The CEO of Sega America recently told The Guardian that there won’t be any further “mini” consoles from Sega. That means a Saturn Mini or Dreamcast Mini won’t be happening.
Shuji Utsumi said that the company is “not a retro company” and would rather “embrace modern gamers”:
I’m not going for the Mini direction. It’s not me. I want to embrace modern gamers.
We are not a retro company. We really appreciate our legacy, we value it, but at the same time, we want to deliver something new – otherwise we’ll become history. That’s not what we’re aiming for.
The Guardian confirmed with Sega that they are not planning any mini consoles for the future. The final one to be released was the Sega Genesis 2 in 2022.
Likewise, Nintendo has seemingly abandoned their mini console plans, with the SNES Mini being the last one back in 2017. There were rumors of a Nintendo 64 Mini, but that never happened. Instead, Nintendo chose to introduce classic games through a subscription service called Nintendo Switch Online.
Speaking of which, Sega recently revealed that they are looking into their own subscription service. Perhaps that’ll be the future home of their retro content.
I personally would have loved a Nintendo 64 mini or a portable Game Boy, modernized for 2024. Alas, we can’t have nice things.
Are you sad there won’t be a Dreamcast mini? Let me know in the comments below.