Announced a few days ago, the Mega Drive Mini 2 will land in Japan on October 27 at a price of 9,980 yen (€70). If this news has delighted the eternal collectors that we are, it has also disappointed those who are desperately waiting for the Dreamcast Mini. Aware of this frustration, Yosuke Okunari wanted to explain himself to our colleagues from Famitsu. “Some will say: ‘Why it’s not a Saturn Mini?’, and others: ‘I wanted a Dreamcast Mini’, but you should know that these are avenues that we have studiedexplains the one in charge of retro hardware. The design of new cards has stalled due to the pandemic, which would have made these consoles extremely expensive items.“
If Okunari-san mentions new cards, it’s simply because the architecture of the Mega Drive Mini does not allow running Saturn or Dreamcast games. “Since we had already released the Mega Drive Mini, it was easier to make a console from this systemhe said to justify the choice of the Mega Drive Mini 2. 32X games are not included in the console [contrairement aux jeux Mega CD, ndlr] because the 32X is based on two processors just like the Saturn. If we manage to reproduce this architecture, then we will be able to offer a Saturn Mini.“
Of course, it would be premature to bury the Dreamcast Mini and the Saturn Mini, but as you will have understood, you will have to be patient.