Save sega in one move

[Seregios]

SoA thought Genesis had some life left. SoJ did not, so SoA came up with the 32x. If SoA had their way, the 32x wouldn't happen.

From Retro Gamer Magazine issue 153, page 27.

Yes, I'm well aware of Kalinske's vision on this, which was part of the problem and, in my opinion, shows how SoA leadership became out of touch with gamers in the later years of Genesis.

The 32X could’ve made sense as a budget 32-bit solution if the Saturn wasn’t behind it. Customers, myself included, were very confused by Sega's strategy. This is not what people wanted. People wanted an actual 3D console.
Consolidating resources on Saturn and not fragmenting the install base would’ve been smarter, mainly because the transition to 3D has proven challenging for most developers.

Sega of Japan’s plan to go cheaper with the Genesis and focus on Saturn was more imaginative strategically and in the long term.
The infamous FY1997 documentation showed that Genesis still had decedent HW sales but weren't as strong as SoA thought, missing all their projections if memory serves me well; maybe making cheaper hardware would have helped get close to that projection…?

I'll add some food for thought:

• Sega and SoA started to work on the Saturn in '92, and by early 1994, Sega already had the final Saturn hardware nearly locked in and was preparing for a late ’94 Japanese release.
• But SoA either ignored it or didn’t know that (fully ), hoping Saturn would be delayed or positioned as a premium productwhile 32X would serve the mass market. It is almost like Saturn was the "accessory."
  • SoA + STI started to work on Project Mars in late 1993 (or early 1994, depending on the sources).

So yeah, I really don't think giving full power to SoA would have helped at all this time. Sega needed help to make the Saturn architecture easier, and with locked-in dev kits (which they hadn't had for years) from SoA instead of seeing their most prominent western supporter do their thing, a thing that no customer (and developer, as we saw) wanted by the way.

Now, don't take me wrong: I like the 32X (except for the product design, which is horrendous!), but if I had the magic wand to do one executive order, yeah, I would have instead moved the resources in the Saturn, prove to Sega that SoA understands the new market and plan a kick-ass launch day.

 

[tunezlovfull]

shoulda made another daytona

 

[Deleted member 179251]

No Sega! Don't shadow drop the Saturn! Make actual ads and build actual hype, and give retailers some time to stock it up!!!!!

 

[Swagmata]

dreamcast should have had VHS support

 

[Ikagura]

dreamcast should have had VHS support

In a time where DVD were slowly overtaking?

Very bad idea.

 

[Swagmata]

I was just joshing

 

[Seregios]

I was just joshing

now I want a VHS adapter for the DC, kinda like the FDS

 

[Swagmata]

now I want a VHS adapter for the DC, kinda like the FDS

Right ? Just cuz it would be kinda cool to watch blade runner on my dreamcast or something

 

[ThatOneLum]

This is how we save SEGA: Keep letting Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio do whatever they want. I will buy it. I'll buy the Majima pirate game that's like 90% complete nonsense and doesn't even expand his character and it's just an extremely weird side adventure. I'll buy it twice. I probably actually will buy it twice because I have actually bought all of the games twice at this point. Just keep it coming.

I even bought Yakuza 4 twice and it's the one that I personally think is annoying to play and I even thought that the plot was pretty weak once you get past the Akiyama chapter.

As someone whose first attempts to get into the Yakuza series was me bouncing off Yakuza 4 post Akiyama hard, I felt this in my soul.

 

[OpenVMS]

It tickles me that the 32X is so cursed, there's about 150 suggestions upthread and nearly all of them say to nix the 32X. Indeed, it was the poison mushroom that killed SEGA