Leaked Sega '90s Email Highlights Struggle to Beat PlayStation

In the early '90s, Sega and Nintendo fiercely battled for control of the video game industry, and Tom Kalinske played a pivotal role in the so-called "console wars." The former head of Sega of America made the company competitive by directly attacking the competition in ads, including the "Sega does what Nintendon't" campaign. However, by 1996, the landscape of the video game industry had greatly changed, and Sega was now struggling against the Sony PlayStation. A bunch of leaked documents from that era were recently published by Sega Retro, and they highlight how the Sega Saturn was struggling to find success in America.

"It is one thing to hear/read about how well we are doing in Japan vs. Sony, it's another to personally witness it. I just visited 10 retail stores in Tokyo (most in Akihabra); it's now spring break so the crowds of teens/college kids are huge. We are killing Sony. In every store, Saturn hardware is sold out and there are stacks of Playstation. The retailers commented they can't compare the true sales rate because Saturn sells out before they can measure accurately. Our interactive displays are better, our software displays and stocking far superior. It is not unusual to see 40-50 copies of Panzer Zwei or Virtua Fighter 2 stocked in even small stores and they are selling fast. I wish I could get all our staff, sales people, retailers, analysts, media, etc. to see and understand what's happening in Japan; they would then understand why we will win here in the U.S. eventually," Kalinske wrote in an email from March 1996.

Of course, Sega Saturn did not "win here in the U.S.," as Kalinske predicted. After playing a critical role in Sega's success in the U.S., Kalinske would leave the company just a few months later, in September of that same year. After getting a lot of freedom early in his tenure, Kalinske found that Sega of Japan become much more restrictive. Kalinske noted in an interview with Time Extension last year that Sega of America was forced by its parent company to release the Sega Saturn earlier than planned, when it didn't have enough hardware or software to make the console appealing.

The email from Kalinske is an interesting artifact from the Sega Saturn era! Five years after that email from Kalinske, Sega would leave the console business behind. The failure of the Sega Saturn would end up haunting the far superior Dreamcast, which struggled to find an audience. Meanwhile, PlayStation remains one of the most successful companies in the video game industry, and Sega games like Sonic Frontiers can now be found on consoles like PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

Are you surprised to hear Sega Saturn was doing well in Japan? Do you think there's anything Sega could have done to beat PlayStation back then? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

[H/T: Kotaku]