In things we didn’t expect to see today, internal documents from Sega have somehow leaked online, revealing that the company was confident it would beat PlayStation with its Saturn console. Emails dating back to 1996 show then Sega of America president, Tom Kalinske, claim that Saturn was “killing” Sony’s PS1 in Japan.
Sega acknowledged PlayStation’s superior library of games
In March 1996, Kalinske sent an email in which he expressed frustration with naysayers in the U.S. who thought that the PS1 was outdoing Saturn — a successor to the popular Genesis (Mega Drive). “We are killing Sony,” he wrote after visiting numerous retail stores in Tokyo, where he apparently witnessed Saturn flying off store shelves. “In every store, Saturn is sold out and there are stacks of PlayStation,” Kalinske continued, adding that Sega has better displays, better software, and better stocking at retail than Sony.
Saturn’s initial success was short-lived, and so was Kalinske’s optimism. PS1 sales soared and Saturn spelled doom for Sega’s hardware business. In July 1996, Kalinske tendered his resignation.
The leaked docs show that Sega later acknowledged Sony’s better games library and internally lamented the lack of third-party support for Saturn. At one point, Sega thought Electronic Arts was going to cease game development for Saturn.
