While Sega has already announced that Shining Force III will hit the US in May, there now is the question as to a domestic release of Grandia. What game would you rather see in the US: Shining Force III or Grandia?

Grandia: 74%
Shining Force III: 26%

• "Bringing Grandia over will prove to Sega's customers that they hear what we are saying...it's already been proven that RPG's can be commercially successful on the Saturn (Shining the Holy Ark, Mystaria, and the strategy Dragon Force 2). With the condition of the Saturn these days, Sega can't afford NOT to bring over any game the public demands."
• "I'd rather see Shining Force 3 over here...Grandia has better graphics and sound, I don't think it'll have better gameplay than Shining Force 3."

Has Sega done the right thing by ending their contract with 3Dfx, thus keeping hardware development in Japan?

Yes: 78%
No: 22%

"PC to console ports would have been a lot easier, ensuring 3rd party support..."
"NEC makes RISC processors CD-ROMs and other things that are useful...keeping the price of the system down..."

Now that some time has passed, do you think that the planned merger of Sega Enterprises and Bandai is good for Sega?

Note: Midway through the poll, the merger was called off by Bandai.

Yes: 88%
No: 12%

Has Sega made the right choice by not anouncing the 'BlackBelt' at the Tokyo Toy Show?

Yes: 95%
No: 5%

"Revealing this info would have given Sony and Nintendo plenty of time to stratigize about how to use this info against Sega by the E3 show."
"If they make the announcement too early, they will shorten the life of the Saturn."

Has Sega failed doing a good job promoting the Saturn as the console to use? Has their advertising so far been ineffective when compared to the Genesis campaigns?

Yes: 79%
No: 21%

"The Sega scream of the past was everwhere. I turn on the tv and "SEGA!" ringed in my ears! Now I see little to no advertisement..."
"Remember the fat guy with the hot dog that screamed SEGA!"
"While playstation and N64 are recognized for Quality and superior graphics, Saturn is known for their free game offers. It makes the Saturn appear to be inferior to a lot of people..."
"They do, however, need to promote some of their games better. People aren't going to buy the Saturn because the machine's cool. They'll buy the Saturn because the games are cool."

Are you willing to pay as much as $150 US for the Saturn upgrade which includes VF3?

Yes: 80%
No: 20%

"...well worth the $150 if it produced Model 3 quality effects, which would easily out-perform the Nintendo."
"...make sure it doesn't pull a 32X on me"
"...available for 3rd party to program games on it...show them how to program it PROPERLY.."

What game are you most looking forward to buying this year? Placing first by a wide margin (almost 3:1) was Virtua Fighter 3. The long awaited Sonic Xtreme came in second place.

Top three:

1. Virtua Fighter 3
2. Sonic Xtreme
3. Resident Evil 2

Other games voted for: Shining The Holy Ark, Fighter's Megamix, Scud Race, DragonHeart, Lunar: Silver Star Story, and Manx T.T.

Is there something mising from today's 32-bit games that was found in those of the 16-bit era and before? The results were about even, common reasons for yes were: The games are more focused on flash and lack in the gameplay dept. While users who voted that nothing was missing claimed that there are so many innovtaions in control, graphics, and sound, that nothing is missing over previous games. This in a way, can be seen as a clash of new gamers vs. old. Maybe, maybe not...

Yes: 58%
No: 42%

The best and worst games of 1996. Sega lead the way, with the two best games of the year....A special award goes go Acclaim for creating 4 of the 6 top worst game nominees, and the 2 worst games of the year! <G>

Best Game:

1. Nights
2. Fighters Megamix
3. Tomb Raider

Worst Game:

1. Rise 2: Resurrection
2. Revolution X
3. Battle Monsters

The second poll was about the media. Printed media to be more specific. Magazines were selected from the US, Europe and Japan. The popular American mags took the lead by a small margin over the British mag Edge.

Best Print Magazine:

1. Next Generation/Gamefan (tie)
2. Edge Magazine
3. Ultra Gameplayers

Worst Print Magazine:

1. EGM (by wide margin)
2. GamePro
3. Sega Power