> In 1996, 3Dfx began building wide acclaim for its powerful graphics chips, one of which ran in arcade machines, including Atari's San Francisco Rush and Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey. In 1997, 3Dfx went public, announcing its IPO. In the process it revealed the details of its contract with Sega, required by U.S. law. The announcement, however, had undesired effects. It publicly revealed Sega's blueprint for a new, unannounced console, and angered executives at Sega Japan.
> Numerous reports indicate Yamamoto's Blackbelt chipset using the 3Dfx chips was the more powerful of the two. Sega executives, however, still fuming at 3Dfx, severed their contract with the chip maker. (Soon thereafter, 3Dfx sued Sega and both companies settled out of court.)
> In the end, Sega of Japan selected Sato's design, codenamed it "Katana," and announced it publicly on September 7, 1997. To this day, it's unclear whether Sega would have chosen the Blackbelt 3Dfx solution, had 3Dfx not revealed Sega's plans publicly.
Having worked in the US office of a Japanese company, this does not surprise me in the least. Neither does their choice to use weird hardware with poor library support. The company I worked for did not understand that, if you sell a premade hardware device, you must also provide good, sensible tools and modern library support. They're currently doing very well in markets where this isn't the case like OEM hardware.
Ironically the major selling point of their products in Mexico is that the Mexican users won't steal the products because they're too ugly.
heh. Reminds me of agency break-ins in London. All of the Apple gear would be taken, and some of the better looking screens. But the ugly 5 times more expensive PC laptops were left there.
> Numerous reports indicate Yamamoto's Blackbelt chipset using the 3Dfx chips was the more powerful of the two. Sega executives, however, still fuming at 3Dfx, severed their contract with the chip maker. (Soon thereafter, 3Dfx sued Sega and both companies settled out of court.)
> In the end, Sega of Japan selected Sato's design, codenamed it "Katana," and announced it publicly on September 7, 1997. To this day, it's unclear whether Sega would have chosen the Blackbelt 3Dfx solution, had 3Dfx not revealed Sega's plans publicly.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132517/the_rise_and_fa...
seems like the executives took it personally