Zenien
Guest
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2002
- Messages
- 25,975
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 31
Sega Fans has some quotes from of CEO's of Sega that are fairly amusing and sadening.
http://saturn.classicgaming.gamespy.com/content/features/misc/quotes.shtml
On how N64's processor was initially intented for the Saturn:
"The specs for our next-generation console, the Saturn, didn't look very good, and it was way too expensive - Sega Japan told us it was going to retail at $549. Then Jim Clark, the chair of Silicon Graphics, says, "I've got this chipset that's a derivative of the MIPS chipset that would be perfect for your system." We call Sega Japan and say this thing will be cheaper than Saturn, and that it will move polygons 50 percent quicker. The Sega hardware group comes over and says that the chip is too big, it won't be efficient to manufacture. Forget it. When I tell Jim Clark this, he says, "What do I do with this now?" And I say, "Well, I'm sure there are a few folks who might be interested in buying it." And he says, "Yeah, I've already talked to Nintendo." The rest is N64 history."
# On how the Saturn was ****ed up from day zero, and Sega was aware of it:
"I felt horrible about bringing Saturn to market. I was being forced to introduce the machine with a very high price, and its performance was terrible. We knew it was terrible. Sega Japan said, "You've got to bring Saturn out before PlayStation." Which we did - it came out four months earlier than PlayStation. Then they said we'd only have 70,000 ready by then. Well, how can you introduce a platform with only 70,000 units? I sent a memo to Japan in 1995, saying Sega would be better off just becoming a software company - we could support Sony, and even Nintendo. They sent a reply: "We will always be in the hardware business [<- ]."
# We all know -well, many of us, anyway- Sony was working on the SNES CD reader add-on for Nintendo and that when they broke the deal Sony went on and developed the PlayStation. Well, it seems Nintendo wasn't the only one that had something to do with PlayStation's birth after all...
"The managements of Sega and Sony were very close. Sony asked us if they could develop software for the Sega CD, and we even taught Sony how to do CD-based games. We ran the specs on what we thought would be the perfect game platform, based on our R&D guys at Sega of America. We took it to Japan, and, believe it or not, Sony Japan agreed that it was a great idea. We'd build a hardware platform together and share the loss, because there surely would be a loss on any kind of hardware platform. Sega would get the benefit of whatever software it developed, and whatever Sony developed belonged to Sony. We went to Sega's board, and they said, "What, are you crazy? Sony doesn't know anything about building a game system, and they don't know anything about software. Why would you want to partner with them?" So that was the end of that."
http://saturn.classicgaming.gamespy.com/content/features/misc/quotes.shtml
On how N64's processor was initially intented for the Saturn:
"The specs for our next-generation console, the Saturn, didn't look very good, and it was way too expensive - Sega Japan told us it was going to retail at $549. Then Jim Clark, the chair of Silicon Graphics, says, "I've got this chipset that's a derivative of the MIPS chipset that would be perfect for your system." We call Sega Japan and say this thing will be cheaper than Saturn, and that it will move polygons 50 percent quicker. The Sega hardware group comes over and says that the chip is too big, it won't be efficient to manufacture. Forget it. When I tell Jim Clark this, he says, "What do I do with this now?" And I say, "Well, I'm sure there are a few folks who might be interested in buying it." And he says, "Yeah, I've already talked to Nintendo." The rest is N64 history."
# On how the Saturn was ****ed up from day zero, and Sega was aware of it:
"I felt horrible about bringing Saturn to market. I was being forced to introduce the machine with a very high price, and its performance was terrible. We knew it was terrible. Sega Japan said, "You've got to bring Saturn out before PlayStation." Which we did - it came out four months earlier than PlayStation. Then they said we'd only have 70,000 ready by then. Well, how can you introduce a platform with only 70,000 units? I sent a memo to Japan in 1995, saying Sega would be better off just becoming a software company - we could support Sony, and even Nintendo. They sent a reply: "We will always be in the hardware business [<- ]."
# We all know -well, many of us, anyway- Sony was working on the SNES CD reader add-on for Nintendo and that when they broke the deal Sony went on and developed the PlayStation. Well, it seems Nintendo wasn't the only one that had something to do with PlayStation's birth after all...
"The managements of Sega and Sony were very close. Sony asked us if they could develop software for the Sega CD, and we even taught Sony how to do CD-based games. We ran the specs on what we thought would be the perfect game platform, based on our R&D guys at Sega of America. We took it to Japan, and, believe it or not, Sony Japan agreed that it was a great idea. We'd build a hardware platform together and share the loss, because there surely would be a loss on any kind of hardware platform. Sega would get the benefit of whatever software it developed, and whatever Sony developed belonged to Sony. We went to Sega's board, and they said, "What, are you crazy? Sony doesn't know anything about building a game system, and they don't know anything about software. Why would you want to partner with them?" So that was the end of that."
