The President Who BETRAYED Sega (I don't blame him!)

according to Dante the deepest circle of hell is reserved for treachery it's where Satan is and in his mouth in the constant nashing of the betrayer's teeth is three people one of those three is Judas tell me about this Judas I hear you say well in the 1990s Sega was positioned to become a dominant force in the video game industry the company had already made significant inroads with its Sega Genesis console thanks to Tom kolinsky the president of Sega of America who had before reestablished the popularity of Barbie for Mattel and at one point put Sega ahead of Nintendo in market share in the US Kolinski was a man to be reckoned with as he had made Sega a popular alternative to Nintendo however Sega of Japan could not get out of the way of its own success an internal strife between Sega of Japan and Sega of America significantly hampered sega's potential for success this is the story of betrayal between Sega Japan and Sega of America's leader Tom kolinsky and sort of like the opening of Disney's Hunchback of notredam it makes you wonder who is the monster and who is the man and personally regardless of the Betrayal I don't blame kinsky for what he did let's see what you think let's talk about the leadership of Tom kolinsky again Tom kolinsky was a seasoned executive with a proven track record having revitalized the struggling Mattel with successful product lines like Barbie and Hall Wheels when he joined SE of America in 1990 he brought a fresh and aggressive marketing strategy that starkly contrasted with the more conservative approach of Sega of Japan kolin's strategy involves several key initiatives that contributed to the success of the Genesis in North America kinsky recognized the importance of marketing to sega's targeted demographic teenagers and young adults Nintendo was taking care of the babies and kolinsky recognized the importance of the Aging demographic teenagers had attitudes and were budded into to their Rebellion so he capitalized on that he spearheaded bold advertising campaigns such as Genesis does what an intend don't which directly challenged sega's biggest competitor Nintendo this confrontational style resonated with the audience and their teenage angst or unrest whatever you want to call it the kids aren't all right as it is with the United States apparently being a rule follower is just not [Music] cool secondly in this aggressive marketing keski suggested offering Sonic the Hedgehog in a bundle with the Genesis Sega of Japan just thought this was dumb they took so much time refining the concept of Sonic to make it edgy for the American audience to make Sonic fresh and cool and Avant guard despite this already rustling Sega of Japan's feathers as they were a bit more conservative than this they listened and then Kolinski Dropped a Bomb on them and told them that they needed to bundle it for free with the Sega Genesis Sega of Japan of course was shook but trusting that kolinsky knew what he was talking about they relented and agreed kolinsky was right Sonic quickly became an iconic character and gave Sega a mascot to rival Mario further boosting the appeal of the Genesis and cranking up the sales of the Genesis console quickly thirdly here kolinsky pushed for more local localized content kolinsky emphasized the need for Content that appealed to specifically American audiences this led to the development and promotion of sports games and other games that were particularly popular in the United States it sounds super simple today but simply figuring out what audiences want and delivering on that was almost revolutionary for the time regarding video games and Nintendo seems to be struggling with that still somewhat o kind of bad but whatever we digress maybe Nintendo's airing on the side of they don't know what they want until we tell them and I guess that's fair despite all of the awesome things that Tom kolinsky was putting into place controversy or not there were several points of contention as well again despite his proof success Sega of Japan had some major problems with him kiski's decision to bundle Sonic the Hedgehog with the Genesis and sell it at a lower price point was initially opposed by Sega of Japan the Japanese Executives were concerned about the potential loss of revenue from game sales understandably since they had put so much time and money into Sonic however kin's approach proved effective in increasing console sales demonstrating a fundamental difference in Market understanding between Sega of Japan and Sega of America Kinski really pushed for software development as well kinsky advocated for more autonomy or just being able to do its own stuff for Sega of America and software development to better cater to the taste of the West Market Sega of Japan however insisted on maintaining strict control over the game development process and this caused a problem the friction between Kinski and Sega of Japan often resulted in delayed releases and missed opportunities to capitalize on Trends in the American Market all because Sega of Japan wanted to control the the way the software was made what software was made one of the most significant clashes occurred over the introduction of new hardware Sega of Japan focused on the Sega Saturn a more advanc but also more expensive console while kolinsky saw potential in the 32x an add-on for the Genesis that could extend its life span and offer a more affordable upgrade path for consumers Sega of Japan's insistence on prioritizing the Saturn led to a fragmented Market strategy that ultimately flopped this just confused consumers and undermined the potential success of both systems and both markets and a final point of contention here listen listen to this kin's marketing strategies often clash with the more conservative approach preferred by Sega of Japan the Japanese Executives were uncomfortable with the aggressive iny yourface style of advertising that kolinsky believe was essential for capturing the American Market there was a lot of dissonance between these companies right so where did the Betrayal come in well we're not there yet we're getting there but I want to point out a couple of other things issues that were happening between SE of Japan and Tom kolinsky these conflicting priorities and strategies between the two branches let to a lack of coherence in sega's Market approach kind of like Mom and Dad can't agree so it's a problem the household's a little broken consumers received mixed messages and the company's efforts were often just disjointed this was particularly evident in the handling of the 32x and the Sega Saturn where the simultaneous promotion of both systems diluted their impact and Confused the market I want something from Sega but do I want a 32x or do I want a Sega Saturn it sounds like they're trying to sell me both of them the power struggle over control and decision-making slow down Innovation and responsiveness as well for instance while Sega of Japan was focused on the technically superior but complex and costly Saturn the emerging PlayStation from Sony capitalized on the opportunity to capture the market with a more straightforward and consumer friendly approach sega's delayed and fragmented response allowed Sony to gain a foothold that it might otherwise have struggled to achieve the kakar SGA with its pants down let stop let me stop let me stop let stop the reluctance of Sega of Japan to fully Embrace kin's insights into the American Market resulted in missed opportunities and let me point out that Sega of Japan hired Kolinski but then didn't want to listen to his suggestions particularly about the Western Market as an example the conservative approach to software development and marketing led to a lack of compelling titles and promotions that could have strengthened sega's position in the critical North American Market wanted to spend some money he wanted to break some eggs they had worked with Sonic before since then after Sonic's success for some reason maybe they were jealous they just they didn't want to listen to what Tom kinsky had to say so this this doesn't really make kinsky sound like the great betrayer Judas or anything right it's it's uh this is more like accolades for kolinsky understandably so because kolinsky did a lot of amazing things for Sega trust me there's great interviews with kinsky there's wonderful information out there so where's the betrayer what happened with all this context in history for kolinsky at Sega was the Betrayal right the Saturn was sort of Dead on Arrival in its first iteration Sega had been planning for its new system and didn't anticipate Sony to announce the Beast that it did the Sony PlayStation's chipset and capability outclassed the Sega Saturn and so the heads at Sega of Japan ordered that the Sega Saturn be refined to be competitive that's a good decision after all the system hadn't seen store shelves yet and it was already old Hardware by the PlayStation standards to deal with Sony's beefy single chip that it was using in the PlayStation Sega moress decided to double up the chips that they currently had rather than go with a one chip Superior Solution they took two of the other chips and work them together to make the system more powerful what's better than one two right but it didn't quite work out that way they had to do this due to time and cost constraints it's sort of like Nintendo's concept of taking yesterday Tech and making it work but Sega didn't quite make it work as well as they had hoped they could so how does this fit into kolin's betrayal well kinsky did contact a friend as silicone Graphics Inc and asked for them to start considering a chip for Sega SGI had some major breakthroughs around this time and kolinsky knew that this promising Tech would be good for Sega Kolinski shared this ideal with Sega of Japan and the tech folks flew out to SGI to check out the chip the crew there from what I understand kind of just ruthlessly attacked this chip and criticized it they said that it used too much power that it was too large and it would have to be refined so kolin's buddy Jim Clark put the folks at SGI back to work on reworking the chip for Sega naturally since they had a customer already it made sense to put the resources to work on this chip once they had reworked it the folks from Sega of Japan including Nakayama himself the president of of Sega of Japan came back to check out the chip what it boiled down to is that Nakayama said that the chip simply wasn't good enough what do you want what do you want it's not that simple what do you want the weird thing is that it was definitely good enough why did Sega of Japan want so desperately for Kolinski to have this failure it's a good question really and one that has been explored greatly throughout video game history but in the end it was nakayama's call not kinsky is on this chip kolinsky was just trying to help his company succeed where's the issue Jim Clark contacted kolinsky later and asked him what he was supposed to do now after all they had helped tailor this chip to the needs of Sega and SGI had poured resources into this to make it happen I got no place else to go now they had no customer but a nice chip and this is where it went down this is where the Betrayal happened Kolinski I'd imagine out of frustration for many things frustration for being cut off from success and control over and over from Sega of Japan frustration for trying to drag a company to success that works so diligently to fight against it frustration of not being recognized for his successes and instead being blamed for things that were Beyond his control just there there's a lot a lot of frustration there I'd imagine and everyone everyone has a Breaking Point kinsky told Jim Clark sell it to another video game company what the one account and I'm paraphrasing here had kolinsky saying sell it to that little company up in Washington that's Nintendo by the way and that's exactly what Jim Clark did as The Story Goes Jim Clark contacted Nintendo about this chip Nintendo bought it and it became the Nintendo 64 so kinsky fed up with his company in an attempt to help them at first decided to betray them but again I don't blame him so I know that this video suggests that kiny is just the absolute worst but really he was probably the best thing to ever happen to Sega as a company thank you Tom kolinsky the Discord between Sega of America and Sega of Japan during the 1990s serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of internal alignment and Market responsiveness Tom kin's Innovative strategies and deep understanding of the American Market offered Sega a significant Competitive Edge however the resistance and control exerted by Sega of Japan stifled these initiatives leading to a fragmented strategy that ultimately hindered sega's potential to dominate The Gaming industry the legacy of these conflicts underscores the necessity for multinational companies to Foster cohesive strategies and just work together leverage their strengths and insights for all of their Buble divisions for the good of all stakeholders namely you and I

Channel: Pixel Bro Lee

Views: 6,266

Keywords: Sega, Tom Kalinske, Sega of America, Gaming History, Sega Genesis, Console Wars, Sonic the Hedgehog, Retro Gaming, Video Game History, 90s Gaming, Gaming Industry, SEGA Japan, Game Development, Sega Saturn, Corporate Betrayal, Game Console, Gaming Documentary, SEGA, Video Games, Gaming News

Id: 6ZHWg-qSubs

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 06 2024