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If you were a gamer during the late '80s and early '90s,
you may remember a magazine called Nintendo Power.
It contained game walkthroughs, previews, reviews,
tips and tricks and a whole bunch of other stuff
all about Nintendo products.
It was a marketing tool, but it was really well done.
Especially some of the cover designs and artwork.
You have to remember,
this was before the Internet
became a common household utility, so...
any information you wanted about video games
usually came from these magazines.
Well, Nintendo had Nintendo Power,
but you might be surprised
to learn that their rival, Sega,
had their own magazine as well.
It was called Sega Visions.
Although not as popular as Nintendo Power,
it was a magazine that
Sega fans could call their own.
However, it didn't last long.
Only 25 issues were
made between June of 1990
and September of 1995.
Sega Visions was the brainchild of
former marketing director Al Nilsen,
who was looking for a way to
communicate with Sega fans
after the release of the
Genesis console in 1989.
AL: We needed a way to go an be able to...
communicate to our owners...
but also, more specifically, to communicate
with our Sega Master System owners...
who were just coming into the fold...
'cause we at Sega really had...
no relationship with them before because...
Tonka was responsible for all sales and marketing.
There was no social media back then...
and this was a great one-on-one
way to go and connect with them.
NORM: Sega Visions was initially never
meant to compete with Nintendo Power.
Sega was still relatively new
to the video game market.
And a paid magazine subscription was not
something Sega customers were interested in.
But Sega wanted to give their fans a voice
and a way to interact directly with them.
Focus groups at the time
noted that Sega owners
tended to be much more
vocal than Nintendo owners,
as they had to defend their
underdog system on the playground.
For these reasons, Sega of America
decided to make a subscription completely free.
Anyone who sent in a warranty card
on a console or chose to subscribe
would get four issues per year,
free of charge.
Or was it six issues per year?
It's hard to say.
Sometimes the magazine
was published bimonthly.
Other times, it was published quarterly.
Many gamers who subscribed to the magazine
complained that it seemed almost random
when they would get a copy in the mail.
It was much smaller than Nintendo Power,
but you have to realize for every
dollar Sega had for marketing,
Nintendo had 10 to 15 dollars.
Development of the magazine was
handled by the Communique Group
out of Newton, Massachusetts.
Communique Group handled
many magazines at the time,
mostly kids club-type publications.
Sega of America would choose
what games and products
they wanted featured in the magazine,
and Communique Group would write it up.
After the magazine's launch,
Al Nilsen handed over the
day-to-day operations to Bob Harris,
who became Editor-in-Chief
and publisher of Sega Visions.
Under Harris, Sega Visions
greatly expanded its content.
Over time, the magazine would be run
by several different Sega employees.
The first few issues were small,
and the magazine clearly felt
like a big advertisement for Sega.
But soon the magazine
would include more pages,
better write-ups,
behind-the-scenes interviews,
articles and more.
Many departments from within Sega
would pitch ideas for the magazine.
Eventually, development
went from Communique Group
to Infotainment World,
the same company that
put out GamePro magazine.
With issues becoming bigger and bigger,
Sega made the decision to publish bimonthly
and charge $21 for a yearly subscription.
However, in 1995, with the
launch of the Sega Saturn coming,
Sega needed to prioritize
marketing for their new system
and decided to end the magazine.
It was offered to GamePro,
but they declined to focus
solely on their publication.
Thus, ending the short life of Sega Visions.
Well, now that we've gone
over the history of the magazine,
let's take a look at what's inside.
I've got about... six issues here.
So, we'll go over some of the highlights.
We'll start with an early issue that
covered Sega Master System, Genesis
and Sega's hot new handheld, the Game Gear!
It's not much at only 44 pages,
and it feels like a brochure of Sega products.
It does have a few features,
such as a mailbag, high scores
and Bill Kunkel's "Game Doctor" column.
There's also a comic:
"Niles Nemo in Segaland,"
an homage to the classic comic strip
"Little Nemo in Slumberland."
This was essentially Sega's
version of "Howard & Nester."
You could see the beginnings of Sega's
"attitude" marketing with this comic.
One interesting section is Party Line,
which showcased new third-party developers
and the games they were
making for the Genesis.
At this time, the Genesis
was just getting started,
and Sega wanted to show off
and feature third-party licensees.
It even takes swipes at Nintendo.
"Taito, a long-time Nintendo game designer,
that's now playing on the Sega team,
is putting the finishing touches
on three hot Genesis games."
But like I said earlier,
as the magazine went on,
the content got better.
In keeping with their new marketing campaign
to show how cool and more mature Sega was,
they renamed the mailbag to "Yo Sega!"
They also added a section called "Say What?"
that talked about entertainment
news around the country.
Here's a tidbit discussing how there's
going to be a Freddy vs. Jason movie!
Eleven years later...
it was finally made.
This is also when the
magazine started adding content
similar to Nintendo Power.
Nintendo Power was known for their
great walkthroughs in each issue
which provided maps and secrets on each level.
Sega Visions started including them as well.
They weren't as big or detailed
as the Nintendo Power ones,
but it was a huge
improvement over earlier issues.
Sega Visions also started to
include game counselor profiles,
just like Nintendo Power.
Back then you could call a 1-800
number and talk to a counselor
to get help on a game you were stuck on.
They also started interviewing celebrities,
getting them to endorse the company.
Nintendo did the same thing.
Near the back of the magazine were
reviews of third-party games being released.
Sega Visions never reviewed first-party titles
and had to be careful in their reviews.
Said former editorial director John Sauer:
One thing Visions pushed
constantly was hardware.
It felt like every issue there
was at least one write-up
on a new accessory or console.
This cover spoils the amazing new Sega 32X,
while a page in this issue
talks about the Sega Activator.
In some issues, readers were
asked to submit pictures
of the craziest locations to play a Game Gear.
Sega put out a lot of hardware back then.
Probably too much.
But Sega Visions did have
its own unique features, too.
They started doing a lot of
interviews with developers
and behind-the-scenes 
write-ups on Sega departments.
They even did a "History of Sega" feature,
which is right up my alley!
One article was all about the
upcoming ESRB rating system
and if it was right for the government
to step in and regulate video games.
Sega Visions also started
including select excerpts
from the extremely popular Sonic the
Hedgehog comic from Archie Comics.
It was so popular that it's still going on today.
And according to the
Guinness Book of World Records,
it remains the longest-running
video game comic series of all time.
Needless to say,
it's way better than Niles Nemo.
There was some good stuff
and the magazine started to slowly get
away from its advertising brochure feel
and become much more robust.
Which made sense since they decided
to start charging for a subscription.
But the increase in size,
along with the large
amount of free subscribers
and the upcoming Saturn launch,
ultimately caused Sega Visions to end.
Although it was short-lived,
former marketing director Al Nilsen
was proud of the publication.
AL: I think it was a very,
very good-looking publication.
It told the story of our products well.
We got a lot of positive feedback.
We were constantly doing market research,
play tests, and we kept hearing a lot of great...
positive feedback about the magazine.
I think it was great that Sega
put out a magazine for their fans.
While both Nintendo Power and
Sega Visions were ways to push products,
Nintendo Power did do a much better job...
of not making it so obvious.
And had much more content in each issue.
Other magazines covered Sega as well,
if not better than Sega Visions.
Sega worked closely with magazines
such as Computer and Video Games,
Electronic Gaming Monthly
and GamePro...
to give them exclusive coverage of their titles.
Overall, Sega Visions is a
cool little piece of history
in the huge rivalry between Sega
and Nintendo in the early '90s.
If you want to check out
the magazine for yourself,
the Internet Archive has
every single issue uploaded
and available for viewing, free of charge.
That's all for this episode of Gaming Historian.
Thanks for watching!
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