Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Philip Coghill Launched in Japan in 1988 during the 16-bit era of gaming, the Sega Mega Drive was only a modest success and came behind Nintendo’s Super Famicom and NEC's PC Engine. However, it was much more popular in North America (where it was renamed the Sega Genesis) and Europe. This was partly due to its heavy advertising campaigns aimed at the youth market, but also because of a strong library of games conditioning of arcade ports and popular franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog. When the Famicom was released outside of Japan as the Super Nintendo in 1991, it led a rivalry between fans of each console which was further fuelled by both companies aggressive marketing and somewhat differing target audiences. Nintendo’s console was aimed squarely at family audiences and while the Mega Drive had its fair share of games for kids, it also had many that appealed to older, more mature players as well. This often-got Sega into trouble however, as games su...
