Sega-16 interviews Tom Kalinske, former president/CEO of Sega of America '90-'96

[radjago]

http://www.sega-16.com/Interview- Tom Kalinske.htm

Theres's some great insight on Sega during the Genesis era and into the Saturn era.

we had been contacted by Jim Clark, the founder of SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.), who called us up one day and said that he had just bought a company called MIPS Inc. which had been working on some things with some great R&D people, and it just so happened that they came up with a chip that they thought would be great for a video game console. We told them that in the U.S., we don't really design consoles; we do the software, but it sounded interesting and we would come over and take a look at it. We were quite impressed, and we called up Japan and told them to send over the hardware team because these guys really had something cool. So the team arrived, and the senior VP of hardware design arrived, and when they reviewed what SGI had developed, they gave no reaction whatsoever. At the end of the meeting, they basically said that it was kind of interesting, but the chip was too big (in manufacturing terms), the throw-off rate would be too high, and they had lots of little technical things that they didn't like: the audio wasn't good enough; the frame rate wasn't quite good enough, as well as some other issues.

So, the SGI guys went away and worked on these issues and then called us back up and asked that the same team be sent back over, because they had it all resolved. This time, Nakayama went with them. They reviewed the work, and there was sort of the same reaction: still not good enough.

Now, I'm not an engineer, and you kind of have to believe the people you have at the company, so we went back to our headquarters, and Nakayama said that it just wasn't good enough. We were to continue on our own way. Well, Jim Clark called me up and asked what was he supposed to do now? They had spent all that time and effort on what they thought was the perfect video game chipset, so what were they supposed to do with it? I told them that there were other companies that they should be calling, because we clearly weren't the ones for them. Needless to say, he did, and that chipset became part of the next generation of Nintendo products (N64).

I remember we had a document that Olaf and Mickey took to Sony that said they'd like to develop jointly the next hardware – the next game platform, with Sega, and here's what we think it ought to do. Sony apparently gave the green light to that. I took it to Sega of Japan and told them that this was what we thought an ideal platform would be – at least from an U.S. perspective – based on what we've learned from the Sega CD, and our involvement with Sony and our own people. Sega said not a chance.

So basically Sega turned down the designs for what became the Playstation and N64 hardware and took it upon themselves to make the frankenstein of a machine that was the Saturn.

 

[backhair]

this is a really interesting interview. i think the early ninties were the most exciting years in console gaming and it's always cool to get a peak at what was going on behind the scenes (and wonder what would have been if different decisions were made). the impressions i've gotten from interviews with developers and execs talking about those years is that everyone was pretty much flying by the seat of his pants, which is scarry as hell, but sure makes for a cool ride.

 

[radjago]

[quote name='backhair']this is a really interesting interview. i think the early ninties were the most exciting years in console gaming and it's always cool to get a peak at what was going on behind the scenes (and wonder what would have been if different decisions were made). the impressions i've gotten from interviews with developers and execs talking about those years is that everyone was pretty much flying by the seat of his pants, which is scarry as hell, but sure makes for a cool ride.[/QUOTE]
I get that same impression. It seems no one at Sega knew what it would take to win against Nintendo, so they let Kalinske try his ideas. After Sega of Japan let him do his thing, they continued on their own path, which led them down the same downward spiral they were headed. After all was said and done in that generation, Sega of America was successful and Sega of Japan was not, and for that SoJ was resentful of SoA.