Irimajiri Speaks Out About the Saturn, the 32X, and SOA’s Financial Troubles
Irimajiri Speaks Out About the Saturn, the 32X, and SOA’s Financial Troubles
Former Sega president Shoichiro Irimajiri recently gave a lecture series at the Forum – Management for Tomorrow. The fifth lecture in the series, held on October 20, 2022, focused on Irimajiri’s time at Sega in the 1990s. Irimajiri joined Sega in an executive role in 1993, right at the company’s height.
I wasn't much of a Sega person growing up, but it's always interesting to read about this kind of history!
Sega following the runaway success of the Genesis in America has always seemed like a massive pile of failures and mistakes, which is a shame because they could’ve continued their momentum with the strong franchises and inherent ability for quality game production they possessed. I will never understand why 75% of the Saturn library was never localized, or why they thought the 32x was a good idea, even with context. Imagine what could’ve been had they decided to release the Saturn a full year before the PS1.