WEBVTT - The Brink Plays Games With Sega 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:07.840 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:14.920 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.880 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.320 And how the tech are you? You may have ascertained 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:26.400 that I am not at due to the nature of 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:31.560 my voice, which is probably a bit more um lower 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.559 than usual. Been coughing a lot rough times in the 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:40.680 Strickland household. But I'll be okay. So because of my 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.200 condition that I'm a bit under the weather, We're going 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.639 to present to you something special. You know. I did 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.559 this a few weeks back where I brought up an 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:52.920 old episode of Business on the Brink, the show that 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.840 I used to do with aerial casting where we would 0:00:55.840 --> 0:01:00.360 take companies that were at a real inflection point, either 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:02.840 they were just about to take off or they were 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:06.560 just about to disappear and talk about what happened and 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.600 how we got there. And a lot of those companies, 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.720 of course, have something to do with tech. So today 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:17.040 I thought we would do the episode titled The Brink 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:25.640 plays Games with Sega. I hope you enjoy Sega. From 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.840 Slot Machines to Sonic the Hedgehog, this company played its 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.560 way into people's hearts. But in the nineties they made 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.120 a few key mistakes that would make them lose the 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:36.560 trust of their gamers, and by the time they came 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.640 out with elite new system worthy of consumers praise, it 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.280 was too late and the market was gone. Learn how 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.480 this company spun out of control and out of the 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:58.880 console game. This is Sega on the brink. Hi everybody, 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.480 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Arial Casting, and I want 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.640 to apologize that intro had far too few puns in it. 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:13.360 Game over area over. So this was a request from 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:19.679 a from a Tony. Yeah, isn't your husband's name Tony? Yes, 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:21.640 there may or may not be any relation to that, 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.799 but you know what, it's a really good suggestion. If 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:26.880 my wife had made a suggestion, I would have gone 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:28.959 with it too, So totally cool. I put it in 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.600 listener suggestions because he doesn't work on this podcast, so 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.960 it's a listener suggestion. Totally Yeah. So this is a 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.320 great story to cover in the sense that it's easy 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.200 to forget it now. But Sega for a while was 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:46.000 writing high in the video game console world, and for 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.240 a brief period it looked like they could become the 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.840 dominant name in video game consoles, and then everything went wrong. 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.799 So it's to the point now where people who think 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.240 back on the Sega consoles, they tend to fall into 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:04.000 two camps. They're either the people who wistfully remember how 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.960 awesome those game consoles were more there people who think 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.440 of it as a big joke. It's a little both, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.880 a little both because largely because of the very moves 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.480 we're going to talk about in this podcast. But just 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.120 in the interest of full disclosure, I was someone who 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.320 got hold of a Sega Dreamcast system, which we're going 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.000 to talk about in this episode. I got it after 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:30.760 the Dreamcast had already made a splash and was fading 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.400 from memory, So this was they weren't making new Dreamcast 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:36.360 games by the time I got hold of the system, 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.400 it was all the used game market. But I was 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.000 blown away by the Dreamcast. So when we talk about 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.360 people who truly loved that system, I'm one of those people. 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:48.120 I want to mention at the beginning of this that 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.160 as much as we say that Sega has kind of 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.920 fallen out of memory, people were saying they might make 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.520 a comeback, and the fact that there's a Sonic movie 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.560 coming out a Sonic movie that is rapidly undergoing massive 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.440 change is as we record this. The news recently broke 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.880 that because of the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the Sonic 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:14.320 the Hedgehog teaser trailer, they are going to redesign Sonics look, 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.919 which is a pretty massive undertaking for a for a 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.279 c g I movie. It is. I'm really rooting for 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.359 them to get it right, because I think a Sonic movie. 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:23.359 I enjoyed the stories when I played the games, and 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:25.760 I think kids would enjoy a Sonic movie. I didn't 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.080 realize there was a story. Here's a story dr about 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.880 Nick Steel's little animals and turns them into I just 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.360 figured you ran really fast and when you hit stuff, 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.040 rings popped out of you. I mean, which I mean 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.800 that happens to me. Yeah, it's I mean, I get it. 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:42.880 It's true to life. Well, let's talk a little bit 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.960 about just a little bit about Sega's origins to kind 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.440 of set the scene of how they were able to 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.839 climb in the home console space. Now, obviously, the story 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.080 of Sega starts before there was a home video game 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.040 console market. We're actually not going to start at the 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:03.040 very beginning of the company that becomes Sega because it's 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.120 a lot of little steps, it's not very important. There 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:10.080 was a slot machine company made in Hawaii, and eventually 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.640 the Army said, we don't want slot machines on US 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:15.840 army bases anymore, which is where they were selling their 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.039 machines too. So they went over to Japan where they 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.880 still could sell games, and they became Service Games Japan. Yeah, 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:25.400 as service thus the nod to making games for like 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:29.440 military installations. Yes, And when they went over to Japan, 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:33.160 they're being run by Martin Bromley. Now, in nineteen sixty 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.040 that company liquidated and split into two divisions. I'm gonna 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:42.120 pronounce this probably very poorly, Nihan Goriku Basan which traded 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.359 under the name Automatic Inc. For distribution, and then Nihan 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.800 Kaeso would traded under the name Sega Inc. Sega is 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.680 short for Service Games, taking the first two letters of each. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.680 So they made slot machines, but they also made juke boxes, 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:02.040 so that you know, obviously this is arcade game days. 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:05.800 And where do we go from there. Well, eventually those 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.920 two companies recombine. Now at the same time, you've got 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.680 Rosen Enterprises Inc. Also in Japan at the time run 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.480 by David Rosen, who is another army man. His company 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.520 started as an art exporting company, taking art from Japan, 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.680 exporting it to the US during the Korean War, and 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:27.760 then he became an arcade game importer in nine and 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.799 then he became a producer of electro mechanical arcade games. 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.960 So the precursor to video games, right, this would be 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.760 games that would actually have moving components to those. So 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.400 a pinball machine is sort of a variant of these games, 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.680 but you had all sorts of different ones. There's a 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.200 great arcade game museum in San Francisco where you can 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.000 actually see some of these electro mechanical and you can 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:54.240 play them, these electro mechanical games. And it is funny 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.119 to see how human ingenuity came up with ways to 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.200 convince people to part with their change. I believe even 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:02.320 and I would part with a lot of change there, 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.200 I'm certain. Now. Rosen was very successful at this, and 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.000 in part because he had other engineers helping him from 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.800 companies like Nihang Kupasan, and so he started looking for 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.240 mergers and the one that panned out was with Nihang 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:21.840 Kupasan or Sea, and they merged in n and I'm 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.520 gonna call it MGB. From this point, they acquired Rosen 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:28.760 Enterprises and Rosen became the CEO, and they renamed the 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.360 company Sega Enterprises, taking the Sega from m GB what 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.760 they were trading under, and taking Enterprises from Rosen Enterprises. 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:38.920 And at that point they were making the electro mechanical 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.440 arcade games and jukeboxes, and they started coming out with 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.400 their own games in sixty six. The first one that 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:52.040 really got some traction was a game called Periscope, and 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.960 they even started opening up essentially arcades. They were called 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.720 game centers, but I mean they're like arcades in the 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.800 sense of like the video U arcades made famous in 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.120 the nineteen eighties. Periscope, by the way, was so good 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.440 that they started importing it to the US. Yeah, so 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.679 there actually ended up being an international market for the game. Yeah. 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.680 And then in nineteen sixty nine, Sega was acquired by 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.880 Gulf and Western, who had been largely trading in pinball machines. 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.640 From my understanding, so now Sega has pinball machines. Yeah, 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.000 so they start doing those as well. As a pinball enthusiast, 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:29.360 I appreciate that I love pinball games and Sega was 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.199 then trading on the US stock market, so they were 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.640 now not just on Japanese markets but also in the US. 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:40.360 In fact, primarily in the US by this point, and 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:45.680 they had Sega Enterprises Incorporated and they essentially shifted their 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.800 operations to the United States, although they maintained an operating 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.240 arm in Japan as well. Yeah, it was an ltd. 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.520 After that, they started moving into video games, both in 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.839 the arcade and at home and seeing the trend. There 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:58.920 have been a couple of games that people have attributed 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:00.760 to this. The one that is coming to my mind 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.120 is Pong. So they saw Pong and they said, well, 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:04.760 this is the way things are going. Let's jump on 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:09.079 the train. And they even acquired the US gaming company 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:13.400 called Gremlin in seventy to help them expand into that market. So, 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:15.080 you know, we kind of skipped over a lot of 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.680 the early seventies, but that was more of the same. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:20.920 It's really when you get into the mid to late 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.360 seventies where the arcade games, the video games story coming out, 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.600 where this this story starts to change. Uh, they were 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.040 doing pretty well, that division was doing pretty well, but 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.280 the overall parent company it was a different story. Yeah, 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:39.079 So Golf and Western hit some trouble and they sold 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:40.880 the U S division of Sega to Midway Games in 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.000 at which point Sega became a primarily Japanese company again. 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.800 Sega North America was absorbed into Midway. Midway is another 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.120 company we'll have to do a brink episode on sometime 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.880 in the future. Midway famous in the United States for 0:09:55.960 --> 0:10:01.360 the Mortal Kombat series. Midway is no more. So that's 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.840 another story that has its own brink moment, but we'll 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.120 save that for its own episode, you know. And Saga 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.320 does have operations in the US again, but at that 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.800 time they shifted. So Rosen wanted this video game market 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.360 that they had built, so he and some others bought 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.640 it back from Gulf and Western. They buy back the 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.959 Japanese branch, right, so the North American branch that's part 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.920 of Midway. Rosen goes back to the Japanese side and 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.800 purchases that one back from the parent company. Yes, and 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.400 in three Sega had its first console, the s G 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.439 one thousand, which was I'm sorry if I offend anybody, 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:41.720 nothing to write home about. They also had a micro 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.480 computer come out at that time, which I think was 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:46.240 the s G two thousand or three thousand. I covered 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.800 this for a living, and I don't remember ever reading 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.520 about the s G one. Yes, well, they had a 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:55.600 really hard time competing with Nintendo because Nintendo already had 0:10:55.679 --> 0:11:00.280 market share. And then in six Sega came out with 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.880 their first successful console, the Sega Master System. Yeah, but 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:10.520 then the Nintendo Entertainment System was still pretty much the 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:12.880 dominant player in that space. I mean, remember that the 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.360 Nintendo Entertainment System was the system that was able to 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.800 bring the video game home market back from the crash 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.280 of three. Well, Sega realized that they were not necessarily 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.640 going to get Nintendo's markets, so they focused on markets 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.559 that weren't saturated with Nintendo already, places like Brazil in Europe, 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.079 and they became the second most popular home system in 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.600 the world, kicking Atari out of that spot, which I'm 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:37.760 surprised Atari was even in that spot. I'm guessing it's 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.760 from lack of competition. Yeah, no, because no one else 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.280 wanted to get into the video game console market after 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.439 that crash, right, so Nintendo. Everyone thought Nintendo was crazy 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.319 for getting into a market just as it had imploded, 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.400 and Nintendo was able to prove that there was still 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.400 a market there, but no one else had anything ready 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.200 to compete in that space because they had all either 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.360 gone out of business or had changed their minds about 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.439 developing a console. So it was kind of open ground. 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:11.120 And so even though the Sega system wasn't catching on 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.400 big here in the United States, so a lot of 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:15.959 people in the US were completely unfamiliar with it, there 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.840 was enough demand in other countries for it to be 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.760 a big success. Well, all of that was about to change, well, 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.280 at least the not being in high demand in the 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.760 US part, because in eighty eight they came out with 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:29.240 the Sega Mega Drive, which in the United States is 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.600 better known as the Sega Genesis. Yeah, and it was 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.959 not only a really popular console, but it was also 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.920 really the first sixteen bit console there was, which is 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.520 probably why it was so popular. Yeah. It was a 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:45.439 dramatic improvement over the eight bit systems like the Nintendo 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.480 Entertainment System that came before it, and it got the 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.040 jump start on the Super Nintendo, which was another sixteen 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:55.720 bit system. Yeah. Along with that system, they implemented a 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.120 good marketing strategy. They had really good games, which we 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.000 know is very important for the six US of a console. Yeah, 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.319 you need to have a good launch library. Yeah. This 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.120 is around the time we get Altered Beast. Yeah. I 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:08.400 watched a long play of that just the other day 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.040 and I forgot how bonkers that game. It is crazy. Yeah, 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.600 it's pretty nuts. If you don't know what we're talking about, 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:20.079 do a YouTube search for Altered Beasts Sega and uh. Yeah. 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.280 It's all about transforming into various types of monsters as 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.840 you make your way through multiple levels, and it's really hard. 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.440 It's a really hard game. But this gave Nintendo a 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.760 fight because up until that time they had the mark share. 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.480 By nine one, Sega was doing real well both in 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:39.600 the arcades and in the home console arena. And the arcades, 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.600 they were coming out with three D games like Virtual Racing, 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.679 Virtua Fighter, virtual games. There was virtual Tennis. I remember 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.280 that was all under the Sega label. There is Virtual 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:53.920 Virtue of Virtuous people now virtually Virtuous, and it's I 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.280 can identify with that. By that time, Sega was in 0:13:56.320 --> 0:14:00.720 forty four countries and they came out with Sonic the Hedge. Yeah, 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.240 kind of their answer to uh to Nintendo's Mario. It 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.200 became like the mascot for Sega. Yeah, and it looks 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:13.360 like Sonic might outpace Mario. Well you can run really fast, mao. Well, 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:18.920 Sonic jumps higher. U. Now, Nintendo did gain groundback with 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.800 SNS when it came out. So Sega did a couple 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.960 of moves that would spell to bring for them. One 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.080 was the Sega thirty two X cartridge and the other 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.240 was the Sega c D. Yeah, these were both additions 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.160 to the Genesis. It was an attempt to boost the 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:39.800 genesis is power and to extend the lifespan of the 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:45.960 console by giving it additional capabilities beyond the basic system. 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.760 And essentially the company had a couple of choices, right, 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:50.880 they could have gone down that route to try and 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:56.320 augment an existing game console, or they could have designed 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:00.160 the next generation console to have those things built into 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.760 it natively and launched that. They decided to go with 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.080 the augmenting approach, so more more like a computer where 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.080 you would buy a new graphics card for it. Yeah. 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.840 Shortly after, they did also design a console which was 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.160 a whole another problem. Yeah, the Sega Saturn. The Sega 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.760 Saturn in ninety four. Now, Sega Saturn was a really 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.280 big hit in Japan, and at that time they also 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.440 launched things like in door theme parks and the Sega Channel, 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.000 which is a whole story of its own. But Sega 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.640 Saturn big hit in Japan, but not a big hit 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.280 in North America, and the peripherals for the Genesis weren't selling. 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:36.440 So these three moves are the things that brought Sega 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.360 to the brink. The stuff that would push Sega over 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.720 are yet to come, but this kind of sets the stage. 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.520 So with that in mind, let's take a quick break 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:46.840 and when we come back, we'll explain a bit more 0:15:46.880 --> 0:16:00.520 about what pushed Sega over the edge. Alright, so we 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.440 mentioned the Sega Genesis and the Purples, or if you prefer, 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.520 the Sega Mega c D system. It was the Sega 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.400 c D in the US, it was the Mega c 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.040 D in Japan. So let's talk a little bit more 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:18.840 about this peripheral and why it failed to really get 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.600 a lot of traction. This was the peripheral, the additional 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:25.000 thing for the Genesis that would give it more capabilities. 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.560 The Genesis when it released was a cartridge based system, 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:32.160 very much like the Nintendo Entertainment System. Yes, s, even 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.000 the Nintendo sixty four that would come out later was 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:40.800 still cartridge based So what were the thoughts behind going 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:45.440 to a CD based system? All right, Well, first, the 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.520 Sega c D would allow for full motion video games, 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.680 which sounded good in theory back at the time. Yeah, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.160 but they were really grainy. Yeah, and a lot of 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.840 them had very little to know gameplay. Let me let 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.320 me tell you about one of them. Sure, I'm the 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.920 famous One night Trap. Have you heard about this one? This? Yeah, 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.320 it started a person who had formerly start on the 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.680 show Different Strokes. Uh. It's about a group of young 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.800 women who are having a sleepover party and you're playing 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:20.720 a super creepy neighbor I'm guessing who is looking in 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:23.280 on the home while the women are having their party, 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:29.280 and there's about a billion masked intruders trying to get 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.800 in there, and you activate a series of traps in 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.320 various rooms to stop the invaders from getting at the 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.520 young women. And I'm talking about like crazy traps like 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.879 people are are. You're watching these guys sneak past a 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.199 wall and you hit a button at just the right 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:48.840 moment and then a video would play where the wall 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:54.119 would like rotate around, possibly sending those intruders to their demise. 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:58.280 You don't really know it was weird. And yeah, full 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.600 motion videos sounded great because you're like, look at the 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:05.040 amazing technical capability. We can actually show full motion video, 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.400 but it meant that we had to pre record everything, 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.600 so there was very little control, Like you couldn't control 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:16.800 a full motion video person imperfect motion because that capability 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:19.280 wasn't there. You would essentially do a choose your own 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.280 adventure kind of approach to games, which meant that there 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.439 was very little gameplay to actually have. Yeah, the CDs 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:27.280 were supposed to be able to store a lot more 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.119 information than cartridges could. Now on the flip side, you 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.720 had companies like Nintendo saying we don't want to go 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.879 down that path because we feel that the CD format 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.879 is easier to pirate, And in fact, Sega would have 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.119 problems with that as somebody who may or may not 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.439 have come into possession of an enormous folder of pirated discs. 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.760 I know nothing. Yeah, but there are other problems with 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.400 the Sega City beyond being piratable. Yeah, and you're right, 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:58.120 they could hold more storage. They also had better audio 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.000 because they used an audio D drive not a CD 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.639 ROM for it. But these units were not universal. So 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:06.879 depending on what version Genesis you got you'd have to 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.679 either get a Sega c D that was compatible with 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.080 that specifically, so some sat like completely underneath and some 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:16.359 we're on the side of. So that's that's confusing to 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:18.800 the consumer. Yes, and then all of these peripherals had 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.800 their own power sources, right, so so it's not like 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.600 they even could just take power from the main console. 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.600 You had to plug them in separately. And also it 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:29.880 meant and I love that you have this note here 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:33.080 because it's it's a clear problem. It meant that you 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.160 were already limiting your market right because the only people 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.960 you can sell that peripheral to our people who either 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.720 own a Sega Genesis or buying a Sega Genesis at 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:45.679 the same time, and they just want to have the 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.320 full thing kitted out, which takes a lot of money. Yeah, 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.600 So so you're essentially saying these existing customers I already have, 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.520 I'm trying to up sell those customers, but you're not 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.000 winning new customers with that approach, So you've already limited 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.400 the amount of success you can have that product, as 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.600 opposed to coming out with a brand new console that 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.679 might win not just your existing customers but new customers. 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.000 And that ended up being one of those strategies that 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.720 ultimately would come back to slap them in the face. 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:18.800 And and we'll get to that because they did design 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.159 a CD console it was a Saturn. But first I 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:23.640 also want to talk about the thirty two X. It 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.600 was actually made to compete with the Attari Jaguar, and 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.520 I have very little software support. Yeah, which is kind 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:31.920 of interesting because the Attari Jaguar, it turns out you 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.000 didn't really need to compete against it now and that's 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:36.800 the only reason I wanted to mention. It was supposed 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.639 to bring arcade quality games to your home. It was 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.679 called three two X because you had the sixteen system 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.320 system and that's cool, but again expensive. You can't really 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:50.640 enter in if you've got to buy three separate machines 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.919 unless you've got a lot of extra money. And the 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.920 thirty two X only sold six and sixty five thousand 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.960 units globally. It sounds like a lot, but it's not. Also, uh, 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:05.399 it couldn't quite match the quality of the arcade experience, 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.040 and that was the big selling point, right They were saying, 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.199 this is going to bring the experience you have at 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.280 the arcade into your home, and the reality was it 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:19.320 wasn't quite good enough for that, and so some of 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.920 the people who bought it felt like they didn't get 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.520 the promise that they were, you know, it wasn't delivered upon. Yeah. 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.200 So then we get the Saturn CD, which we previously 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.760 said did really well in Japan and not so great 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.280 in the US. Yeah. In Japan, it's sold almost five 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.080 hundred thousand units in the first month. But then they 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:40.200 announced to be three in the US, and they were 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:43.200 trying to compete with the very new PlayStation and the 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:48.000 Nintendo sixty four, which we're both already out or just 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.840 about to come out, and so they panicked and they 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.160 announced that the Saturn was coming out six months ahead 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.000 of schedule, and it was going to cost four hundred 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:59.480 dollars instead of the around eight hundred that it would 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:01.879 cost you to get basic model from Japan. Yeah, so 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:05.520 this was an attempt for them to try and steal 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:08.360 some of that market share away from their competitors, right, 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:12.639 Like there vastly under pricing the console is one of 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.040 the strategies that a lot of console makers have where 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:17.800 you sell the console at a loss and you hope 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.040 to make it up in selling titles games. Except for 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:23.800 they didn't have enough games because they didn't think a 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:27.640 lot of the Japanese games would translate well to America, 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:30.040 so those didn't get released in the US. And then 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.879 you've got all of these game developers who are trying 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:37.720 to program these games for the release of the Sega Saturn, 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:40.920 which is already a little bit more complicated to program 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:43.840 for because it used dual CPUs, which is a redesign 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:47.240 after they found out what the PlayStation specs were. Yeah, 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:49.840 and so they're rushing to get their games out. And 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:52.400