That's by no means a criticism; Sega took on the biggest video games company in the world, and - as the naughty boy who throws a tantrum every time he's told to let somebody else have a play with the sandpit - for a good few years managed to keep the competition at arm's length.
In Europe especially, Sega ruled supreme, striding lewdly across the continent like a foul-mouthed gaming colossus. Even today I've noticed that the company retains a certain manic loyalty among its fans that Nintendo lacks, presumably a holdover from the blind, cult-like, devotion it somehow managed to instil in all those Mega Drive owners.
Of course, history records that it all went spectacularly wrong for Sega, and that its doting legions were misguided to invest so much faith in the upstart.
We often point to the Mega CD/32X/Saturn triumvirate of failure, but there was another signpost to Sega's eventual downfall; the Segaworld arcade at London's Trocadero Centre.
Hubris, thy name is Sega.