Kiwi Gaming: From Sega to Sony

A nostalgic look back at our local gaming trends.

In the United States, Nintendo really ruled the roost during the mid 80s to early 90s. The Nintendo Entertainment System was practically unchallenged for years, and it wasn’t until Sega came out with the Mega Drive (or Genesis over there) that some true competition came along. Yet this was hardly a reflection of the gaming industry throughout the entire world. Down here in New Zealand, for example, things were decidedly different.

It was an earlier Sega console, the Master System, that arguably won the 8-bit wars over here. While the NES could be found in the occasional video store for rental, the Master System (or just the ‘Sega’, as everyone I knew called it) seemed to be everywhere. Heck, I even remember a whole heap of TV ads for the thing, although my mind shuts down in self defence when asked to describe them. Suffice to say, they contained plenty of mullet-wearing cool kids, bad blue screen effects, and terrible catch phrases.

Instead of Mario and Zelda, we had Alex Kidd, Sonic, and Wonderboy. Whoever had a Master System would find a lot of people congregating at their house, taking turns trying to clock some games that even now are pretty damn hard. The Master System was so pervasive in New Zealand – at least in the circles everyone I knew moved in – that I didn’t spend any significant amount of time with a Nintendo console until GoldenEye came out on the Nintendo 64.

This trend continued with the Mega Drive. I remember being awestruck in a movie theatre as an ad came on showing off the sheer power of this sleek, cool new console. Everyone around me gasped as games (read: Altered Beast) were shown off with impossibly good-looking graphics. Many kids (including me) begged their parents for this shiny new toy, but it was pretty pricey upon release. It was also pretty much everywhere – whether you were in The Warehouse, Farmers, Deka (remember those guys?), or Kmart, there was bound to be a Mega Drive set up, and a bunch of kids crowded round it.

In the US, meanwhile, the Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System shared the market pretty evenly, which brought things more in line with what was happening in NZ, although things were definitely more skewed towards Sega here. Interestingly, the Master System clung on to life down here for quite some time, as people took their time transitioning to newer, more expensive machines. Even the Sega Game Gear – a portable Master System with a colour screen! – had a bit of a run here. I think I’ve owned three of them in my time, and certainly remember being able to buy games for the system from places like Farmers.

Of course, this all changed with the release of the PlayStation a few years later. Despite it costing around $800, Sony quickly dethroned Sega – or rather, Sega dethroned themselves with one stupid marketing move after another. While Kiwis might have been pretty Sega-centric, their loyalty was tested with things like the Mega CD and the 32X. Soon after their Sega Saturn came out, it was clear that Sony was the new cool kid in town. This didn’t really deter me, though – I marched on down to Cash Converters towards the end of the 90s to purchase a Saturn, and spent a good while getting talked to by the salesman there, who tried to convince me to buy a PlayStation instead. I’m glad I didn’t listen, but relatively few people in NZ would have played many games on Sega’s second to last console.

Nintendo seemed to become somewhat more prominent in NZ with the Nintendo 64 – at least after GoldenEye came out – but soon after the GameCube came out, they were soon a somewhat niche product again. Naturally, the Wii has put them right back in the spotlight – you can pick it up at places like The Warehouse, always a good sign that it’s in the public eye – but it’s worth pointing out that while the US continues to have severe Wii shortages, it’s easy to grab a console down here. No, the real throne occupier in New Zealand is the PlayStation 2. Building on their success with the PSOne, Sony has maintained a strong hold on the mainstream gaming market. And in the last year or two, price drops coupled with franchises like SingStar, Buzz, and EyeToy have ensured practically everyone at all interested in gaming most likely has a PS2. Sure, the PS2 has been a huge success the world over, but New Zealand in particular has always been more Sony-focused than some other territories.

Of course, that could change this generation, as the Wii continues to sell well, and the Xbox 360 gains momentum down under. Can Sony turn things around and get the PS3 flying off the shelves in a territory that has traditionally supported them strongly? Or will Microsoft manage to lure in Kiwis to its big white machine? It’ll be interesting to see whether the NZ market continues to stand slightly apart from the major territories of the world, or whether it draws ever closer in line with international trends.