft for the timeline.
 
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