Sega 32X
In January 1994 Sega’s CEO ordered the company to make a 32-bit cartridge based console to beat Nintendo’s Super NES (Super Famicom in Japan) in the technology department. He wanted the system to be in stores by Christmas of that same year. At first Sega developers toyed with the idea of releasing a new Sega Genesis with the capability to display more colors and run on a 32-bit processor. The idea was eventually scraped in favor of creating an add-on based on the idea that gamers would not buy a whole new version of the Sega Genesis. As fate would have it, Sega of Japan was already working on the Sega Saturn.
The 32X was finally released in North America in November 1994 for $150 (Same month the Sega Saturn was released in Japan) The fact that both systems came out at the same time lead many to believe the 32X was primed for failure from the beginning as Sega Saturn was more powerful and had more support of game developers.
The 32X started out as a very popular system in both Europe and North America and orders exceeded over 1 million units in each region, but only about 500,000 consoles had been produced for the initial release. This along with the fact that games had many errors in programming due to being rushed for release and that Sega had to give away adapters to allow all 32Xs to work properly with many TVs and Sega Genesis Consoles customers quickly began to lose interest in the system and look towards “true 32-bit consoles” such as the 3DO, Saturn, and Playstation.
Towards the end of 1995 Sega finally realized the mistakes they had made, but it was too late for any sort of redemption for the 32X. Developers quite producing games and moved on to the next generation of 32-bit consoles, even though the 32X was a true 32-bit system most games did not show off its full power. Owners of the Sega 32X felt cheated because of the low quality of games and because Sega only supported the system for such a short time before abandoning it for the Sega Saturn. Eventually stores became swamped with unwanted 32X systems and prices for a new one dropped to $19.95. Sega was also planning a console code named “Neptune” which was a Genesis and a 32X in one but by the time Neptune was ready the Sega Saturn was about to be released so Sega canceled the Neptune.
There were also a few games released that required both the 32X and CD add on. Very few (only 5) games were ever actually made due such a low user base that actually owned all three of the units. Out of the 5 games Sega only produced one which was a remake of the Night Trap game which, instead of 64 onscreen colors found on the original Sega CD version now had 32,768
The last game released for the 32X was Darxide which was originally intended to be a launch title for the Neptune. Spider-Man: Web of Fire was the last game that was actually developed for the 32X in the US. Due to rarity of these two titles they can both fetch a high price among collectors.
Ultimately neither of Sega’s add-on hardware devices were very successful. The poor planning and releases along with the poor support led the most popular video game company to lose many trusted fan and ultimately had a hand in knocking Sega completely out of the hardware business. One can’t help but wonder that if perhaps Sega had provided better quality games, more support, and better marketing or if the Sega CD/Genesis/32X combo would have been compatible with Saturn games that things may have turned out quite different.
System Specs
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