A few decades ago the masses believed video games were a waste of time for lackadaisical youths to pacify themselves while ignoring their responsibilities as both kids and young adults. As more and more people started understanding the benefits of gaming so too did the perception of what a video game is and, most importantly, the benefits gaming can bestow on a person’s life changed. Hi, my name is James Bullock and I am a gamer who has spent the better part of his existence testing the laws of physics, exploring the vastness of a world ruined, and been a champion inside various arenas courtesy of digitized worlds both driven by reality and created through pure unbelievable ingenuity unlike anything seen by human eyes. And as a gamer I’ve discovered something else video games provide: life lessons. Today I examine the first bad impression and decision made at E3 that set a negative standard other companies unintentionally followed years later.
You Only Get One Chance at a First Impression (Sega at E3 [1995])
The eyes of the gaming world always move to California during the month of June as E3 descends on “The Golden State” with the promise of presenting trailers, new hardware & software, and, at times, giving gamers more than what they bargained for while potentially making a terrible first impression that can make & break a developer, production, or even an entire console generation – look no further than Sega in 1995 in regards to the latter during the inaugural Electronics Entertainment Expo. Coinciding with this monumental event was an announcement by one of the “Big Two” in gaming. Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis was on its last legs, as was the 16-bit era of gaming in general. Sega already had their next entry in the console market ready for release come September 2nd – one week before Sony’s first foray into the console gaming world would enter the market, the Playstation – with the “Sega Saturn”. Sega’s CEO Tom Kalinske took the stage for a big presentation. Rather than simply showcasing the Saturn, some of the console’s games and its capabilities, Mr. Kalinske dropped the bombshell of a gaming lifetime: the Sega Saturn would come out earlier than planned. Actually, Sega’s big release was already available for purchase! According to Mr. Kalinske, with Saturn’s demand being so great across America (people paying up to $800 just to import the system from Japan), Sega had no choice but to bring the Saturn to the west as quickly as possible; and any gamer could have the Saturn today for $399 (Ice Cube not included).
Of course this proved to be a bad idea from a consumer standpoint because only certain retailers were given the “privilege” of stocking the Saturn in America and game developers working on games for the system were prepared for a September deadline, not May; thus leaving the software options being incredibly lean. From a competitive standpoint, it seemed like a win-win for Sega as they got the jump on Sony in the retail market while providing a proverbial measuring stick for the 32-bit generation. Little did the minds at Sega know that their attempt at a preemptive strike against Sony would cost them in more ways than one. By announcing the system’s price point before Sony’s conference, Sega left itself open to a counter from Sony; and that’s exactly what Sony provided. Sony’s Steve Race headed the conference for his company to say one simple thing, “Two ninety-nine,” before walking away.
In less than a minute, Sony killed all of Sega’s momentum by announcing that in just a few short months a potentially superior gaming system available everywhere featuring a good selection of games would be $100 cheaper than Sega’s Saturn. Sony essentially ended the console war with their potential greatest rival (from a technical standpoint) at the time before their system even launched. This was the dawning of a new era in gaming with the birth of E3, the unprecedented rise of Sony, and the beginning of the end for Sega in the console market while providing an eventual great history lesson for anyone who wanted to learn from Sega’s mistakes about making a proper first impression on gaming’s eventual grandest stage.
Have you learned any major life lessons from E3 or any video game for that matter? Leave them in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.
Header photo credit: Mick Hayes
