I have bought new issue of Retro Gamer (117) and found some interesting in interview with Tom Kalinske. Apparently there was plan for joint game hardware platform. Information about it are in page 95. Tom Kalinske: And by the way, Sony and Sega were going to do a joint new game hardware platform. I don’t know if you’re aware of that? Journalist answer: No. Not of all. Tom Kalinske: Olaf (Olafsson was head of Sony Entertainment). and I decided just before PlayStation and before Saturn that we ought to do a joint multiple-disc hardware platform, and our reasoning was very logical. We all lost money on hardware, it was a known fact. Nintendo might have been making a little of money on theirs because they had very good effi ciencies and operations but they weren’t making much and so if Sony were going to enter into the videogame hardware business, for sure they were going to lose money. And so the proposition was we went with what we thought was a good set of specs to respective managements in Japan. Sony thought this was a really good idea and our deal was we’d share the loss on the hardware and whichever one of us made software sales, that was all for that company, we weren’t sharing that. So if Sega was more successful on software so be it, if Sony was more successful on software, so be it, we each make a profi t on software. Now, if you think about it back in this space, Sega was a much better software developer than Sony was so it obviously would have been, in my opinion, [to] Sega’s benefi t to do this. But anyway Sony said, “Yeah, we should do that.” We went to my manager at Sega and he said, “Are you nuts, Sony doesn’t know how to do hardware, why would we want to do that? Why would we want to enter into an agreement with them? We’re much better than they are.” Well I think that was a critical strategic mistake by Sega’s senior management. And that actually occurred before the Saturn mistake. To bad that this idea was scrapped
Wow. That's a bit of a surprise. Although, it sounds like the deal didn't go beyond a proposal. No mention of designs or prototypes. Still, what kind of weird alternate reality would we be living in now if the deal had gone through?
Here is more from this interview: Journalist: In 1994, Sony introduced the PlayStation. How did Sega react? Tom Kalinske: In the early 1990s, we had a very strong relationship with Sony because, I know this sounds strange today given how big Sony is, but Sony back in those days didn’t have a clue how to do videogames, not a clue. They had a studio in LA, and Olaf Olafsson was head of Sony Entertainment. He came and visited the studio and realised that they didn’t know how to do videogames and so he asked us at Sega to help him. Rest of interview is about Mega Drive, Saturn and his 6 years as SEGA of America CEO.
I have researched more... This info about proposed SEGA and Sony joint console project is apparently few years old... First time Kalinske mention this in interview for SEGA-16 in 2006. Here is GameSpot article about it. Sega-16: To this day, gamers have a love/hate relationship with the Sega CD, and unfortunately many don’t bother to look past the full-motion games in its library, where there really is a lot of quality software. In your opinion, what did you think was genuinely needed to make it a success? Tom Kalinske: That’s a good question, and you have to remember that this was the very beginning of the optical medium in terms of a video game experience, and none of us knew what the hell we were doing! I mean, it was really an experiment, a great learning experience. One of the interesting things to me is that one of our strongest partners in developing for that platform was Sony. And Sony didn’t have a hardware division (at least for video games) at the time. They had a software division run by Olaf Olafsson, who was a great partner to us. They spent lots of money developing games for the Sega CD (probably more than we did), we gave them technical help – a lot of it; we loaned them people, and there was really this wonderful collaborative effort. We each benefited from each other’s work, and I think that’s one of the things that has been forgotten in video game industry lore or history: that this very strong bond existed back then between the two companies. In fact, taking it to the next step, at one point Olaf, Mickey Schulhoff (former Sony of America CEO), and I discussed that since we had such a great relationship from working on the Sega CD, why don’t we take what we’ve learned from our software developers – their input – and use it as the criteria for what the next optical platform ought to be? So we got all that and put it together so that it wasn’t just pure engineeringese (jargon) but something that people could understand. 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. Why would it want to share a platform with Sony? Sega would be much better off just developing its own platform, and it’s nice that we had some ideas on what that platform ought to be and they’d consider it, but the company would be developing its next platform itself. When you think back on that position, it’s an interesting one. We all knew we were going to lose money on the hardware, so our proposal was that each of us would sell this joint Sega/Sony hardware platform; we’ll share the loss on the hardware (whatever that is, we’ll split it), combine our advertising and marketing, but we’ll each be responsible for the software sales we’ll generate. Now, at that particular point in time, Sega knew how to develop software a hell of a lot better than Sony did. They were just coming up the learning curve, so we would have benefited much more greatly, at least in my opinion, than Sony would have, at least initially, at least for a year or two. But Sega of Japan didn’t want any of that. Sega-16: That sounds a lot like what happened with the Sony/Nintendo CD-ROM. Sony was willing to enter into a joint hardware platform but was ultimately rejected by Nintendo in favor of Phillips. Tom Kalinske: Yeah, but I think ours preceded that though. Sega-16: So Sony essentially brought their ideas to the two big guns in the industry, only to be turned down and forced out on their own. Tom Kalinske: Yeah, they had no choice in their mind, I’m sure. First, they tried to go with one of the two big companies and when that failed, well of course they have to go out on their own. And of course, they ended up benefiting tremendously because of that. And here is one more interesting thing that I found that in not common knowledge. "We went down the road to Silicon Graphics and met with [SGI founder] Jim Clark. They had bought MIPS Technologies, and they were developing a chipset for use in a game machine. We liked it, so we called up the Japanese guys to come take a look at it. The hardware guys came over, and they really pooh-poohed the whole effort. The chip was too big; there would be too much waste; lots of objections from a technical standpoint. It was upsetting to us, because we thought it was better in terms of speed, graphics, and audio. "So after we had this meeting, I had to report back to Jim Clark, who was then Chairman of Silicon Graphics and tell him that SEGA wasn't going to be buying, and he asked, 'Well, what should I do now?' and I said, 'Well, there's this other game company up in the Seattle area. I think their name starts with an N.' And of course, he did. He went up there and sold it to them, and that, of course, became the foundation for the Nintendo 64." -- Tom Kalinske This is from IGN.
I found another earlier mention of this SEGA & Sony deal. Its from Wired Issue 9.05 | May 2001. Behind the scene Kalinske: 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. Tom Kalinske (president and CEO, Sega of America): 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.
I'm getting real tired of people still thinking Sega is going to make another console. I had a whole thread about it at Racketboy before fantards were getting butt hurt about it.
There's an ignore button. I'm sorry 7force and Ave have the monopoly of being the thorn in my ass nobody else can be a thorn in my ass I won't permit it. so please by all means if you don't like what I have to say, Ignore button. This has become the complain about everything forum, I've learned to deal with it...so deal with it.
I think you are right. At this point, SEGA has there stuff on every platform and have made numerous deals with Nintendo (Brawl, Olympic Games, Lost Worlds). Also, if SEGA were to attempt at a new console and fail, then there would be little chance of recovery. No one would be able to trust SEGA again and only PC games and Tablet games would be left for the company. I would love to see SEGA come out with a new console and prove me wrong, but just think it simply won't be the case.
Where did anyone in this thread speculate that Sega was making a new console for this day and age? Did you read any of it? Sorry, but I just don't see the connection. Unless you are just replying to the thread title, or something.
Wow, interesting stuff. Thanks for taking the time to research and post! Sega Japan... what can you say about them lol.
I was aware with between Sega and Sony which has been mention by friend of mine who told me this. Very interesting facts though and it also remind me of Nintendo and Sony had some deal going on back in the day. Well I glad that I have witness and grew up during in the 90's gaming era. Sony - Sega - Nintendo were simply the best gaming era before Microsoft arrive into gaming industry.
From what I've learned, Sony worked with Sega on the Sega CD. Nintendo were then going to work with Sony on the SNES CD attachment, but Nintendo dropped out at the last minute and decided to work with Phillips instead, something which unfortunately never came to light. This is what gave birth to the Playstation, from the knowledge Sony learned from working with both Sega and Nintendo hardware.
Your fact is spot on but I don't know much about Sega CD but it has similar fate with CD i . Nintendo had left Sony for phillips CDi in deal partnership, however before that, Sony and Phillips working together on a Super Famicom CD-ROM drive In the deal, Nintendo had the rights to control all game licenses for the Super Famicom, and PlayStation game software, while Sony would have control over non-game software. The system would also be compatible with the Phillips CD i. Nintendo quietly made a side deal with Philips Electronics to make a different disc-based SNES add-on and canceled their existing agreement with Sony. Sony was on it own without a choice and Team decided that they would go ahead and developing a early prototype black console version along with Snes controller input with PS prototype controller and that how PlayStation grey version was debut and became the most successful system ever released. while Nintendo and Phillips relationship has fallen apart, Nintendo tried to halt the development of the system by suing Sony. Silly Nintendo. Nerveless, I glad Sony made their PlayStation brand or otherwise I would have stop playing video games years ago. Sony exclusive games, PS controller and atmosphere which still kept me playing to this day :very_drunk:
