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

[j_factor]

He was absolutely right about the games mattering the most.

That just sounds a bit Pollyanna to me. Capitalism is not meritocracy -- things like advertising, retail presence, price point, aesthetic design, etc. all play a role. You certainly see that with the rollout of the NES, too. Things like redesigning the system to make it vaguely resemble a VCR, making a point of calling it an "entertainment system", and of course the R.O.B. -- these weren't for nothing. I've never seen anyone say that Gyromite and Stack Up were amazing games.

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.

And what did that give us? I would love to see a list of games that were localized due to Howard Phillips' input. Super Mario Bros. was never going to stay in Japan. We may have him to thank for such classics as Urban Champion and Donkey Kong Jr. Math.

He's the type of person NEC North America desperately could have used.

Games not being localized wasn't NEC's problem at all IMO. By and large, they brought over the right games. Most of the PC Engine imports that are considered desirable are from later in the system's life. I would even say that the Turbografx had a better US library than the Genesis for the first year and then some, maybe even two years depending on some release dates that I'm not sure about. NEC's main issues were in other areas, but what the Turbo library did lack was big names. Sega had Mickey Mouse and Michael Jackson. Katz also deserves some credit for the "celebrity endorsement series", though the results were mixed.

Kalinske can be seen here spinning the numbers as always.

It's his job to spin the numbers. Anyone in his position would be saying the same thing. Also that was my point in bringing up the comment in the first place, in response to retrospiel -- he spun it the best he could, but Nintendo was still very much on top at that point in time.

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.'

I'm not even sure what you're saying here. The market was down, you just highlighted how the market was down. That's not attributing it to anything, it's just a statement.

[Team Andromeda]

"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?

Very simple ... SEGA Japan put an elite team to make a 'Mario killer' with the best graphics even seen on a 16 bit game that got all the gaming press talking for starters . After SEGA 1st showed Sonic off the press were going wild and even great programmes like Dave Perry were wondering how on eaeth the MegaDrive was producing those graphics . You had massive hype before SEGA America and Tom even started any PR in America and the Sonic game for a changed, lived up to that hype . Sonic didn't just sell well in America you know .

How well did Tom do with NiGHTS which was for him the next Sonic ? or how well did Tom do with Greendog onthe Mega Drive - A game if we listen to Tom was going to be the next Sonic on the MD and even bigger lol. If fact how many Mega Drive games came anywhere near that of Sonic sales ? .

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

Right and an motor mouth sales man doesn't also = great sales either . Tom was good at selling , but he needed at item to sell and he got that with Sonic . You take away Sonic and EA support for the Mega Drive and I doubt the MD would have sold anywheer near its numbers in the USA or Europe

[tryphon]

I'm not sure EA support did anything to MD sales in Europa. EA released many ports from Atari/Amiga, but at this time, you owned either a computer or a console, rarely both (except when you were rich).

As a MD owner then, I was really suspicious at each game EA produced, and only bought one (EA Hockey, which was the first NHL Hockey with international teams instead of americans ones) (I lie : I owned Shadow Of The Beast for about a week).

Sonic and Streets Of Rage otoh did great for MD success. And unfortunately, so did Street Fighter II for SNES a little later.

[Team Andromeda]

I'm not sure EA support did anything to MD sales in Europa

Never heard of FIFA ? . EA support for the Mega Drive did wonders with its great games line up EA games getting rave reviews inthe gaming press over here and even the likes of John Madden, Madden 92 and the likes of EA Hockey sold well over here , while not in massive numbers (untill Fifa) EA support was a big reason to buy a Mega Drive.

[Gogogadget]

Not to mention EA ported PC games to the MD in Europe, and home computers were a big deal here.

[retrospiel]

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?

Western developed games aren't a bad thing per se (see Electronic Arts' contribution to the MD's early library) but what Sega of America did, first under Katz then to a much greater extend under Kalinske was to give developers not enough time to work on their games - which often had a direct influence on a game's quality.

I think Jurassic Park is a good and well documented example. They had like four months to create a game when Kalinske had already set a multi million Dollar marketing campaign in motion, before development had even started. (In comparison: Sonic 1 took well over 1,5 years).

We got reports of other cases like this thanks to interviews with various developers here at Sega-16: For the Katz era these include Art Alive and Fantasia, under Kalinske the most prominent examples include Sonic 2, Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3, and Aladdin. STI's Mark Czerny reported that they lost three months out of a 11 month schedule for Sonic 2. Sonic 3 had much of the same fate as Jurassic Park. In this case a marketing campaign with Mac Donald's was decided and a date set long before development was even close to being finished. Yuji Naka mentioned it in Udon Entertainment's book on Sonic the Hedghog.

Aladdin's fate was perhaps the most tragical as it cost Sega their Disney license that Nakayama obtained for the company. Again, a marketing campaign was well under way when Disney, cautious by the lack of quality of SOA's previous efforts, checked upon the game's progress only to learn that the same team behind the lackluster Ariel and Tale Spin games had yet to even begin development. Disney decided to intervene and give the game to Virgin instead, leaving publishing to SOA to fulfill and then end the existing contract.

The quality of the games pretty much was an after-thought with SOA, a pattern which I think one can track back from the Katz days all the way up to modern-day SOA - with some highly notable exceptions inbetween, no doubt! But still, this pattern is a MAJOR issue with SOA developed or SOA produced games to this very day. The most recent examples being Sonic Boom and that Nights sequel. Release Dates and marketing seem to be more important than a bug free enjoyable game.

The best marketing is useless if the quality of your product is secondary.

[tryphon]

Never heard of FIFA ?

First FIFA games were weak games. I don't remember them to be so much popular. Even other soccer games were better then (but none really good).

EA support for the Mega Drive did wonders with its great games line up EA games getting rave reviews inthe gaming press over here and even the likes of John Madden, Madden 92 and the likes of EA Hockey sold well over here , while not in massive numbers (untill Fifa) EA support was a big reason to buy a Mega Drive.

Not in France. Madden got good reviews, but was totally ignored since American Football is not popular at all. EA Hockey sold well, but it wasn't a killing title either.

[tryphon]

Not to mention EA ported PC games to the MD in Europe, and home computers were a big deal here.

Then again, not in France. PC and MD Gamers were not the same.

You see that speaking about a unique Eorpean market is nonsense

[EclecticGroove]

Right and an motor mouth sales man doesn't also = great sales either . Tom was good at selling , but he needed at item to sell and he got that with Sonic . You take away Sonic and EA support for the Mega Drive and I doubt the MD would have sold anywheer near its numbers in the USA or Europe

Of course not. But you need both, that's my point.

Tom would not have been able to sell a crap product anywhere near as well (or at all).

But even with an amazing product, without someone to push it right, Sonic could have been a complete flop here.

A tiny handful of people keeping up with Japanese development of a game for a relatively unknown system (in the USA) does not wild sales numbers make.

The Genesis pre Sonic, here in the USA, was NOT a wildly successful system. I can't even remember seeing it or it's games/accessories for sale anywhere other than the tiny handful of specialized gaming stores around me. And in those places, it was still very much NES front and center.

Go to places like k-mart and general goods type stores, the much more accessible stores that also sold electronics? NES was easy to find.

That was never the case near me for the Genesis until Sonic was packed in and pushed. I'd just about guarantee you for the majority of people out there they would swear up and down that's when the Genesis came out. Because for all intents and purposes here in the USA, that's true.
Sonic, and the associated marketing for it, MADE the Genesis here.

Without Kalinske I don't know if that would have happened. And neither does anyone else, because it did.
The Saturn didn't have anywhere near the same situation as the Genesis, so it's a bit unfair to compare it. But no, he couldn't push it the same way. Maybe he didn't believe in it, maybe he was crippled by SOJ, maybe he just couldn't envision a way to push it the right way, or maybe all/some of those or something different.

He will obviously try to spin things to his advantage, absolutely. But acting like the Genesis would have sold itself is complete bullshit. MAYBE it would have started selling better, but the "perfect storm" of Sonic, the pack in, and the advertising turned the Genesis from a "what's that?" console here, to a "I REALLY want to play that!" one virtually overnight.

[Team Andromeda]

First FIFA games were weak games. I don't remember them to be so much popular

Fifa was massive in the UK and parts of Europe and toped the all format Christmas charts for 1994, same went for Fifa 95. Other than Sonic II it was the only time I saw Mom's and Dads queuing in a shop for waiting for new stock to come in .

Not to mention EA ported PC games to the MD in Europe, and home computers were a big deal here

Yep and games like PGA Golf were very good sellers too.

I think Jurassic Park is a good and well documented example. They had like four months to create a game when Kalinske had already set a multi million Dollar marketing campaign in motion, before development had even started. (In comparison: Sonic 1 took well over 1,5 years).

Spot on and what a complete waste of money the SEGA Multi Media studio turned out to be with only 2 games and one of which was complete and utter rubbish (Wild Woody) and we can only blame Tom and SOA for that and the waste of potential of the Muilt Media studio .

But even with an amazing product, without someone to push it right, Sonic could have been a complete flop here

If the game was rubbish then yes , But the moment SOJ said it had an elite team working on a rival to Mario, that it had higher priority than any SEGA consumer or Arcade game was started the hype game and when the press 1st saw Sonic moving no-one could believe it was a MD game - The hype already started long before Tom and his PR did their work the whole gaming world was talking of Sonic . Look at the other games Tom hyped up and he feel well short with Greendog being the best example - I remember Tom in a Interview at the 92 CES show telling the press the game had better graphics than Sonic and was going to be the next Sonic in terms of sales - Yeah... right Tom .

Without Kalinske I don't know if that would have happened. And neither does anyone else, because it did

With out Sonic and the likes of John Madden 92 I really doubt SEGA would have outsold the Snes in America , with or with out Tom .

The Saturn didn't have anywhere near the same situation as the Genesis, so it's a bit unfair to compare it. But no, he couldn't push it the same way. Maybe he didn't believe in it, maybe he was crippled by SOJ, maybe he just couldn't envision a way to push it the right way, or maybe all/some of those or something different

Tom totally messed up with the 32Bit battle and he should have been more honest about it . He didn't belive in the Saturn down to its high price and saw the 32X has the most mass market out of the PS and Saturn - It was a bad call (done for the right and honest reasons, but still a bad call) . Sure Sega Japan messed up too, by not making it clear than a AAA Saturn Sonic was to be made and not make sure some sort of Sonic game was also ready near for its Western launch, or by not doing more to get Square after their split with NCL (which would have killed the PS In Japan) . But the cock ups SEGA America and Europe were making in the SEGA most important battle ever were what killed SEGA and its big chance of being a strong number 2 in the 32 Bit battle.

Then when we look at the DC, SEGA America did wonders and were badly letdown by SEGA Japan and the baboons running SEGA Europe at the time of the DC .

[Melf]

Very simple ... SEGA Japan put an elite team to make a 'Mario killer' with the best graphics even seen on a 16 bit game that got all the gaming press talking for starters . After SEGA 1st showed Sonic off the press were going wild and even great programmes like Dave Perry were wondering how on eaeth the MegaDrive was producing those graphics . You had massive hype before SEGA America and Tom even started any PR in America and the Sonic game for a changed, lived up to that hype . Sonic didn't just sell well in America you know .

That's not true, actually. If you look at reactions before Sonic was promoted, many people even WITHIN SEGA had no idea what the game was about. It wasn't a marketing monster right out of the gate.

How well did Tom do with NiGHTS which was for him the next Sonic ? or how well did Tom do with Greendog onthe Mega Drive - A game if we listen to Tom was going to be the next Sonic on the MD and even bigger lol. If fact how many Mega Drive games came anywhere near that of Sonic sales ? .

Can you honestly say that NIGHTS had the same universal appeal as Sonic? Sonic was designed to go up directly against Mario. Nights was an experiment.

I honestly don't understand this compunction to take Kalinske's every word at marketing literally when it failed, but then only call him a "motor mouth" or "used car salesman" when it succeeds. He was the CEO of SEGA and had to promote his product as the best available. It's what every single CEO does. THAT'S THEIR JOB. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Right and an motor mouth sales man doesn't also = great sales either . Tom was good at selling , but he needed at item to sell and he got that with Sonic . You take away Sonic and EA support for the Mega Drive and I doubt the MD would have sold anywheer near its numbers in the USA or Europe

And Sonic wouldn't have sold anywhere near as much as it did if it hadn't been marketed the way that it was. Just look at the difference in sales numbers between its sales in the US and Japan. It's the same game, and it's Japanese (which automatically makes it better, amirite?), so why did it sell more in the US? In fact, half of all Sonic sales historically have been in the US, 35% Europe, and 15% the rest of the world (including Japan). Why wasn't Sonic more successful in Japan?

Western developed games aren't a bad thing per se (see Electronic Arts' contribution to the MD's early library) but what Sega of America did, first under Katz then to a much greater extend under Kalinske was to give developers little time to work on their games.

I think Jurassic Park is a good and well documented example. They had like four months to create a game when Kalinske had already set a multi million Dollar marketing campaign in motion, before development had even started. (In comparison: Sonic 1 took well over 1,5 years).

We got reports of other cases like this thanks to interviews with various developers here at Sega-16: For the Katz era these include Art Alive and Fantasia, under Kalinske the most prominent examples include Sonic 2, Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3, and Aladdin. STI's Mark Czerny reported that they lost three months out of a 11 month schedule for Sonic 2. Sonic 3 had much of the same fate as Jurassic Park. In this case a marketing campaign with Mac Donald's was decided and a date set long before development was even close to being finished. Yuji Naka mentioned it in Udon Entertainment's book on Sonic the Hedghog.

Those are specific examples. How many games did SOA release per year? It wasn't the same situation for all of them. And many of the games you mentioned, like Jurassic Park and Fantasia, had things going on behind the scenes that directly influenced their release dates, and they weren't in SEGA's hands (*hint* *hint* all will be revealed soon!)

Aladdin's fate was perhaps the most tragical as it cost Sega their Disney license that Nakayama obtained for the company. Again, a marketing campaign was well under way when Disney checked upon the game's progress only to learn that the same team behind Ariel and Tale Spin had yet to even begin development. Disney decided to intervene and give the game to Virgin instead, leaving publishing to SOA to fulfill (and then end) the existing contract.

Nakayama didn't get handle Disney license in the US, and many of the Japanese-developed Disney games were actually produced by Stephen Butler and SEGA's Jim Huether, so there was very much a western hand in classics like Quackshot and Castle of Illusion. Also, development was already underway for Jurassic Park (BlueSky didn't do Tale Spin). Disney simply didn't find the game to be all that exciting and decided to go with Virgin after they saw Digicel.

HOWEVER... if it hadn't been for efforts made by Kalinske with Disney BEFORE Aladdin was even a license, there would have been no Disney games on the Genesis, and what he did so pleased Disney that they gave Sega the distribution rights even after development was given to Virgin (which they didn't have to do). Again, all will be revealed soon!

The quality of the games pretty much was an after-thought with SOA, a pattern which I think one can track back from the Katz days all the way up to modern-day SOA - with some highly notable exceptions inbetween of course, no doubt! But still, this pattern is a MAJOR issue with SOA developed or SOA produced games to this very day. The most recent examples being Sonic Boom and that Nights sequel. Release Dates and marketing seem to be more important than a bug free enjoyable game. The best marketing is useless if the quality of your product is secondary.

Sonic Boom is definitely an example, Nights: Journey of Dreams was done by the same team that did Shadow the Hedgehog. Its problems are more gameplay-related than anything else (thanks Wiimote!), though its development may very well had been rushed. It was going to originally be released on the Xbox 360 and PS3, but SOJ decided to make it a Wii game. They've been milking the franchise like a cow for years, which is why Naka left and why the quality has declined so much. Sonic has essentially become SEGA's Call of Duty.

[EclecticGroove]

If the game was rubbish then yes , But the moment SOJ said it had an elite team working on a rival to Mario, that it had higher priority than any SEGA consumer or Arcade game was started the hype game and when the press 1st saw Sonic moving no-one could believe it was a MD game - The hype already started long before Tom and his PR did their work the whole gaming world was talking of Sonic . Look at the other games Tom hyped up and he feel well short with Greendog being the best example - I remember Tom in a Interview at the 92 CES show telling the press the game had better graphics than Sonic and was going to be the next Sonic in terms of sales - Yeah... right Tom .

Sorry, but that's wrong.

"Making an amazing game" is NOT marketing it. It's making a great product that you HOPE you can sell.
Sonic was nowhere to be seen here in the USA pre marketing. If you think the fact it was a good game was all it needed? Well sorry, not for the kind of sales it got.
It absolutely would have been well reviewed, and likely popular among Genesis owners.

Sonic didn't come out, get some good reviews, then sell well to owners.
It came out, and was pushed hard. Sonic was everywhere. Sonic WAS the Genesis here. The two were intrinsically linked. It was not just a good game that came here.

As I said, the Genesis in the USA, for all intents and purposes, was launched with Sonic. Because before that? It was barely a blip on the radar here in terms of popularity.
Kalinske managed to re-launch the system with a new pack in that was perfect for the system.
That pack in was integral to everything.

And if you want to talk Saturn, I think it always lacked something the same. It never had Sonic, and it never had a pack in or Mascot with the same punch to it. Nights was good, but not everyone's cup of tea... and wasn't even close to a launch title.

Tom pushing other games with hype? Yes, that's his job. He's not going to say, "this game is crap, and Sonic is still way better even though it's older". It's his job to sell things. That leads to some obvious fluff and missteps, but that doesn't mean it always fails either.


I still stand by my statement. Sonic, no matter how good a game, would not have been anything close to what it was here in the USA without the proper marketing push.
It could very well have been like Bonk instead of Mario. A solid game that people liked, but that just didn't really take off.

[Team Andromeda]

"Making an amazing game" is NOT marketing it. It's making a great product that you HOPE you can sell

No developer really knows how a game is going to be taken by the public. Buy the hype game with Sonic had already started with SEGA long before TOM and his PR crew pushed the title . The fact that SEGA Japan had put an elite team on making a Mario rival , that is was going to push the MD and that it had higher priority than any consumer or Arcade in SEGA - Got not just the SEGA Press, but also the general press talking and waiting to see this title . Even SEGA Arcade teams got in on the act a little with Sonic being seen in Rad Mobile - SEGA then cutting edge lastest Arcade game .

Make no mistake the hype for Sonic had already began ...

It came out, and was pushed hard. Sonic was everywhere. Sonic WAS the Genesis here

? Sonic was number 1 in the Europe too and you didn't need Tom to sell the game .

It never had Sonic, and it never had a pack in or Mascot with the same punch to it

Thank you just my point . With out no killer game , Tom wasn't able to sell the system to the masses . Like I said he got luckly with Sonic .

Nights was good, but not everyone's cup of tea... and wasn't even close to a launch title.

I got news for you , Sonic wasn't either.

That leads to some obvious fluff and missteps, but that doesn't mean it always fails either.

And when it comes to the likes of Tom and Trip there's plenty ...

It could very well have been like Bonk instead of Mario. A solid game that people liked, but that just didn't really take off

Hardly what you overlook with the Sonic is a couple of things ... It was totally non-violent (you never kill anything or any enemy ever) and it was a game that thanks to it being so simple to control and play with its left and right controls and just one button controls meant anyone could play the game, even my gran could so it was one of the best family freidky games made to this very day . Add to that that as soon as you saw and heard SONIC you wanted the game - It was a killer combo .

[retrospiel]

HOWEVER... if it hadn't been for efforts made by Kalinske with Disney BEFORE Aladdin was even a license, there would have been no Disney games on the Genesis, and what he did so pleased Disney that they gave Sega the distribution rights even after development was given to Virgin (which they didn't have to do). Again, all will be revealed soon!

Kalinske wasn't even at SOA when Castle of Illusion or Quackshot were developed.

And I find it unfair to the highest degree to credit games like Castle of Illusion or Quackshot to SOA and not to Emiko Yamamoto's team at SOJ - who actually made the games: http://segaretro.org/Emiko_Yamamoto

Those are specific examples. How many games did SOA release per year? It wasn't the same situation for all of them.

They did not release that many. Even less of those were of any importance as far as Sega's legacy goes (again: with some highly notable exceptions like Ecco the Dolphin and Toejam & Earl).

Of course it was not the same situation for all of them. Some were in development for like half a decade - like X-perts =P

But seriously: We do not know the story behind all of SOA's games but judging by the quality of the vast majority the people they hired either could not design a game or they did not get the resources needed.

I think it is undeniable that video game culture in the US and Europe was nowhere near as advanced as in Japan back in the late 80s and early 90s so that played a role when comparing the quality of Western MD games to Japanese games but I'd also say that in many cases the reason for the lack of quality of a game was the resources given to the developers by the companies. In SOA's case it seems to me that time was the issue as opposed to money.

[EclecticGroove]

Europe didn't have Tom, but they sure as hell had other people doing similar jobs there.

No one is saying "No one other than Tom could have done a good job", but the point is that he was there, and he DID a good job with the Genesis and Sonic. And given how things were going, there was a very good chance that someone else could very easily have flubbed it.

And "the hype was real"? No, it wasn't. This isn't the 2000's were talking about where damn near every kid is online, able to check out pictures and video's of games still in Japan, where message boards exist for people to congregate and share info/ideas.

This is the early 90's. There were a few magazines with limited numbers of readers that would have had any information at all about Sonic, and it sure as hell wouldn't be something the masses would be reading. Virtually all advertising for games that actually made an impact was on TV, billboards/stores, or in magazines that shared demographics with gamers. Things like Gamepro, game informer, and Nintendo Power were niche, often heavily biased to Nintendo (if not Nintendo exclusive), and often had little, if any, space dedicated to "things still in Japan". It wasn't until after the Genesis hit that it started to open up, and it only really started coming into its own around the time of the PSX.

Sonic, in the USA, didn't exist in any real way until the Genesis/Sonic marketing blitz. PERIOD
Maybe that was different in Europe, but this entire discussion is about Kalinske and the US market, not Europe.