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In recent years, the rise of the “gaming history” genre has exposed me to many Western-centric Sega post mortems that essentially blame the fall of Sega on conf

In recent years, the rise of the “gaming history” genre has exposed me to many Western-centric Sega post mortems that essentially blame the fall of Sega on conflicts between Sega of America (and SoE) and the Sega of Japan mother company - with the vast majority of the blame being placed on SoJ for being ridiculously overly secretive. Very interesting to hear the other side of the argument in this article. Paraphrased: SoA was a marketing division that kept biting off more than it could chew and was negatively impacted by proximity to SV and the “move fast and break things” ethos. The prototypes shown in the article demonstrate that SoJ clearly had no lack of creativity or desire to experiment with unique hardware concepts - but they were extremely cautious not to release anything half-baked. Meanwhile, SoA kept announcing (and sometimes even releasing) hardware that was inferior to similar concepts under development in Japan. The SoA “Sega VR” vs the SoJ “Virtua Visor”, the SoA 32X vs the SoJ Saturn, etc. SoJ still likely deserves much of the blame since they repeatedly refused to share information on internal prototypes to SoA, but the issue is clearly more nuanced than the “stodgy Japanese vs dynamic Americans” explanation I kept getting fed.

hitekker 4y ago
As an engineer, I love hearing that marketing is wrong and engineering is perfect. But how do you explain the Sega Saturn? A half-baked, expensive and overly complex system driven by Sega of Japan & hated by Sega of America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn#Development > In 1993, Sega and Japanese electronics company Hitachi formed a joint venture to develop a new CPU for the Saturn, which resulted in the creation of the "SuperH RISC Engine" (or SH-2) later that year ... According to Sega of America president Tom Kalinske, Sega of America "fought against the architecture of Saturn for quite some time".[18] Seeking an alternative graphics chip for the Saturn, Kalinske attempted to broker a deal with Silicon Graphics, but Sega of Japan rejected the proposal ... In particular, Dreisbach criticized the Saturn's use of quadrilaterals as its basic geometric primitive, in contrast to the triangles rendered by the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. Recorded history also shows that the broader industry was not happy with Sega of Japan's hardware decisions, that Sega of Japan loved pushing for super-cool & interesting engineering that was way too ahead of its time. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4128/the_rise_and_fall_of_the_dreamcast.php?print=1 https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4128/the_rise_and_fal... > According to Gordon, Sega had flip-flopped over whether to include a modem, but it also picked the wrong chipset. "I remember our CTO (chief technology officer) talking about the processor and going, 'Oh my God, I don't know anybody who has even heard of this chip. It's non-standard and there are no libraries for it.' It was kind of a slap in the face. But even then, at first blush, EA is thinking, 'It's Sega. We've got to support them.' You know, we went to war with them on Genesis and did great things. So the chipset alone was not enough to stop EA from working on it." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast#Hardware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast#Hardware > He further stated that "Sega's relationship with NEC, a Japanese company, probably made a difference [in Sega's decision to adopt the Japanese team's design] too."[33] Stolar, on the other hand, "felt the U.S. version, the 3Dfx version, should have been used. Japan wanted the Japanese version, and Japan won."[33] As a result, 3dfx filed a lawsuit against both Sega and NEC claiming breach of contract, which would eventually be settled out of court.[32] The choice to use the PowerVR architecture concerned Electronic Arts (EA), a longtime developer for Sega's consoles. EA had invested in 3dfx but was unfamiliar with the selected architecture, which was reportedly less powerful
gryson 4y ago
I have translated countless interviews and articles from Japanese sources over the past few years on Sega's history, and yes, the whole issue is full of ridiculously inaccurate information. Here's a thread of some recent info I uncovered about the 32X, for example: https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?35945-Japan-execs-were-upset-that-Kalinske-was-allowed-to-resign-w-o-taking-blame-for-32X https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?35945-Japan-exe... I'm also not sure what you are talking about when you say Japan refused to share information on internal prototypes. Is there actual evidence of this refusal?
- tgorgolione 4y ago
  They might be referring to the Mega CD/Sega CD?

hitekker 4y ago

As an engineer, I love hearing that marketing is wrong and engineering is perfect. But how do you explain the Sega Saturn? A half-baked, expensive and overly complex system driven by Sega of Japan & hated by Sega of America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn#Development > In 1993, Sega and Japanese electronics company Hitachi formed a joint venture to develop a new CPU for the Saturn, which resulted in the creation of the "SuperH RISC Engine" (or SH-2) later that year ... According to Sega of America president Tom Kalinske, Sega of America "fought against the architecture of Saturn for quite some time".[18] Seeking an alternative graphics chip for the Saturn, Kalinske attempted to broker a deal with Silicon Graphics, but Sega of Japan rejected the proposal ... In particular, Dreisbach criticized the Saturn's use of quadrilaterals as its basic geometric primitive, in contrast to the triangles rendered by the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. Recorded history also shows that the broader industry was not happy with Sega of Japan's hardware decisions, that Sega of Japan loved pushing for super-cool & interesting engineering that was way too ahead of its time. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4128/the_rise_and_fall_of_the_dreamcast.php?print=1 https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4128/the_rise_and_fal... > According to Gordon, Sega had flip-flopped over whether to include a modem, but it also picked the wrong chipset. "I remember our CTO (chief technology officer) talking about the processor and going, 'Oh my God, I don't know anybody who has even heard of this chip. It's non-standard and there are no libraries for it.' It was kind of a slap in the face. But even then, at first blush, EA is thinking, 'It's Sega. We've got to support them.' You know, we went to war with them on Genesis and did great things. So the chipset alone was not enough to stop EA from working on it." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast#Hardware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast#Hardware > He further stated that "Sega's relationship with NEC, a Japanese company, probably made a difference [in Sega's decision to adopt the Japanese team's design] too."[33] Stolar, on the other hand, "felt the U.S. version, the 3Dfx version, should have been used. Japan wanted the Japanese version, and Japan won."[33] As a result, 3dfx filed a lawsuit against both Sega and NEC claiming breach of contract, which would eventually be settled out of court.[32] The choice to use the PowerVR architecture concerned Electronic Arts (EA), a longtime developer for Sega's consoles. EA had invested in 3dfx but was unfamiliar with the selected architecture, which was reportedly less powerful

gryson 4y ago

I have translated countless interviews and articles from Japanese sources over the past few years on Sega's history, and yes, the whole issue is full of ridiculously inaccurate information. Here's a thread of some recent info I uncovered about the 32X, for example: https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?35945-Japan-execs-were-upset-that-Kalinske-was-allowed-to-resign-w-o-taking-blame-for-32X https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?35945-Japan-exe... I'm also not sure what you are talking about when you say Japan refused to share information on internal prototypes. Is there actual evidence of this refusal?

tgorgolione 4y ago
They might be referring to the Mega CD/Sega CD?