If Sega actually partnered with Sony

Sega was absolutely ruling the video game industry from 1991-1995. Nintendo did in the 80s, but after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on their console the Genesis (or MegaDrive if you don't live in North America), Nintendo was embarassed. Sega would continue to fight with Nintendo releasing banger games like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles as well as Phantasy Star IV, Bomberman '94, and Mortal Kombat II. However, their popularity would take a really long downfall from 1996 until 2001 when they would stop making consoles.

Sony started video game competition in 1994, which made the downfall of Nintendo and more importantly Sega go QUICKLY. What if I told you Sega almost teamed up with Sony? That's right, two rivals almost teamed up. And that didn't happen due to the Japanese Sega staff. See, Nintendo almost teamed up with Sony, but they declined too, so lemme explain. Sony staff came down to Sega of America and asked them if they wanted to partner up for a potential CD-based video game console. Tom Kalinske, who was president of Sega of America at that time, approved of the idea. But there was one problem in his way. Sega of Japan.

Sega of Japan did not agree with the idea of partnering up with Sony, as they thought Sony didn't knew how to make consoles, so the Sega Sony partnership was cancelled. Kalinske later left Sega in 1996. Sony later released the Playstation in 1994 and sold over one hundred million copies, a decision that Sega and Nintendo would regret. BUT. What if there was an alternate universe where Sega DID team up with Sony, beating Nintendo, and becoming two of the kings of the video game industry? Well, this is my What If page and this is "What If Sega actually partnered with Sony".

First Meeting
The year is 1993, and Sega is buffed with money. With the success of their Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and other games releasing on their consoles Genesis (or MegaDrive), Sega CD, and Master System, they were dominating the video game industry, beating Nintendo. At that time, Sony was a fairly well-known company, producing movies, but decided to produce video game hardware to sell on the market. Sony pitched the idea of a CD-add on for the SNES, but Nintendo declined to partner with them.

Then, Sony goes to Sega. Sony executives came down to Sega's president at the time Tom Kalinske and said to him "Hey Tom, we really don't like Nintendo. You don't like Nintendo. We have this little studio down in Santa Monica working on video games, we don't know what to do with it. We'd like Sega's help in training our guys. And we think that the optical disc will be the best format. Tom agreed and Sega and Sony soon began partnering up together. They invested in two developers, Sony Imagesoft and Digital Pictures. Engineers at Sony and Sega began working on a CD-based video game console. Kalinske pitched the idea to Sega of Japan, but you might think they say no, but this is my universe. They agreed on the idea and welcomed Sony.

Public Look
In May 1995, during the first ever E3 convention, Kalinske and then Sony president Ken Kutaragi announced to the public that they'd be teaming up. They had not gave it a name yet, but had called it, the Sega/Sony hardware system. On the spot, Kalinske came up with the name for the hardware system. Kalinske contradicted the former statement and called the hardware system, the Dreamstation. Kalinske said of it as "a console station of dreams and all games." News of the new, upcoming Dreamstation hardware was being spread all around the world, with many fans excited.

In December of that latter year, in an attempt to beat Nintendo with their upcoming Nintendo 64, they released the first ever teaser for the Dreamstation, including a new Sonic game, titled Sonic X-treme. They set it for an release in NA for April 11, 1996, JP on April 29, and Europe on May 3, with a price of $190, compared to Nintendo 64 's $199.

Dreamstation (1994-2000)
When the system first released on April 11, it was a massive hit. During its first three days on the market, it had already sold 2 million consoles at the time. It was a win-win for Sega and Sony and a loss for Nintendo. Within a week of releasing, Sonic X-treme had released on the console on April 19, the console had been selling ten million units already. When the Nintendo 64 released, it sold one million units in its first week, though Super Mario 64 had made it more popular, with Nintendo hoping to catch up to the Dreamstation. Sonic X-treme and another new game, The Adventure of Crash Bandicoot, featuring the debut of the famous title character, had both reached three million units sold.

Sega and Sony were making millions and millions of dollars. Nintendo, while not being able to catch up to Sega or Sony, did decently with the Nintendo 64 reaching 4.21 million units sold. At that point, the N64 was selling VERY poorly. The most popular game on the unit was Super Mario 64. By its first two months in release, the Dreamstation had sold 29.7 million units. Nintendo 64 however, only sold 17.9 million. Nintendo was losing a lot of money, and they needed to do something quickly. They released Donkey Kong 64 as well as Mario Kart 64 but while they were very moderate successes, launching the system up to 23.1 million units, it still couldn't catch up to the Dreamstation. In total, the Dreamstation sold 72 million units while the Nintendo 64 sold 52 million units.

Dreamstation 2 (1999-2009)
In 1997, Sega and Sony announced the Dreamstation 2, a console which would blow the first one out of the water with abilities such as:


 * Access to the inernet with the new DreamNet
 * Being able to play movies and TV shows on DVD.
 * Backwards compatibility with previous Sega and Sony consoles such as the Genesis and previous Dreamstation
 * Compilation of Sega and Sony's Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot franchises
 * Came with new handheld console called D.S. Portable
 * Electronic devices such as PCs be ported to the Dreamstation 2
 * New Sonic game called Sonic Adventure set to release on the console

While Nintendo announced new capabilites to the Nintendo 64 such as the Nintendo 64DD, which was a disk drive. Bunch of Nintendo, Sega, and Sony fans were at war. The Dreamstation 2 had included hype from fans for many games such as Crash Bandicoot 128, Ecco the Dolphin II, and more notably Sonic Adventure. When the Dreamstation 2 released on store shelves, it was a banger (thats what she said). It had 13 million units sold on its first day alone, and in its week, ended up selling 25 million. This was proof that Sega and Sony had truly established themselves in the video game console hardware industry. Nintendo had still been salling units of the Nintendo 64, especially when it got more popular when Super Smash Bros, 64 released.

When Sonic Adventure released on the same day the Dreamstation 2 released on September 9, 1999 (9/9/99), it was an absolute success. Sonic X-treme was moderate, but Adventure blew X-treme out of the water, selling 5 million units on its first day. By 2001, the Dreamstation 2 sold 85 million units while the Nintendo 64 sold 64 (get it?) million units. Xbox had came into the game and it sold 17 million on its first day, with Microsoft making sure that Sega, Sony, and Nintendo had serious competition.