This has been floating around everywhere, but it's too good not to post - an excellent, literate interview with former Sega president Tom Kalinske over at Sega-16, where he spills on everything from Yuji Naka's rebel attitude to a then-proposed Sega/Sony console!

Regarding Yuji Naka's decision to work on Sonic 2 in the U.S. office, and whether that upset Sega of Japan, he commented: "I'd imagine it did. Yeah, it most likely added more fuel to the fire. I think he (Naka) wanted more freedom, and since Sonic wasn't as successful in the Japanese market as it was in this one, he probably wanted to be closer to where it was successful and listen to why people thought it had been successful, as well as get the input of Americans who loved the character and gameplay and all that. I think there was a lot of that in there too."

On the Sega/Sony uberconsole: "I remember we had a document that Olaf and Mickey took to Sony that said they'd like to develop jointly the next hardware – the next game platform, with Sega, and here's what we think it ought to do. Sony apparently gave the green light to that. I took it to Sega of Japan and told them that this was what we thought an ideal platform would be – at least from an U.S. perspective – based on what we've learned from the Sega CD, and our involvement with Sony and our own people. Sega said not a chance." Wow.