The Rise and Fall of the Sega 32X, the Doomed Add-On That Helped Destroy Sega

Picture a Sega Genesis in 1994. Now bolt a Sega CD onto the bottom, and jam a strange mushroom-shaped lump called the 32X into the top. Three machines, three power adapters, a tangle of cables. Gamers called it the Tower of Power. And that mushroom, the Sega 32X, might be the most baffling, self-destructive product a winning company ever made. This is the full story: how Sega, fresh off beating Nintendo in America, panicked about the coming 32-bit future and rushed out a cheap Genesis add-on to bridge the gap to the Saturn, ordered into stores in under a year. The problem: the 32X launched in November 1994, the exact same month Sega launched the Saturn in Japan, so Sega was competing with itself, begging customers to buy a $160 stopgap and then throw it away for a Saturn that couldn't even play 32X games. Rushed development meant a weak library of ~40 games (Doom, Star Wars Arcade), the absurd "Tower of Power" hardware, and a company trying to support five consoles at once. When the Saturn got a surprise early US launch in 1995, the 32X was instantly obsolete. It sold ~665,000, was abandoned within months, and burned Sega's most loyal fans, who'd already been burned by the Sega CD. The 32X wasn't killed by Nintendo, or by Sony. It was killed by Sega. And it was one more crack in a foundation that would soon collapse. (Pairs with our Sega Saturn and Dreamcast videos.) This is Kilobyte Chronicles, where we tell the rise and fall of the machines that shaped how we lived. Chapters: 00:00 The Tower of Power 01:30 Sega on top, and the 32-bit panic 03:40 The shortcut: an add-on called Mars 05:40 Competing with its own Saturn 07:00 Rushed games and the Tower of Power 08:00 The Saturn arrives, and it's over 09:40 Betraying the fans, again SOURCES (researched from primary/authoritative sources): Wikipedia, "32X" (Project Mars, the Nov 21 1994 launch at $159.99, ~665,000 units, the rushed 40-game library, competing with the Saturn, discontinued 1996). Video Game Console Library, "Sega 32X" ("the most reviled add-on in gaming history," Tom Kalinske's stopgap, Doom and Star Wars Arcade, the Tower of Power, the $99 price cut). Power Up Gaming, "The Sega 32X: Where did it all go wrong?" and CultureSlate (Project Jupiter/Mars, the fractured audience, the tie to the Saturn and Dreamcast). If you spot a genuine error, comment and I'll pin the correction.