Can Sega CD be branded as a failure?

[SegaR&D]

Think about it for a sec, Genny/MD sold 28.5 mil units worldwide, Sega/Mega-CD sold 7 million.

That's 25% of the userbase, so every 1 in 4 people who ever owned an MD also dished out $300 for the CD.

25% userbase penetration

1:4

Which other add on has achieved this ratio?

Not too shabby if you ask me.

 

[cthellis42]

Where do you get your figures? The last source I saw placed Genesis/MD sales at around 34 million and Sega/Mega CD sales only a bit over 2 million.

Scouring around a bit more, this site says 28.5/3 and PlanetDreamcast says just over 2 million of the Sega CD.

ClassicGaming tallies up to about your figure, but other sources I've ran across mentioned Sega CD's european sales as inconsequential, whereas this place says one million.

 

[archie4oz]

Which other add on has achieved this ratio?

CD-ROM2/Super CD-ROM2 (and did better to boot)...

 

[Sonic]

Genesis sales compared to SEGA CD sales was higher than a 10:1 ratio so yes I would consider it a failure.

 

[Farid]

It had an excellent (and in english!) version of Snatcher, therefore it's not a failure. Nuff' said!

Or maybe you mean an economic and marketing failure, that segmented the market, created a "loser/quiter system" reputation for Sega?
If so, then yes, it can be called a failure.

 

[zurich]

It had SonicCD and Silipheed, how can it be a failure?

(yes it was a huge flop and set the tone for the next 10 years for Sega...)

 

[cthellis42]

Genesis sales compared to SEGA CD sales was higher than a 10:1 ratio so yes I would consider it a failure.

...so I guess my initial numbers were closer to the truth? Do you know of any actual official sources for those sales numbers? One interesting place I ran across was this one, which isn't up-to-date anymore, but measures just about everything that was ever sold in Japan. I'm not sure how accurately, though...

 

[Dio]

I would guess the PC-Engine CD add-on did better than that...

 

[Citan]

It had SonicCD and Silipheed, how can it be a failure?

It also had Night Trap, the game with the greatest soundtrack ever.

 

[cthellis42]

I would guess the PC-Engine CD add-on did better than that...

Proportionately, yes, because the PC Engine itself sold much less. Seemingly the CD add-on didn't fare much worse than the Mega CD did all by themselves.

 

[kenneth9265_3]

Was the Sega CD hard to develop for? :?