Sega claims high pandemic costs are stopping a mini Saturn or Dreamcast

This comes from Sega’s classic hardware producer Yosuke Okunari, who spoke to Famitsu (translation via VGC) following the announcement of the Sega Mega Drive Mini 2.

When speaking about the Mega Drive Mini 2, Okunari said: “Some of you may say “this isn’t a Sega Saturn Mini” or “I wanted a Dreamcast Mini”, it’s not that we didn’t think about that direction.”

“The development of new boards has been stagnant due to the Coronavirus and, of course, it would be a fairly expensive product in terms of cost,” Okunari added.

These comments don’t entirely rule out more mini consoles from Sega, but Okunari’s words seem to indicate that they currently aren’t in active development.

The recently announced Sega Mega Drive Mini 2 will have 50 games on it from both the Mega Drive and Mega CD. Games like Sonic CD and the never before released on the console Fantasy Zone will be included when it launches in Japan this October. There’s currently no worldwide release date for the mini console.

Sonic CD will be a part of Sonic Origins, a retro collection of Sonic games set to release later this month.

Sega’s Dreamcast console was the company’s last foray into the home console market when it launched in 1998. It was discontinued worldwide in March of 2001 with Sega pivoting to third-party game development. Issues like competition and poor profits caused the console to be discontinued so quickly after its release.

In other news, a new multiplayer Crash Bandicoot game may appear at the Xbox and Bethesda games showcase, according to journalist Jez Cordon. “It’s like a four player brawler almost, but Crash oriented,” said Cordon.