Announced a few days ago, the Mega Drive Mini 2 will land in Japan on October 27 at a price of 9 yen (€980). 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 at Famitsu. "Some will say: 'Why it's not a Saturn Mini?', and others: 'I wanted a Dreamcast Mini', but you have to know that these are tracks that we have studied, explains the one in charge of hardware retro. Designing 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. "Given that we had already released the Mega Drive Mini, it was easier to make a console from this system, he specified to justify the choice of the Mega Drive Mini 2. 32X games are not included in the console [contrary to Mega CD games, editor's note] 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.
