The Sega CD is a CD-ROM accessory for the Mega DriveGenesis. It was released on December 12, 1991 in Japan, October 15, 1992 in North America, and April 2, 1993 in Europe. 2.24 million Sega CD units were sold by March 1996, after which Sega discontinued the system to focus on the Sega Saturn.
About Sega CD in brief
The Sega CD is a CD-ROM accessory for the Mega DriveGenesis. It was released on December 12, 1991 in Japan, October 15, 1992 in North America, and April 2, 1993 in Europe. The Sega CD plays CD-based games and adds hardware functionality such as a faster central processing unit and graphic enhancements like sprite scaling and rotation. It can also play audio CDs and CD+G discs. The main benefit of CD technology was greater storage, which allowed for games to be nearly 320 times larger than Genesis cartridges. While the Sega CD became known for several well received games such as Sonic CD and Lunar: Eternal Blue, its game library contained many Genesis ports and poorly received FMV games. 2.24 million Sega CD units were sold by March 1996, after which Sega discontinued the system to focus on the Sega Saturn. Retrospective reception is mixed, with praise for individual games and additional functions, but criticism for its lack of deep games, high price, and support from Sega. Until mid-1991, Sega of America had been working with Warner New Media to develop a CD player under the CD+ G standard. Sega of Japan partnered with JVC to design the SegaCD and refused to consult with Sega of North America until the project was complete. The device was originally intended to equal the capabilities of the TurboGrafx-CD, but with twice as much random-access memory, and sell for about JP¥20,000. However, two changes made later in development contributed to the final unit’s higher-than-expected price.
The cost of the device was now estimated at USD 370, but Sega executives convinced consumers would be willing to pay more for more for a state-of-the-art machine. Until a former executive producer Michael Latham, there were no plans to release a CD in the U.S. until the mid-1990s, when Sega partnered with Sony to develop the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. The company also worked with Sony on the PlayStation Portable, which was released in 1998. The PlayStation Portable was released by Sony in 1998, and the PlayStation 3 was released later that year in 1999. The PS3 was the first console to use CD technology in a video game console with their PC Engine CD- ROM² System add-on in October 1988 in Japan, which sold 80,000 units in six months. Nintendo announced a partnership with Sony in 1991 to develop its own CD-Rom peripheral for the SNES. The SNES released in 1991, and Commodore International released their CD- based CDTV multimedia system in early 1991, while the CD-i from Philips arrived towards the end of that year. Sega’s console finally took off as customers who had been waiting for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System decided to purchase a Genesis instead. In mid- 1990s, Sega CEO Hayao Nakayama hired Tom Kalinske as CEO of Sega of American. The Japanese board of directors initially disapproved of the plan, but all four points were approved by Nakayamas.
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This page is based on the article Sega CD published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
