November 1994: 32X Launch



By mid to late 1994 the Super Nintendo was really taking a chunk of the gaming market away from Sega. The superior ports of arcade favorites Mortal Kombat II and Super Street Fighter II were a key factor. The recent releases of Earthbound and Illusion of Gaia attracted fans tired of waiting for new Genesis RPGs. Super Metroid was flying off the shelf and helped spur new hardware sales. To ice the deal, Nintendo started giving away Super Mario All-stars with all new system purchases. The hardware bundle that already included Zelda: A Link to the Past sold out within 48 hours of this new promotion.

The limitations of the Genesis hardware were being illustrated with every new Super Nintendo release. Sega responded by creating the 32X, an attachment that turned the Genesis into a 32-bit system. Our store was covered with promotional material for this add-on. Everyone knew that Sega also had a new 32-bit system planned for release in 1995. There was a huge misconception floating around that attaching a Sega CD and 32X to the Genesis made it compatible with this new system. We had to explain to many a confused customer that was bad information, some refused to believe us. I have no idea who started this myth, I suspect it was one of the gaming magazines though.

Despite this confusion the system sold remarkably well, fueled by launch titles like Virtua Racing and Star Wars Arcade. On several occasions we ran out of the hardware, which only increased interest in it. If it's sold out it must be pretty good, right? The release for Virtua Fighter later that year was hyped even more than the hardware itself. All pre-orders were given a box of goodies including a t-shirt, promotional VHS tape, and window sticker.

Ultimately the 32X was a passing phase. Developers starting shifting their efforts to the upcoming Playstation and Saturn consoles. New releases came to a screeching halt less than a year after the attachment hit the shelves. We started marking the 32X down at a frantic pace until it fell all the way to $20. By 1996 it was completely gone from the shelves.

Late 1994 also saw the anti-climatic release of Phantasy Star IV. It was to be the last game in the series (and it was for a good 6 years). Unfortunately Sega had already starting writing-off the Genesis at this point. Little was done to promote the game and Sega didn't seem to care if it sold at all. They branded it with a whopping $90 price tag at its initial release, a good $30 over the priciest games we carried. We only received 2-4 copies at first with the supply not increasing over time. Even during the Christmas season we never had more than a couple on hand. It always sold out despite the massive price tag. The Genesis had a poor selection of RPGs at the time, the last great RPG release was Shining Force II and that was a year-old. Customers expressed a lot of trepidation about dropping nearly $100 for a game but many did anyway. Those that bought it were generally satisfied as it met their expectations. It closed out the Phantasy Star series in a dramatic fashion.

Phantasy Star IV was one of earliest, maybe even the first, Genesis games to come in cardboard packaging instead of the hard plastic case. Odd choice for a $90 title. I suppose recycled cardboard is more earth-friendly, and cheaper, than plastic but it was still disappointing to see Sega make the switch. It had been a trademark of theirs since the Master System to distribute games in higher-quality boxes than Nintendo. It was a pain for us because the display boxes didn't hold up well. When we sold the display copy the buyers were usually irked at the condition. Game packaging today is so bland with everyone using a DVD case. Sure, games will fit nicely in a DVD storage system but I preferred the days of distinctive packaging.