Speaking during an interview with Famitsu magazine, the president and COO of SEGA revealed that the company is experiencing difficulties in developing a Sega Saturn Mini, owning in part to the fact the system is “surprisingly high performance.”
The Sega Saturn is surprisingly high performance, so the difficulty of miniaturisation is also high. I don’t think it’s a case of saying ‘let’s make another one because it sells well’, it looks like it’s going to be a little longer. I’d like to think about it when we’re in a situation where we can openly develop it together with people who have always loved the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast.
Last year, Sega revealed that a Saturn and Dreamcast mini release was not happening due to high costs brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sega Saturn was released in Japan in 1994 and the US and Europe in 1995, and competed with the PSOne and Nintendo 64. However, the system was tricky to develop and was undercut in price by Sony’s system although it did provide some brilliant arcade conversions of classic Sega titles.
Mini consoles have been very popular in recent year with Nintendo, Sega, and Sony having all released their own retro machines, with Sega’s most recent offering being the Mega Drive Mini 2.
[Source – VGC]