SEGA believed it could easily outdo Sony in the 90s, as evidenced by newly available documents.
Unsurprisingly, recently released documents detailing Sega’s activities from the 90s have gone public on the web and have revealed an extraordinary level of confidence from company. One document shows this belief being placed into their Sega Saturn’s ability to compete against PlayStation1 sales in America.
PC Gamer reported that amongst all 272 pages published, one particular email has raised eyebrows. Sent by former Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske on 28 March 1996 shortly after Saturn had made its US debut and wasn’t selling well, he believed consumers would eventually take notice and switch over. Unfortunately for Kalinske and Sega of America however – that didn’t occur.
Kalinske recently traveled to Japan and personally witnessed our success against Sony: she visited 10 retail stores (most of which in Akihabara); as spring break is underway and crowds of teenagers/college kids are high, “We are smashing Sony,” she wrote.
“Saturn hardware was completely sold out at every store while PlayStation stacks piled high”, continued Lemke. Retailers lamented they cannot accurately compare Saturn sales as it sold out too early before accurate measurement could take place […] I wish all our staff, sales people, retailers, analysts, media etc could see and understand what was taking place in Japan so they’d see why we will eventually prevail here in America too!
Retro gaming enthusiasts and internet historians will no doubt delight in discovering this newly unearthed data, thought lost over time. Who knows what else may surface from these new findings?
