the story of the unreleased sonic Xtreme for the sega saturn

Somewhere between the end of the sega megadrive/genesis and the begining of the sega saturn sega of America was planning on releasing a new sonic the hedgehog game, right from the start they wanted this sonic game to rely on more than just speed, the plot of the game was semi-inspired on the sonic SatAM cartoons which aired at the time.

This was their first demontration of the game on the megadrive/genesis, the game looks like a great break away from the regular sonic games, relying on stealth rather than speed, it looks a little like metal gear meets prince os persia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzctak81BLc

During the time this video was shown the 32X was already on stores, and sega needed something to sell the system and prove the 32x superiority, so sega (probably sega of Japan) ordered the american sonic team to create the new sonic game for the 32x, this is a video of the pitch of the 32x sonic game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHLqSAoE0bk&feature=related

However the 32x was failing harder and faster than sega thought, as a result they it was decided that this sonic game should once again be ported, this time for the sega saturn (so thats 3 times this game is created from scratch)

the first video of the game is showed during an E3, (possibly E3 95 or 96) this time renamed sonic Xtreme

here is the video: (i love the song, and sonic looks pretty damn good)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utWhRXhckbM&feature=related

Some more videos were leaked of sonic xtreme showing a revolutionary spherical camera, rather similar to what we saw on super mario galaxy, a decade after the videos were leaked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo8Fim2sR0s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzvS_beXtXk

Unfortunantly the saturn version of sonic xtreme was being created by US devs using the nights in to dreams engine, so the nights team had a fit, and complained to the parent company which was sega of Japan, as a result and due to the failing saturn sega of Japan canceled this game and now the game only lives on in these videos

MY thoughts?

the megadrive game looked great but it shouldnt be sonic

the 32x looked terrible but it was just a tech demo so i can forgive that

the saturn version looks years ahead of its time, and for two tech demos the graphics looked great

unfortunantly the rivalry between sega of Japan and Sega of America cost us not only this game but even the sega we knew and loved, (there are many stories like this related to the sega cd, 32x sega saturn, etc. most of the problems though came from sega of Japan, who felt insulted for the fact that sega of America and Europe were having a great sucess with the megadrive while in Japan that console failed)

Wow. This is one of the larger surprises I've seen as of late. Sonic X-Treme looked extremely unique and impressive even. Look how smooth the graphic engine was and how innovatively designed the levels were.

Sadly, this is also more evidence that the Sega we all loved was actually one of the most ineptly managed industry organization of its size. How they were as successful as they were is a testament to some of the creative assets that worked within the company. No Sonic on the Saturn will remain one of the strangest business decisions ever.