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One of the highlights of the week was the announcement of the Mega Drive Mini 2: Sega’s next miniature console, loaded with 50 games from the Mega Drive and Mega CD libraries. It will be released this October in Japan and will include games such as Sonic CD, Slipstream and Virtua Racing.
As exciting as this news may be, it has not stopped fan requests for miniature versions of other Sega consoles, such as the Saturn and the Dreamcast. So why did Sega decide to launch a Mega Drive 2 instead? During an interview with Famitsu, Sega’s classic hardware producer Yosuke Okunari explained how the pandemic shaped the outcome.
Here’s what he said (courtesy of Twitter user @gosokkyu):
he is sure ppl will be like “What about Saturn / Dreamcast Mini?” [and] it’s not like them [Sega] did not explore the idea: the internal components of the MD Mini cannot properly handle Saturn games, and both the development and manufacture of new chipsets during the pandemic is a difficult and costly process.
… so even if they had advanced with a Saturn Mini anyway, it could have been extremely expensive; he jokes that he would like to launch a mini that costs as much as a real modern console.
And that’s when the Mega Drive Mini 2 came on the scene, as an “extension” of the original, making it much more manageable during a pandemic, in terms of schedule and manufacturing. It is worth noting that there will still be a “much lower production” of this device, with the initial focus on storage in Japan. Okunari is aware of overseas demand, but for now remains focused on Japan, where the team knows the market.
While the price of the second Mega Drive Mini system is higher due to an improved set of chips, more memory to fit Mega CD games and the rising price of components, Okunari is confident that the library largest of games will justify the price.
Okunari also mentioned how the team considered making another Game Gear Micro, but the rise in the price of semiconductors made the costs of a second hand mic unit “1.5 times the manufacturing price” of the micro model original. And supposedly, the team couldn’t afford to sell at the same price and didn’t want to increase the PPR.
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Yosuke Okunari mentioned earlier how Sega has planned to create other mini-consoles, but for now, the focus is on the Mega Drive Mini 2:
Would you like to see Sega launch miniature devices based on Dreamcast and Saturn someday? Would you be willing to pay more? Give us your own thoughts below.