Dummy2837 Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Reading through the April '95 issue of "Next Generation" and about the state of the console at the time, I really do not see how everything went wrong so quickly. They were newly (relatively) flush with cash, and if you believe Tramiel and others had $125 million to spend along with some sort of unclear partnership with Sega, what happened? Why wasn't Sega begged to license some games or develop anything for the CD while Atari conserved cash until a Christmas marketing campaign with new CD games? They had several months on the market by themselves, and reading through the dev histories of the Jag 2 and Duo, I failed to see how neither of those products was launched at all. It seems like with reasonable cash conservation, another price cut, and developers feeling more secure about the future and making CD games, survival till 97, and a system launched that was more powerful than the PSX should have been very possible. Am I wrong here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dummy2837 Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 2 minutes ago, Dummy2837 said: Reading through the April '95 issue of "Next Generation" and about the state of the console at the time, I really do not see how everything went wrong so quickly. They were newly (relatively) flush with cash, and if you believe Tramiel and others had $125 million to spend along with some sort of unclear partnership with Sega, what happened? Why wasn't Sega begged to license some games or develop anything for the CD while Atari conserved cash until a Christmas marketing campaign with new CD games? They had several months on the market by themselves, and reading through the dev histories of the Jag 2 and Duo, I failed to see how neither of those products was launched at all. It seems like with reasonable cash conservation, another price cut, and developers feeling more secure about the future and making CD games, survival till 97, and a system launched that was more powerful than the PSX should have been very possible. Am I wrong here? Like, I know this screenshot probably is rosier than the situation really was, but if even one of these things happened (more games, lawsuits, or a Sega collaboration), there was certainly a path forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+madman Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 2 hours ago, Dummy2837 said: Am I wrong here? Yep. 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 7 hours ago, Dummy2837 said: Tramiel and others had $125 million to spend along with some sort of unclear partnership with Sega, what happened? Sam having a heart attack was probably the biggest factor and the Jaguar was already on life support with price cut after price cut, but no one was buying. Once Jack came back, he shut it all down and found an exit through JTS. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirlynxalot Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Jaguar was a disaster by 1995 and Atari knew it. They were aware how many they had produced, and how many had sold (like 200K systems, which is paltry numbers for making this the sole business of your company). Sure they could yolo the cash infusion on marketing and hope that their years old system will compete with the new nintendo/sega/sony stuff that everyone is excited about, but the writing was really on the wall that this is a losing venture for the company and by 1995 Atari knew it. The sega collaboration was never going to amount to much. This was the outcome of a lawsuit and sega wasn't exactly enthused with this direction. Memos and internal messages at Atari that have been published in this forum before basically show that Atari was requesting sega's state of the art and best selling stuff like Virtua Fighter and in return Sega was basically saying "here's a list of 5 year old 8 bit master system games that are eligible for porting to Jaguar." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cubanismo Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Yeah, be Jack Tramiel. Your son just had a heart attack running this company. Before that, you were essentially happily retired, never really wanted to be in the gaming business before that, and would rather your son doesn't come back to a struggling company and have another heart attack trying to fix it. You have an out that trades the whole thing for a hundred million dollars cash in your family's pockets and leaves your whole family set for life. The buyer probably even assured you it'll be business as usual over there and they'll keep the gaming business going so you think most people will keep their jobs for a while. What would you do? 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dummy2837 Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 9 hours ago, sirlynxalot said: Jaguar was a disaster by 1995 and Atari knew it. They were aware how many they had produced, and how many had sold (like 200K systems, which is paltry numbers for making this the sole business of your company). Sure they could yolo the cash infusion on marketing and hope that their years old system will compete with the new nintendo/sega/sony stuff that everyone is excited about, but the writing was really on the wall that this is a losing venture for the company and by 1995 Atari knew it. The sega collaboration was never going to amount to much. This was the outcome of a lawsuit and sega wasn't exactly enthused with this direction. Memos and internal messages at Atari that have been published in this forum before basically show that Atari was requesting sega's state of the art and best selling stuff like Virtua Fighter and in return Sega was basically saying "here's a list of 5 year old 8 bit master system games that are eligible for porting to Jaguar." Thanks, do you have a link to those? I would love to see them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dummy2837 Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 9 hours ago, cubanismo said: Yeah, be Jack Tramiel. Your son just had a heart attack running this company. Before that, you were essentially happily retired, never really wanted to be in the gaming business before that, and would rather your son doesn't come back to a struggling company and have another heart attack trying to fix it. You have an out that trades the whole thing for a hundred million dollars cash in your family's pockets and leaves your whole family set for life. The buyer probably even assured you it'll be business as usual over there and they'll keep the gaming business going so you think most people will keep their jobs for a while. What would you do? You're totally right, I didn't really think about the heart attack but yes, that is what I would do as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Oh my! I saw the words Work has already started on Jaguar 3, and I 'bout had a heart attack!! LMAO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 I could see it now.. "Atari Jaguar 3: Fume Master™". 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMMS Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 I just made a video about the end of the jaguar, and Mr. Radiation explains in detail the fall, the causes and the expenses of the console. Sorry it's in French but with English subtitles, from 11'49 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dummy2837 Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 18 hours ago, PMMS said: I just made a video about the end of the jaguar, and Mr. Radiation explains in detail the fall, the causes and the expenses of the console. Sorry it's in French but with English subtitles, from 11'49 I will check it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.