chocolatejr9
Smash Hero
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2018
- Messages
- 8,387
This reminded me that there's honestly a part of me that wishes Nintendo was more willing to buy out other companies. Not necessarily big guys like Sega (I still see backlash towards Microsoft over the Zenimax buyout), but at least the ones that make sense like IntSys, Camelot, and Grezzo. Heck, the only reason they bought Next Level Games is because they didn't want to risk somebody else buying them.So, I was binging some Alternate History Hub, and I figured I would propose to y'all a fun alternative gaming scenario.
What if Nintendo bought Sega?
For context, this scenario is not too much out of the question. In 2000, Sega was going through its huge identity crisis with their hardware under preforming, there were considerations to sell the company to Microsoft. If this were to happen, two things would need to occur. Nintendo would have to smell blood in the water and end up approaching Sega for the deal. If Nintendo did approach Sega in their darkest hour, some potential deal would have been at least on the table in some way, shape or form. There were also talks of a merger in 2003 with Sammy before Sammy decided to become the majority shareholder. Now obviously, this stuff may end up super messy. I also want to stress that Nintendo, at least at the time where this merger was viable, was not known for mergers or acquisitions. Even if they did see the opportunity, Nintendo could have easily just ignored the opportunity and just moved on. But that's no fun, so what if they did not?
A Dream Casted away
If this deal was to be made, one thing that Sega likely would have pursued is that there be some sort of life jacket to Dreamcast adopters. If Nintendo did decide to indulge Sega on this, this could have gone a few ways. First off, they could have pushed the idea off to their next console and included the Dreamcast programming and software in the Wii. They could have added an adapter to the Gamecube to let it play Dreamcast games. They could have made and alternative gamecube model that played both. Sega did wish for the Xbox at one point to be Dreamcast compatible, so the idea is not that far off.
A different Sonic
If Nintendo owned Sega, that means that as a result, the blue blur ends up being owned by Nintendo. I will discuss some other Sega franchises, but Sonic is interesting not only due to how big he is, but how his modern identity is defined by failure. The Adventure formula was formally retired after 06 bombed. Ever since then, the Sonic brand has always been shifting around, trying to find an identity that works for it.
In this timeline, Sonic is now under Nintendo's control. Does that mean that Sonic Team makes only amazing Sonic games? No. But it would likely mean there is a much stronger mandate on what they can do with Sonic. Nintendo has always leaned conservative on how they handle their core franchises. While there are exceptions like BotW, most of the time Nintendo is more comfortable sticking to a tried and true format. Even when they do deviate, such as with Skyward Sword or Mario Odyssey, there is still a lot of the old foundation that they drew upon originally. In this timeline, Sonic likely ends up sticking to what he was known for in 2001: The Adventure Formula and the Genesis Formula. As such, we end up with a more reigned in Sonic of sorts.
One thing that changes though is that Sonic is not as invested in its fan community. Things like Mania, the Sonic CD port, or the Sonic Mobile ports made by Christian Whitehead would not exist. Nintendo also would probably look at sonic modding with a lot more resistance than Sega does. Sega openly encourages their fans to mod sonic and express themselves. Nintendo...well, their history with mods is very tenuous to this day.
The other Sega franchises
Speculating on what franchises that Nintendo would push forward from Sega is a little hard, but there are a few camps they can go in. First, what is doing well at the time. In this camp, Phantasy Star and Crazy Taxi are solid picks. They both are popular series that had big releases on the Dreamcast. PSO being such a big title in its day would likely mean Nintendo adopts it in particular. The next category is where Nintendo plays favorites. Nights is one of Miyamoto's favorite games, so I could see us getting some more Nights love. Finally, you have the easiest department to look at: games that were coming to the Gamecube and did well. Monkey Ball and Puyo Puyo stick out. They both did well on the Gamecube, and likely would have done even better with Nintendo actively pushing them.
Also, as a minor addendum after discussing with @GoodGrief741 , but F Zero would now have a dedicated in house team after F Zero GX, so it might not die in this timeline.
Sega's Past Properties
So Sega has an extensive backlog that can be looked at for Nintendo to use. On the Virtual Console, the real question is Saturn stuff. Saturn Emulation is a bit finnicky to this day, but so is N64 emulation and Nintendo made that work on VC. Likely, most of the Saturn's big titles would be put on the VC, including some of the Japanese titles. This puts the Saturn in a bit of a fun spot, where it gets a bit more of a second glance from people. I could see people pushing Nintendo to remake or release Panzer Dragoon Saga in this timeline, so long as the source code is not lost in this timeline. Likely, much as we are clammoring for Nintendo do do things with Golden Sun, Donkey Kong, or F Zero in this timeline, perhaps there is more of a demand that Shining Force or Burning Rangers or even some of the Dreamcast's library gets some love. Heck, Nintendo might even see enough value and put the Sega CD on VC.
Pushing forwards from VC, likely Sega's properties end up lumped into the same sort of use by Nintendo that their old catalog does. They end up protective of roms and emulation, they trickle them out on Nintendo Online, with Sega Genesis Online being a big announcement they end up making for the Switch at some point.
Atlus at last?
Sega did end up purchasing Atlus in September of 2013. Now, we could say that Nintendo does not enter the bidding war for Atlus in 2013, but given that they made a far larger acquisition in this what if already and they were in an open collaboration with Altus at this point with SMT X FE, I am gonna say that we do get a Nintendo Atlus acquisition. What does this change? Not much to be honest.
The vast majority of Atlus' properties at the time were either in development or already coming to the 3DS. Likely what would happen is that Nintendo would either delay the Altus games that were in production to be shifted to Nintendo systems, or they would simply push that everything that was not already in development at that point would be a Switch exclusive from that point onward. Persona 5 imo is probably the cut off title of what we could consider in development prior to the buyout. Should Nintendo acquire them, Persona 5 might have been a day 1 switch port similar to Breath of the Wild.
Smash Bros
Now to tie it into this website, we got Smash. One thing that might be worth discussing is the impact of Sega being a first party. Does this mean that third parties are more scarce? Probably not. Mega Man was still one of the most requested characters of all time, if Namco developed the game they would probably end up getting Pac Man in anyway, and Snake already opened the floodgates for guest characters. I do not think that in this timeline, Sonic not being a guest character would stop third parties from being a thing.
One important thing that does change is that Sonic almost certainly is on the initial project proposal. Sonic was notably a last minute addition to Brawl do to negotiations being difficult, but with Nintendo owning him he would be one of the first characters in Brawl. I doubt that he would end up in Melee however. While the timeline might allow it to work, it would still be tight given that this deal would likely close out too late into Melee's development that Sonic would narrowly miss his chance. But for Brawl, he is a lock. Sonic's treatment likely would also be different in Smash. We likely would see far more Sonic content, given that Nintendo would own him. We would probably see mountains of support for Tails and Eggman for future Smash games, even more than in our own timeline. Shadow might be Sonic's echo fighter, who knows.
In terms of what other Sega franchises end up in Smash, that depends on what Nintendo and Sega are pushing forward at the time, or what Sakurai sees value in adding. The two I am the most confident in are Puyo Puyo and Phantasy Star. We likely would end up with Alis and Arle by Smash Ultimate in this timeline. With Persona now under Nintendo's umbrella and P5 being a switch launch title, we likely still get Joker. Outside of those three and the Sonic games, it gets harder to say who would be chosen. We are dealing with a what if that has a lot of asterisks and question marks already. Maybe in this alternative timeline, Nights is one of the never evers that people push for and he makes a comeback in Smash. Maybe some Genesis era characters or franchises like Comix Zone or Kid Chameleon end up becoming popular for Smash. It really is impossible to know.
But that's just my gut assumptions of what would happen, what do you all think?
As for this particular scenario... honestly, if it means Billy Hatcher is taken more seriously in Smash speculation, I'll take it.
