"The relationship between SEGA and SONY was rather...rocky, at the start. Nakayama and Ohga didn't get along at all, didn't trust each other for a variety of reasons that are very complicated. As it turns out, both of them had major disagreements between one another outside of Toriyama's planned Manga. The first real thing that they actually agreed on really surprised me, when both men told their departments to cancel some of the games they were working on and instead create four titles that would go in tandem with Sonic, being : Xinyak, which was basically their attempt to make a game similar to Metroid what with a intergalactic bounty huntress, The Tale of Emilia, which was their answer to Legend of Zelda, Mesozoic Disaster, which was their own original idea for a horror game with Dinosaurs being the main antagonists to jump on that Jurassic Park craze, and then there was Rule of Law, which was a nation simulator where players could make their own rpg decisions to lead a fictional nation to a golden age. Outside of those four, the other SEGA and SONY games were scrapped as we put focus on those games and ports for the Saturn. Of course, we felt threatened by Atari's Jaguar and Trip's 3DO with their 32 and 64 bit announcements, but everyone decided it was best to ignore them and instead focus on our ideas instead, like the CD and Saturn in specific. There was a lot of room to improve but when SONY came on board, the work to make the successor to the Genesis became a whole lot easier and by the release of the Saturn, we came out with a small but clear lead over Nintendo and other companies like them." - Tom Kalinske, (1944-2027), President of Sega America (1990-1998) in a 2001 interview with Gaming Magazine.
"So, I was the one who suggested coming up with the ideas for both Xinyak and The Tale of Emilia during a meeting on new games we could make while SEGA sent off their old franchise off with a final hurrah on both the CD and the Saturn. So, I was put in the head of their creative teams, with Xinyak being given 75 people and Emilia being given 53. I hated how many hours I worked but I guess it was worth it because those two definitely stood the tests of time and survived while Mesozoic Disaster and Rule of Law completely failed by their third games with newer titles replacing them. So, I had to come up with the basic concepts, designs, and ideas for the characters. For Xinyak, I created its main character first, being Jessica, a brunette with green eyes and a similar body plan to Samus, though their similarities just about ended there, considering that in Xinyak, there is no intergalactic government, the galaxy is largely lawless with various races fighting one another for supremacy, and Jessica doing bounties to bring in cash for her poor family back on Earth. Meanwhile, for the Tale of Emilia, the main character, Emilia, was an orphaned girl who would grow up to be the great hero of her time. Honestly, both games were giant endeavors for me to take but I was proud of what came of them by the end. I was made Sole director of Xinyak for the next decade while I let my friend, Yukawa-san, in control of Emilia." - Kinji Chikae, Creator of the Xinyak and Tale of Emilia game franchises during an interview with SEGA Retro in 2017.
(
How rocky was the relationship for SEGA-SONY starting out?)
TOM KALINSKE - Very rocky. SEGA of Japan didn't trust SONY to not muck it all up while SONY of Japan really hated the fact that SEGA was constantly breathing down their necks. Really, it was only the promise of a Sonic Manga by Toriyama that kept both sides interested in continuing the deal and thank god for that because without the manga, I don't think SONY would've stayed on for long.
(
Was the Saturn basically a revamped Playstation?)
TOM KALINSKE - Pretty much. Basically everything that was put in for the Saturn was just the Playstation with a SEGA coat of paint. I do kind of feel bad, but everyone knew SEGA wasn't going to let another company steal their thunder,even if they were helping them.
(
What caused the creation of Sonic & The Mysterious Stranger?)
TOM KALINSKE - Oh, that game, technically Sonic 4, eh? Well, We initially were stuck with a mainline Sonic game for the Saturn. The Knuckles game was already in development when the Saturn was being made but I had hunch that wouldn't be enough to hold over audiences for the next Sonic title. I did successfully convince the SEGA higher ups for a Tails spin-off game for the CD as well, to go with the release of the Saturn, but we really had a difficult time coming with any real ideas for a new mainline Sonic game. There was Sonic X-treme, but everything that could go wrong for that was. During a meeting, one of the people there, I forgot his name, said something about having recently watched Terminator 1 and 2 and made some off hand comment about how "my kid loves how cool Arnold is." or something like that. I remember bolting up and yelling "THAT'S IT!!!" after hearing that and wrote down my idea on a board : A cool, badass rival to Sonic that was basically Sonic's equal and superior in every way. So, Shadow the Hedgehog was born and the starting ideas for Sonic & The Mysterious Stranger was laid out.
(
What was the initial reaction to Shadow by the higher ups?)
TOM KALINSKE -They didn't like it. I mean, Shadow was black and red and looked way too serious when he was first brought before the board of directors. I mean, a hedgehog that has direct inspiration from the Terminator because the idea behind him was from an offhand comment about it? And the fact that he would maybe leave Knuckles in the dust as Sonic's rival. Despite that, I did convince them with my story idea and they warmed up soon enough. Still, they kept a close eye on me and I had to promise this would be the only game Shadow would appear in. I do find it funny how they decided to go against that though when he proved extremely popular with Sonic Adventure 2 and everything. I did a feel a bit betrayed but hey, that's business for you.
(
How much of Sonic X-Treme was in Sonic & The Mysterious Stranger?)
TOM KALINSKE - Very little, actually. We only took Tiara Boobowski and her father but then came up with entirely new ideas for the story, plot, enemies, and everything in between. I mean, we made Shadow have seven distinct boss battles along with the mercenaries he hired to do his dirty work for him as well and added on more lore to the Sonic franchise that wasn't initially expected. The plot was rather dark and, pardon the ironic word here, extreme, for a Sonic game, but it gave us the opening to transfer away from the goofy, silly attitude Sonic was always given and replace it with a more grounded, complex and better developed Sonic in the future and that, my friends, is what I consider a major victory."
- Tom Kalinske during an interview with SEGA Retro in 2019
"Watch out! Sonic the Hedgehog enters a new adventure on his lonesome facing the mysterious dark hedgehog Shadow, who has the goal of destroying the world. Play as the iconic Blue Blur in a race against time to stop Shadow's vile plan before its too late! Get the help of researcher Tiara Boobowski and her father Gazebo in sixteen new zones with seven boss battles to go against Shadow and his mercenaries!" - Magazine Advert for Sonic & The Mysterious Stranger; August 1994
"Four new SEGA game franchises have been confirmed to be planned to come out with the SEGA Saturn following the announcement of the partnership with SONY earlier this year. Titled Projects Tadmor, Fantasal, Prehistoric, and Real-Time, as they have been leaked as, will be four new stories that will be going on as the main SEGA games going forward as the other SEGA franchises will see their final games be released on the SEGA CD and SEGA Saturn . Very little is known about these games at the moment, but what is known is that they are Dark Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Survival Horror, and Role Playing Games respectively. More will come out with the release of the SEGA Saturn." Magazine Excerpt from SEGA Zone; June 1993
"Recent reports have come in that SEGA will now announce the release of three new Sonic games to come with the SEGA Saturn, with one of them being a spin-off for Sonic's plucky sidekick Tails, another game focusing on Knuckles who will feature heavily in Sonic 3, and a third and final Sonic solo game that will focus on the blue hedgehog himself and see him face off against a new dark villain that has goes far worse than Dr. Robotnik's were." - Excerpt from Game Informer, October 1993.
FRANK WELLS, PRESIDENT AND COO OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, DIES IN HELICOPTER CRASH
April 3rd, 1994
Sad news coming out of Lamoille, Nevada has reached the Walt Disney Company as it has been reported that its President and COO for the last decade, Frank Wells, has died in a helicopter crash. Wells, aged 62 at the time of his death, was a major figure in the animation and movie titan that has held the market in a choke hold with movies such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Aladdin (1992) with more films planned to come out, especially with the upcoming summer release of The Lion King and three new rumored movies based on the story of Pocahontas, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the myth of Hercules that are likely to perform just as well as their predecessors.
In the meantime, Chairman Michael Eisner is reportedly planning to appoint the head of Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg, to Wells' position. With this news comes a morale boost in the studios as to many in the company, it is Katzenberg who has been the leading figure for many of the animated successes of Disney in recent years.
"When I was promoted to President, I immediately got to work with the animated projects before me. I wasn't going to touch Lion King, I just had a feeling that would be a success, along with the other films that would come out. But I constantly said no to Tarzan and instead kept pushing for
The Kingdom of the Sun which Alles wanted. I also worked hard to get Pixar to agree with us for several years. My time as President of Disney was hell, to put it one way, and eventually, by late 1997, I gave up on it all because of Eisner and his desire to control everything. When I quit Disney, I just didn't expect the weird but massively successful road my career would take me on from that moment forward. I mean, who would've ever expected me to make SEGA a massive success in the movie and animation market along with the gaming market?" - Jeffrey Katzenberg, President of Production at
Paramount Studios (1978-1984), Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios (1984-1994), President of the Walt Disney Company (1994-1997), President of SEGA of America (1999-2023), Founder, President, & CEO of SEGAmation (1999-2023), Co-Founder, CEO, & President of SEGA Studios (2001-2023), and Founder of the SEGAcast Streaming Service (2011)
Second update finished, third one to come eventually. If anyone would be interested in being a co-author for this timeline, please let me know because I do need the help