Retro - "We Are Killing Sony" - Leaked Docs Shine A Light On Sega's Ill-Fated Battle With PlayStation

[stu11]

A freshly-leaked document has revealed the fraught nature of Sega's 32-bit battle with Sony's PlayStation (thanks, John Harrison).

Sega's 1997 'Brand Review' document from January 1996 runs for more than 270 pages, and includes release lists, strategy discussions and emails relating to the Japanese giant's struggle to fight back against the PlayStation – which, as part of the document notes, was outselling its Saturn console 7-to-1.

Early on in the document, an internal email from Sega of America president Tom Kalinske laments the fact that, in Japan, Saturn was selling briskly. "We are killing Sony," he says. "I wish I could get all our staff, salespeople, retailers, analysts, media, etc., to see and understand what's happening in Japan; they would then understand why we will win here in the U.S. eventually."

Such positivity was admirable, but even Kalinske himself might not have believed it at the time. He left the company on July 15th, 1996, a few months after the brand review document had been circulated within the company.

Lots of interesting information for Sega fans from circa 1996/97 regarding how Sega saw the console war between themselves and Sony from an internal perspective. I've only just started to look through the whole thing but already there is lots of cool information.

Thought people would enjoy!

Link to PDF is in the article.

 

[milk]

Ok, but could the saturn run a port of Half Life if the devs understood the hardware better?

 

[Theeoo]

I'm sure it could a run a version of it. Even the Spectrum ZX, with Zilog Z80 CPU can run a version of doom.

 

[stu11]

Ok, but could the saturn run a port of Half Life if the devs understood the hardware better?

Possibly, Half Life runs on a customized version of the Quake engine so I'm sure Lobotomy could made a decent stab at it, of course the PC game came out in 1998 and the Saturn was pretty dead by then.

Understanding the hardware better would of been more beneficial for making the Saturn versions of games look better, especially the 3D ones.

2D the Saturn was in a class of its own.

I'm sure it could a run a version of it. Even the Spectrum ZX, with Zilog Z80 CPU can run a version of doom.

Man that Spectrum version of Doom runs at a better framerate than the 3DO version! /jk

 

[milk]

I was jus joking about the fact every time saturn is brought up, hypothetical port discussions unavoidably begin.

 

[stu11]

I was jus joking about the fact every time saturn is brought up, hypothetical port discussions unavoidably begin.

LOL yeah I've seen that happen with other systems and other forums, the Atari Jaguar is usually good for that as well, hypothetical ports of the likes of Tomb Raider and Quake for the Jag.

 

[Nesh]

I never understood the capaibilities of the 3DO.
The Saturn is the most interesting machine of the generation. Panzer Dragoon Saga was doing pretty amazing and interesting things with the visuals

 

[Theeoo]

Interestingly 3DO got a port of OpenLara, so I suppose that gives some indication of its capabilities.

 

[stu11]

I never understood the capaibilities of the 3DO.
The Saturn is the most interesting machine of the generation. Panzer Dragoon Saga was doing pretty amazing and interesting things with the visuals

I agree that Saturn was definitely one of the more interesting machines of that generation, and I certainly don't think that it was ever fully utilized. I've always found some of the effects in Sonic R to be quite impressive, like the way the track comes into view without any pop-in.

I also think the N64 was quite interesting, as were the 3DO and Jaguar. I think all 4 of those were underutilized to differing degrees.

Actually, one of my major gaming regrets is not picking up a Saturn back when they were clearing out the stock, at one point they had the Saturn and 3 or 5 games for about a hundred quid. I do have one now and enjoy the system immensely, just wished I'd grabbed it bitd and grabbed all the games cheap too!

Interestingly 3DO got a port of OpenLara, so I suppose that gives some indication of its capabilities.

I was quite impressed with the OpenLara port to the 3DO, I would never have thought that Tomb Raider would have worked on that system. I believe the same guy who ported Open Lara over to 3DO is also working on a port of WipEout too. I saw a very rough demo of it on Youtube (iirc it had one ship and the track but the scenery was just filled polygons and no textures on the scenery) , but I believe it was taken down.

 

[tuna]

Actually, one of my major gaming regrets is not picking up a Saturn back when they were clearing out the stock, at one point they had the Saturn and 3 or 5 games for about a hundred quid. I do have one now and enjoy the system immensely, just wished I'd grabbed it bitd and grabbed all the games cheap too!

Yeah, you could have picked up a couple of copies of Panzer Saga and Radiant Silvergun while you were at it

 

[Nesh]

Interestingly 3DO got a port of OpenLara, so I suppose that gives some indication of its capabilities.

Holy shit it looks and runs better than I thought

 

[stu11]

Yeah, you could have picked up a couple of copies of Panzer Saga and Radiant Silvergun while you were at it

LOL and now you made me think of that I feel even worse! Oh man.