Sega vs EA: Clash of Titans

Written by Ryan Smotherman on July 02, 2001

Sega vs EA: Clash of Titans: Sega marches their way to the top once again, but can they dethrone the champ?

Everyone within the gaming industry knows it's about to happen. Two of the biggest companies in the gaming industry today will be going at it head on, and the prize? Bragging rights, the right to say, УWe're the best 3rd party in the worldФ. We should all know the two competitors pretty well. In the white shorts, we have the biggest 3rd party as of right now, EA, who pride themselves on their ability to create some of the greatest sports games around. And in the blue shorts, the newest 3rd party antagonist, Sega, who recently УunleashedФ themselves from the restraints of developing and publishing games only on their platforms. Ready to find what each company has going for them?

EA's Advantages and Disadvantages
EA's advantages come in two forms. One being, of course, the development of their amazing sports games; the Madden series, and SSX are very good examples of this. And their other advantage is the name, Electronic Arts, as they've been around for a long time now and a lot of people recognize them as a quality game company. As for Sega, they are still in the process of rebuilding their name after many videogame enthusiasts felt some of their systems to be failures rather than triumphs as they previously had seen. You wouldn't think that EA's strong points of being the leading sports games publisher would be their Achilles' heel as well. However, that genre alone is basically the company's largest debt to fame, which could lead EA to some problems in the end.

So, what is keeping EA at the top of the game you ask? The answer is us, the U.S. gaming market. Sports games are some of the top selling games here in the West, and if you think about it, bringing multiple sports titles out each and every year, which all sale in the millions, can add up to a lot of money. Though an issue that makes EA nervous right now, is that Sega has developed equal, if not better, quality sports titles, creating franchises of their own in recent times. For all of us who've experienced Virtua Tennis, NFL2K1, and NBA2K1, we know this rings true. Plus, it doesn't look as if Sega is letting up anytime soon, all of their 2K2 series games are looking incredible, especially World Series Baseball.

However, no matter how good Sega's sports games are, EA's will more than likely always be at the top. The majority of people who buy sports titles are the mainstream gamers, who all grew up with the Madden and Triple Play series, and they probably won't take the time to give Sega a chance or make the transition in buying their games. It's sad, but that's how the gaming industry usually works. The more УpopularФ companies always succeed; take Sony for example. I'm certainly not implying Sega's sports titles are going to be dominated by EA's, I actually believe they'll be very close, but Sega will never out sell EA, sports wise in my opinion.

Nevertheless, if EA wants to retain their gold as number one, they need to make a few changes. This is where their one glaring fault comes in, they need to move on and try different things. Mark my words, УSega will take the number one spot if EA continues to play it safe and hide behind the shadows of their sports franchises.Ф Quite simply, Electronics Arts has to venture forth into different genres, better yet, make something totally new and original its console market.

Sega's Advantages and Disadvantages
Sega has one clear advantage over EA though. They're SEGA for God sakes! And Sega does exactly what EA doesn't. Sega innovates; they don't sit around and milk the same franchises for over 10 years, they branch out and create new inventive games and exciting characters. Just look at titles like Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, Samba de Amigo, and Crazy Taxi. Not only are they all different from anything else out there, but also a different division within Sega developed each game. Showing that Sega's creativity doesn't just lie within one of their development houses, but the ingenuity is everywhere within the company.

Also, there has to be a little (or a lot) animosity from Sega to EA. And I don't fault Sega one bit. At a time when Sega needed EA most, they decided to abandon them. EA choosing to not develop for the Dreamcast was basically them kicking Sega when they were down and needed third party help the most. It just wasn't right, you don't do that to company, not to mention Sega being a fellow gaming company for that matter, as they helped in making EA that top dog it is currentlyЕfor now. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the fact that EA got started in gaming by developing games for the Genesis. That's right, the first Madden title appeared on the Sega Genesis. So, you can imagine that there is a little vengeance on Sega's mind as well, and wouldn't blame them one bit.

Even though Sega is venturing forth into areas unknown to them, things are looking great. They don't really have any disadvantages in this war, especially when you have major company's who are paying out the yin yang to get exclusive titles from you. Here in again lies one of EA's flaws; they really don't have titles strong enough to warrant a company to pay mucho dollars for an exclusive to same degree as Sega.

Author's Opinion
A lot of people are sure to agree with me that, eventually, Sega will become the top 3rd party developer. This won't happen overnight, rather in taking up to 2 or even 3 years, though the good news is that it seems rather inevitable. Yet, depending on whether or not EA takes strides to change their very one-sided development ways for the console industry, this transition could take longer, or maybe never come about at all. Only time shall tell.