How popular was the Mega Drive in Japan? A comparison of people per unit

I hear things on this forum all the time about how the MD bombed in Japan. We all know the numbers sold but I've decided to put it in perspective by calculating the number of people per unit sold. I will limit this to the (very) general target demographic of males aged 5-29. I will also only look at sales to 3/95, which is when the MD was basically replaced by the Saturn in Japan. Yes, I know a lot more units sold after that in the US, but the idea of this is to get a sense of how many units were around during the height of the 16-bit era in Japan.

Japan:
Number of males aged 5-29 in 1990: 22.03 million
Number of MDs sold up to 3/95: 3.55 million
Number of SFCs sold up to 3/95: 14.47 million

1 MD for every 6.21 people in the target demographic.
1 SFC for every 1.52 people in the target demographic.

North America:
Number of males aged 5-29 in 1990: 52.09 million
Number of Gens sold up to 3/95: ~16 million (rough estimate based on Famitsu article)
Number of SNESs sold up to 3/95: 15.62 million

1 Genesis for every 3.26 people in the target demographic.
1 SNES for every 3.33 people in the target demographic.

There are, of course, a bunch of other factors at play and this is a very basic analysis. The truth is that the MD's target age demographic in Japan was more like 10-19, which would mean 1 MD for every 2.7 people in the target demographic. But the SFC obviously had a much wider demographic so I've left it as is for reasons of comparison.

The point of this is to show that the MD in Japan was reasonably common. It's hard to argue that it was a failure or niche machine when looked at this way.

Thoughts?

Sources:

Sega sales: www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=981407
Nintendo sales: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=701305
US census data: http://www.census.gov/popest/data/historical/1990s/
Japan census data: http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/Li...25191&cycode=0

Sort of unrelated since it's a comedy show, but it makes me think of the USA special of Game Center CX where the show's writer Kibe is checking out the Genesis stuff because he's a huge Mega Drive fan, only to be shut down by Arino who's mainly interested in the weird looking American Famicoms. When Kibe explains the Genesis is basically synonymous with Sega in the US, Arino is actually surprised to hear it.

The best analogy I can come up with is that in Germany the Mega Drive sold exactly 20% of what the MD sold in Japan - in a country with more than 2/3rd of the population. Yet EVERYONE my age (+/- a couple of years) either owned a Mega Drive or had a friend or neighbor who owned a Mega Drive.

The difference between Germany and Japan is not whether or not the Mega Drive sold well, the difference is that in Japan the Super Famicom sold exceptionally well. Almost every single household in Japan must have had at least one, and for those that didn't another must have had two.

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Originally Posted by Obviously

Sort of unrelated since it's a comedy show, but it makes me think of the USA special of Game Center CX where the show's writer Kibe is checking out the Genesis stuff because he's a huge Mega Drive fan, only to be shut down by Arino who's mainly interested in the weird looking American Famicoms. When Kibe explains the Genesis is basically synonymous with Sega in the US, Arino is actually surprised to hear it.

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What is Arino's deal with SEGA? I'm just a bit curious as to why he hates them so much compared to Nintendo? other than him being completely biased for the company

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to JumpingRyle again.

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Originally Posted by DSwizzy145

What is Arino's deal with SEGA? I'm just a bit curious as to why he hates them so much compared to Nintendo? other than him being completely biased for the company

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I don't think he hates it, he really enjoyed Strider for instance. He just never owned one himself so doesn't care so much.

It's just bias mostly. Even here people complain all the time about how the Internet is biased towards the SNES, in Japan the bias towards Nintendo when it comes to the Famicom and Super Famicom is much larger.

His surprise probably came from the fact that when we think Sega in the US, we immediately think of the Genesis. It's probably more likely a Japanese gamer will think Saturn.

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Originally Posted by Obviously

I don't think he hates it, he really enjoyed Strider for instance. He just never owned one himself so doesn't care so much.

It's just bias mostly. Even here people complain all the time about how the Internet is biased towards the SNES, in Japan the bias towards Nintendo when it comes to the Famicom and Super Famicom is much larger.

His surprise probably came from the fact that when we think Sega in the US, we immediately think of the Genesis. It's probably more likely a Japanese gamer will think Saturn.

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Yeah well true, but the way he acts and such also the way he constantly shits on SEGA like they ruined his idol Nintendo or something or killed his childhood gaming skills like he lost at some Sega Mark III arcade port version of some game and hated the company since.

Given that Nintendo is more widely popular in Japan like Dragonball Z is compared to Sega and Jojo's Bizzare Adventure (despite being very popular but yet unknown to the rest of the world) but the way how he says it and puts it like that does make me feel some type of way against him.

Like I mentioned earlier it's also a comedy show so it's played up I'm sure.

There was an episode where he played a Mark III in one of the side segments, again Kibe tried to praise it while Arino didn't even know what it was. :lol:

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Originally Posted by JumpingRyle

Thoughts?

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When you do a post of this kind it's always a good practice to put the sources of your data.

You're right! My mistake.

Sega sales: www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=981407
Nintendo sales: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=701305
US census data: http://www.census.gov/popest/data/historical/1990s/
Japan census data: http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/Li...25191&cycode=0

Interesting breakdown and dichotomy between the two systems in Japan.

On the topic of Game Center, I really wish Retro Game Challenge (DS) had sold better in the West. It's a shame we never got the sequel over here. Also, the Nintendo-centric nature of the show explains why the first game was basically an homage to NES/Famicom and why the second game just made brief overtures to MSX and SMS/Mark III, with no Genesis/MD-esque games to be found.

Shame that. I'd love to see a developer pick up the idea and roll with it in a more comprehensive fashion. Mini game homages to VCS, NES, SMS, TG16/PCE, Genesis/MD, SNES, and even NEO GEO would make for an awesome video game package.

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Originally Posted by Obviously

Sort of unrelated since it's a comedy show, but it makes me think of the USA special of Game Center CX where the show's writer Kibe is checking out the Genesis stuff because he's a huge Mega Drive fan, only to be shut down by Arino who's mainly interested in the weird looking American Famicoms. When Kibe explains the Genesis is basically synonymous with Sega in the US, Arino is actually surprised to hear it.

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I really like Kibe a lot and the fact that he's a complete nut for Sega (even going so far as to write for the Sega Hard Girls anime) only furthers that affection

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Originally Posted by negative chill

I really like Kibe a lot and the fact that he's a complete nut for Sega (even going so far as to write for the Sega Hard Girls anime) only furthers that affection

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Yeah, Kibe is great, often with comedic timing that rivals Arino's. I didn't realize he wrote for Seha Girls. I was turned off by the cutesyness but I'll give it another chance now.

I apologize to Ryle for the off-topicness. I appreciate the excellent thread topic.

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Originally Posted by Obviously

His surprise probably came from the fact that when we think Sega in the US, we immediately think of the Genesis. It's probably more likely a Japanese gamer will think Saturn.

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It really depends on the person, but I'd say most Japanese people would associate Sega with arcades. Even today Sega still owns a bunch of game centers in Japan. One of the greatest advantages that Sega consoles had in Japan was the access to exclusive Sega arcade ports. Of the few MD games that have been covered on Game Center CX, a lot of them have been arcade ports or sequels (e.g. Super Fantasy Zone, Golden Axe).

On the flip side, the unholy Triforce of Nintendo, Square, and Enix was so dominant in Japan that it is incredible how many systems the MD actually sold. I remember flipping open an issue of Famitsu from 1992 and about 14 of the top 20 user-rated games were RPGs by those three companies. Square had over 50 developers working on Final Fantasy VI. It was practically guaranteed to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars (even at the retail price of ~$110!). Japan was crazy for RPGs and Square and Enix had been pumping them out in large quantity since the 80s on the Famicon. There was no way Sega could ever go head-to-head with that in Japan at the time. That's why they targeted a more specific, older age group who preferred arcade-style games. They performed very well in that light and had dozens of smaller developers making/porting games to the MD.

The landscape was completely different, however, in North America, where RPGs were not the deciding factor and suddenly Sega had a slightly more open playing field.

I am slightly bothered by the continued insistence of certain people that the MD was a failure in Japan, that Sega of Japan was bitter about their own lack of success in the light of how popular the Genesis was, that SoJ sabotaged SoA out of jealousy, that SoJ was incompetent during the MD era and couldn't even sell their console in their own country, and all the usual garbage.

Nakayama and friends made all the right choices, including hiring Kalinske. Obviously things fell apart after '95, but up to then there is NO basis for all of the crap that is loaded onto SoJ.

/rant

I think that the MD is 100 times more known and more popular now, than it was in its prime. I have always wondered about its popularity and sales, myself. I would love to know how many units the top games sold. The huge success of the Saturn is what spurred popularity of the MD. I just wish the popularity would die off again, and take the ridiculous used game price hike of the last 2 years with it!

I've often wondered how the GG did in comparison to the MD, too. SOJ seemed to make more games for the GG than the MD and MCD combined! Especially all those lovely RPGs! Bastards.

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Originally Posted by JumpingRyle

It really depends on the person, but I'd say most Japanese people would associate Sega with arcades. Even today Sega still owns a bunch of game centers in Japan. One of the greatest advantages that Sega consoles had in Japan was the access to exclusive Sega arcade ports. Of the few MD games that have been covered on Game Center CX, a lot of them have been arcade ports or sequels (e.g. Super Fantasy Zone, Golden Axe).

The landscape was completely different, however, in North America, where RPGs were not the deciding factor and suddenly Sega had a slightly more open playing field.

I am slightly bothered by the continued insistence of certain people that the MD was a failure in Japan, that Sega of Japan was bitter about their own lack of success in the light of how popular the Genesis was, that SoJ sabotaged SoA out of jealousy, that SoJ was incompetent during the MD era and couldn't even sell their console in their own country, and all the usual garbage.

Nakayama and friends made all the right choices, including hiring Kalinske. Obviously things fell apart after '95, but up to then there is NO basis for all of the crap that is loaded onto SoJ.

/rant

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The stupid thing is, a lot of SEGA arcade games were NOT exclusive. Look at all the SEGA licensed games on the PC Engine. Some of which are better than their MD counterparts! I never understood why the hell SEGA would license their games to NEC Avenue and other PC Engine third parties such as Telenet and Asmik. It is not like they got anything back from NEC or Hudson in return, like their SNK deal that brought NG games to the Saturn for instance. I suppose it is possible that they lured the likes of Asmik and Telenet to make MD games by licensing their own arcade games to them to release on a rival system.

You also had far superior, arcade perfect ports on the 32-BIT computers such as the X68000 and FM Towns. I still say the MCD should have been 32-BIT or 24-BIT if it was too expensive. SEGA then could have hosted THE best versions of their games on thei own system. I just wish we had an arcade perfect Turbo Outrun like the FM Towns has >_<

Maybe if SEGA were not dumbarses and had used their own CD system for their arcade conversions, they may have been better than the PC Engine versions. It is still a crime to me that there are SEGA games on rival systems that do not exist on their own system. Power Drift being one.

I could never agree with SEGA "doing everything right" during the MD days either. The MCD will always be the thing that makes me think SoJ had no idea what they were doing back then. Certainly the "higher ups" and decision makers.