Tom Kalinske: Sega's Been Doing It Wrong for Past 20 Years!

[EclecticGroove]

Sonic hype was massive and it was selling the MD on its own in the west . It was a great move by Tom and he should get all the credit in the world for it, like Tom desevers a lot of credit for pushing and backing the SEGA CD far better than either SOJ or Sega Europe , but Sonic really sold and made people want the MD not Tom imo . With out John Madden and Sonic , I doubt Tom would have got the MD sales he did imo

Of course he needed those. But great product does NOT automatically equal great sales.

Plenty of "good" products, or ones that are "better" than existing ones just haven't really sold well.

It's possible without him the Genesis could have done well, but there's no guarantee, and no good way of knowing. But they needed someone at the helm that was competent enough to push the good products they had. Did it HAVE to be Kalinske? No, but there's no telling how someone else would have served Sega's fortunes in that role.

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

"Sonic really sold and made people want the MD not Tom imo"

Could you care to enlighten us as to how that was achieved? In your opinion, how was that hype built up?

[fruitsofherwomb]

And even with the DC, they tried to bring back the Sega Scream, which was another Genesis-era Hallmark.

This is very true. There is a reason Genesis took a huge chunk of Nintendo's market and it was down to advertising. Its what really sells consoles and Tom gave them the freedom to throw jabs at Nintendo. It worked.

[retrospiel]

Again, that was Katz with "Genesis does what Nintendon't".

[gamevet]

I think your story proves my point. You bought your Genny during the Katz years.



Edit: And no, I am not really a fan of Katz. I am a fan of Sega of Japan during the 80s and early 90s (or actually their hard- and software to be precise). The point is people need to stop worshiping Kalinske - or at least start doing it at home, not on the internet.

Not really, Kalinske was at Sega in 1990 and took over for Katz in January of 1991.

I didn't have enough interest in the software and marketing of the Genesis in 1989, to even think about buying one. I may have waited as late as 1991, before taking the plunge, but a great offer from a friend convinced me to buy the console in 1990. It was not until the fall of 1990 and early winter of 1991 that I really started buying/renting more software for the console. Most of the software (Truxton anyone?) available for the console within its 1st year in North America really didn't excite me about owning the Genesis. Once I had burned through Herzog Zwei, Phantasy Star II, Golden Axe and several other titles I had gotten with the console, there was a lot of crap to wade through like Pit Fighter and DJ Boy. Madden may very well have been the title that was the beginning of something great for the Genesis in North America and SOA took notice by contracting EA to produce Joe Montana Football for a January 1991 release.

Tom decided that the Genesis needed to have more Western Developed games, a better title boxed with the console and a lower price. Maybe if Katz had been around for the launch of Sega Sports on the Genesis, his fate with the company might have been different.

http://www.sega-16.com/2006/07/interview-tom-kalinske/

After about three months — there was so much to do — I figured I better go back to Japan and tell them what was on my mind. I go back to Japan, and I meet with Hayao Nakayama and the board at Sega, and I say “look, you guys have got this thing all wrong. You can’t sell the Sega Genesis at $189.99,” which was ridiculous. I mean, back in those days that was really expensive. I told them “you can’t have this title in there, called Altered Beast, because that’s not going to sell in Kansas. Also, you must develop software in the U.S., and you’re relying too much on Japanese software. You’ve got to really ramp up your efforts in the United States. You’re also up against a competitor that owns 98% of the market, and they scared the hell out of all the other companies, and no one’s going to develop for you so long as they have an ironclad grasp of the third party community, so we’ve got to somehow break that, and I have some ideas on that. One of them is: you’ve got to advertise against Nintendo, you know, make fun of them. Ridicule Nintendo and make kids think that the NES is absolutely the uncoolest machine to own.”

Katz really didn't see the sales potential that Sonic would have for the North American market, while Tom realized that he had a software title that could be used to market the console.

http://www.sega-16.com/2006/04/interview-michael-katz/

Michael Katz: I certainly under-estimated the potential of Sonic. Thank God there was good and sustained gameplay (critical in any game success). I know that I thought it was nuts, when we were going for targeted and widespread awareness in everything we did, for the Japanese to develop a game based on a type of character — a hedgehog — that no kid in the U.S. 6-16 year-old demographic would have any familiarity with.

[Da_Shocker]

LOl what is this Nakayama-san did a hell of a lot , he totally transformed SEGA and invested his own money in SEGA in the early 80's and lets not forget who was the one who appointed Tom in the 1st place . Under Nakayama-san SEGA growth was amazing and forget about Tom, a hell of a lot of that was down to SEGA in the Arcades and the appointment of one Yu-Suzuki who's coin-up's like Hang-On, AfterBurner, OutRun and the like Saw SEGA take over 70% marketshare in the Arcade see a massive rise in profits and helped make SEGA a world leader in tech. Nakayam-san also totally trasnformed SEGA consmer teams and made them in to a powerhouse in the 90's . Nakayama-sand did a hell of a lot more than Tom I'll think you find

So don't come it

Dude Nintendo was dominating the 80's hell some of those arcade games you're talking about were appearing on the PCE and Famicom? Sega's arcade prowess sure helped the MD dominate Japan right? It sure helped the Saturn in America and Europe right. Seriously do you read some of the shit that you type TA sounds like your practically foaming at the mouth now.

[j_factor]

Again, that was Katz with "Genesis does what Nintendon't".

The Genesis didn't take off with that slogan. It's popular in hindsight on the internet because people think it's cute. Not to say it was a failure, but it only helped to a limited extent. That slogan was abandoned by the time Sonic came out, and there was a reason for that.

I remember an old news clip that was reporting on game console sales in the holiday 1990 period. The guy from Sega, I think it was Kalinske actually, said something like: compared to a year ago, the industry as a whole is down by X%, but we're up by Y%, and we think that's a good indication of the direction things are going, so we think we're in a good position moving forward. It was not, we're kicking ass right now and beating Nintendo at their own game. I wish I'd saved that video. It's probably on Youtube somewhere.

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

Skip to 2:23 to hear a young Tom Kalinske make the statement:

[Obviously]

Howard Phillips always bugged me. Maybe because he was usually so over-enthusiastic to the point where it seemed fake. Maybe it was the bow-tie? I don't know.

I'm sure he's a great guy.

[Melf]

Tom decided that the Genesis needed to have more Western Developed games

That was actually started by Katz. He was the one who hired Ken Balthaser as product development manager, and Balthaser in turn built up western development by signing European studios that he had worked with at Epyx. The roots of western, and even internal development, were already there when Kalinske took over. What he did was greatly expand it (and to great success).

[j_factor]

Skip to 2:23 to hear a young Tom Kalinske make the statement:

Exactly what I was talking about! Repped!

The whole video is pretty interesting too.

[EclecticGroove]

Again, that was Katz with "Genesis does what Nintendon't".

And without something to continue to drive marketing home? It would have flopped.

Just look at Sega in general for proof enough of that.

You can't say the Saturn didn't have some amazing games, or that the DC wasn't a forward thinking console with MANY excellent games... many far superior to the early PS2 games even in looks in fact.

And they even had some pretty decent ads for it.

But yet, both still failed.

You have to continually keep at the advertising, and change it up when it starts going stale.

The "Genesis Does" absolutely got some attention, but I didn't see Sega explode until the Sonic pack in. I know that's when it really grabbed my attention for instance.

I'd played a Genesis (with PBC for MS games) at one friends house before. But none of the games I saw there really grabbed me. I loved Altered Beast in the arcade, but the home port wasn't enough to make me want it, especially when the system was virtually nowhere.

Then Sonic hit, and it was all over, and Sonic looked AWESOME.

That's when Genesis really took off here in the USA, the Sega Scream was nothing compared to what they caught hold of starting with Sonic.

[Gentlegamer]

Howard Phillips always bugged me. Maybe because he was usually so over-enthusiastic to the point where it seemed fake. Maybe it was the bow-tie? I don't know.

I'm sure he's a great guy.

He was absolutely right about the games mattering the most. In fact, Howard Phillips was one of the "indispensable men" in the NES early success, he was able to play Famicom games and pick out which were worth localizing based on pure fun. He's the type of person NEC North America desperately could have used.

He is completely genuine.

Kalinske can be seen here spinning the numbers as always. Christmas 1990 saw Nintendo sell about 7 million NES and 4 million Game Boys during the year, which was actually down from the about 14 million NES sold from Sept 1988 - Christmas 1989, the height of Nintendo Mania, but not something to attribute to 'the market being down.' And saying Genesis was up 50% in 1990 over 1989 isn't saying anything meaningful.

This is what I mean when I say don't take everything Kalinske said or says at face value. He's a marketing guy, his whole business existence is spin.

[gamevet]

That was actually started by Katz. He was the one who hired Ken Balthaser as product development manager, and Balthaser in turn built up western development by signing European studios that he had worked with at Epyx. The roots of western, and even internal development, were already there when Kalinske took over. What he did was greatly expand it (and to great success).

Yes. I'm not trying to take anything away from the efforts Katz was making in that department. His team was trying to establish sports titles on the console and their deal with EA to make the 1st Joe Montana Football game showed that they were committed to it. Tom built upon that idea and pushed for SOJ to allow them to have titles developed/published in-house by SOA and to expand their relationships with Western developers. A lot of the early Western developed titles (Katz establishing a great relationship with EA) for the Genesis were Amiga and PC ports of popular titles like Star Flight, Populous, Shadow of the Beast, Might and Magic and 688 Attack Sub. The success of these ports eventually led to the Genesis having lead platform titles like Road Rash and Desert Strike. SOA published successful titles like Ecco the Dolphin, World Series Baseball, Joe Montana (Sports Talk) Football, Sonic Spinball and, of course, Comix Zone.

It's kind of ironic that Sony followed Sega's lead by publishing titles from Western developers like Psygnosis and creating 989 sports for their in-house sports titles.

[fruitsofherwomb]

Skip to 2:23 to hear a young Tom Kalinske make the statement:

Wow, the biggest moment for me is when he said 30% of gamers where female... in 1990. Not trying to be siding with 'Gamer Gate' or anything due to disliking labels but it furthur proves that these online feminist stating lies like 'Gamers dislike girls getting into their little hobby'... but thats for another thread.


Also people saying Western developed and western pushed games where a bad idea? What? When was having more software aimed at all audiences a bad thing?