Former SEGA president gives his thoughts on the Saturn’s launch
In what is still one of the most polarizing announcements in video game history, SEGA of America President Tom Kalinske announced that the SEGA Saturn was sitting on store shelves across the country for $399 on May 11, 1995, during the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
The decision, which Kalinske has said he was vehemently against as it alienated business partners and put undue stress on third-party developers, was particularly surprising because SEGA had previously announced the Saturn wouldn’t ship until early September that year.
To mark the Saturn’s 20th birthday, we talked to Kalinske to see if his feelings over SEGA of Japan’s decision to release the system early have changed.
SEGA Nerds: This year’s E3 marks the 20th anniversary of SEGA’s surprise announcement that the Saturn was available on store shelves. Your misgivings concerning that announcement have been well documented, but have your feelings about it changed over the years?
Kalinske: No, my feelings are the same, had we waited until we had more and better games, launching with all retailers instead of with a few, with marketing that could reach every player, we would have been much more successful, even if that meant waiting for a late October or November launch.
SEGA Nerds: If you had SOJ’s continued support, like you did earlier in your time with SEGA, what was your plan for the Saturn to compete against the Nintendo 64 and the new threat imposed by Sony with its PlayStation?
Kalinske: With very aggressive marketing that would have shown the benefits of Saturn vs other systems, with a complete line up of games, making it the only system a college age or older player would have wanted (of course younger players would then also want what big brother or older rockstar or athlete played on).
SEGA Nerds: Speaking of which, what do you think the long-lasting impact on the industry would have been if SEGA and Sony jointly developed and released a console?
Kalinske: Well, clearly SEGA would still be relevant and much stronger today had the alliance been approved by SEGA Japan. At that time, SEGA was much much stronger in developing game software, we actually were teaching Sony’s team how to program better games, splitting the loss from the combined Sony/SEGA hardware, would have saved SEGA a fortune. Lots would be different today had that deal been approved. It’s likely both Nintendo and Microsoft would be far weaker today.
SEGA Nerds: How different do you think the SEGA of today would have been?
Kalinske: A still dominant video game company jointly producing hardware with Sony, much stronger developer and marketer of video games.
So there you have it, folks. How do you think the Saturn’s fortunes would have changed had SEGA waited to release the system until later in the year? Do you think a SEGA and Sony system would have been successful? Let us know what you think!
In the book “Console Wars” it talked about how Sega’s R&D staff thought that sonn’y plans for a new console focused too much on 3d and sega wanted to focus on 2d. The R&D lab told the board that they did not like sony’s prototype and that is why the board voted down the decision. “Console Wars” suggest it was because the engineering staff could not find common ground not because sega just did not want a partner.
Eventually the baord used partners but way too late (actually too early) with the Dreamcast, killing the Saturn and the Dreamcast.
They partnered with Microsoft and PowerVR.
SoJ did not trust SoA, since the 16bit era they did not.
And then when Tom approched SGI SoJ rejected his idea too. Eventually the technology ended up in the Ultra64.
For sure Sega would be different, a Sega 32bits with Sony and SGI hardware. We would have got the perfect port of Sega arcade titles (Scud race!). And the dreamcast would have been absolutly different.
What do you think the Dreamcast would’ve been like?
It depends onso many things. If the Saturn continued and the Dreamcast arrived when the PS2 did then it would have become what the Xbox was.
Remember that Microsoft helped Sega for the Dreamcast.
If Sega and Sony had been together, then you can imagine what a PS2 with Sega games specifically designed for it could be. For sure the hardware would have been different, a Dreamcast with DVD and most likely an HDD.
Then Sega/Sony would have considered a handheld console too.
I don’t think anything could have saved the Saturn back then. I remember wanting one for a short time, but I was young and it was to costly for my family.
Actually releasing it when it was originally going to come out, which may have allowed for a more competitive price?
Good point.
Not to disagree with Bob Sanders or anything but I think Segata Sanshiro could have saved it. That kind of advertising was working enough that it could have worked in the West without translation even
Just got done reading Console Wars. The reason why Sega ultimately flopped was SOJ’s insistence on driving Japanese ideas down American throats. Two completely different and distinct cultures and lifestyles. Should have left the American marketing and videogames to the Americans and let the Japanese have their kids table games.