It has been said that nostalgia is a powerful tool in the hands of some long-lived manufacturing companies. The electronic entertainment, or videogame, industry has taken these words to heart at times. Nintendo was the first to bank on it when they introduced an emulation-based dedicated console that gathers some of the best titles of their NES console, in a single retro-styled unit. The NES Classic Edition of was then followed by the SNES Classic Edition, both winners with a nostalgic customer base. Nintendo’s old gaming rival Sega has tried to copy that success by announcing a Sega Genesis Mini earlier this year. Originally slated to come out this year, it has just been delayed.
Gamespot reports that the Sega Genesis Mini, an emulation-based dedicated game console that they were developing with digital media firm AtGames, has been pushed back from this year to a release sometime in 2019. The console, a throwback to Sega’s immensely popular Genesis system (known as the Mega Drive in Japan, Europe and Australia) is being held back to allow for more development time and to attempt a synchronize worldwide release on all major gaming markets. This was laid out by Sega of Japan in a Twitter post September 18.
According to a translation of Sega’s tweet by Gematsu, the game company, now purely a software developer after retiring its last console hardware the Dreamcast in 2001, was also interested in having a core team of the original Mega Drive’s developers as part of the AtGames design group for the Mini version, aided by some selected Japanese software developers. This is to ensure, as Sega puts it, “a level of quality that Sega fans expect.”
Sega first announced the Genesis Mini during the 2018 SegaFes event in April. Its initial planned release in 2018 (at least for Japan) was supposed to coincided with the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Sega Mega Drive in its country of origin; the American Genesis came out in 1989, and finally other regional versions in 1990. With the advent of the 32-bit Sega Saturn console, Sega wound down production of the 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis in 1997, with licensed manufacturers such as Majesco following suit in succeeding years.
「メガドライブ」誕生30周年記念！
『メガドライブ ミニ』（仮称）2018年発売決定！
思い出の名作ゲームの数々が、これ1台で楽しめます！#セガフェス #メガドライブ #メガドライブ30周年segafes.sega.jp
While a Sega take on the Mini console trend began by Nintendo was heavily supported by longtime fans, some of them are wary of the involvement of AtGames, which had earlier produced the officially-licensed Sega Flashback retro console. This product was badly-designed according to players, with AAA-powered wireless controllers, clunky electrical adaptors, and a library of lackluster Sega game titles.
Photo courtesy of darkhorizons.com
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