{"id":125452,"date":"2022-06-05T05:55:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T05:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-132489"},"modified":"2022-06-05T05:55:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T05:55:00","slug":"sega-has-considered-dreamcast-saturn-mini-but-is-worried-about-extreme-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/05\/sega-has-considered-dreamcast-saturn-mini-but-is-worried-about-extreme-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Sega Has Considered Dreamcast & Saturn Mini But Is Worried About Extreme Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Dreamcast\"
Image: Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the highlights of the week was the announcement of the Mega Drive Mini 2<\/a> – Sega’s next miniature console, loaded with 50 games from the Mega Drive and Mega CD libraries. It’s launching this October in Japan and will include games like Sonic CD<\/a><\/strong>, Slipstream<\/a><\/strong> and Virtua Racing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As exciting as this news is, it hasn’t stopped fan requests for miniature versions of Sega’s other<\/em> consoles – like the Saturn and Dreamcast. So, why did Sega decide to release a Mega Drive 2 instead of something else? During an interview with Famitsu<\/a>, Sega’s classic hardware producer Yosuke Okunari explained how the pandemic shaped the outcome.<\/p>\n

Here’s what he had to say (courtesy of Twitter user @gosokkyu<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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he’s sure [people] will be like “what about Saturn\/Dreamcast Mini?” [and] it’s not like they [Sega] didn’t explore the idea\u2014the MD Mini’s internals can’t adequately handle Saturn games, and both developing and manufacturing new chipsets during the pandemic is a difficult & expensive process<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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…so, even if they’d forged ahead with a Saturn Mini anyway, it might’ve been extremely expensive\u2014he jokes that he might like to release a mini that costs as much as an authentic modern console<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And that’s when the Mega Drive Mini 2 came into the picture, as an “extension” of the original one – making it a lot more manageable during a pandemic, in terms of the schedule and manufacturing. It’s worth noting there will still be a “much lower production run” of this device – with the initial focus on stocking Japan. Okunari is aware of the demand overseas but remains focused on Japan for now, where the team knows the market.<\/p>\n

Although the price of the second Mega Drive Mini system is higher – due to an improved chipset, more memory to fit Mega CD games, and the increased price of components, Okunari is confident the larger library of games will justify the price.<\/p>\n

Okunari also mentioned how the team considered making another Game Gear Micro, but the increased price of semiconductors made costs of a second handheld micro-unit “1.5x the manufacturing price” of the original micro model. And the team supposedly couldn’t risk selling at the same price and didn’t want to increase the RRP.<\/p>\n