SEGA staff newsletter article about Michael's visit to Sega in 1992

Amaya

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Sega's February 1993 staff newsletter had an article about Michael's visit to their headquarters in 1992. Someone translated it and posted pictures from it as well, some of which are new!

https://mdshock.com/2020/12/08/michael-jackson-visits-sega-in-japan-december-1992/

Article text in full:

The following is a translation of a short article in Sega’s staff newsletter, published in February 1993, about Michael Jackson’s visit to Sega’s headquarters in Tokyo in December 1992. The article featured several photos that have never before been seen publicly of Michael meeting with Sega’s leadership. Enjoy!

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Michael Jackson, who was in Japan for his Dangerous World Tour, met with Sega president Hayao Nakayama on December 15th and 21st [1992] during breaks from performing concerts in order to discuss a new game.

Wearing a black shirt and black pants along with a Sonic jacket, Michael arrived at Sega headquarters, where he greeted president Nakayama with a smile and a handshake. A Sonic mascot presented a bouquet of roses to Michael, who received them with a big grin on his face and then friendly patted Sonic. After that, there was a 30-minute conference between Michael and Sega. Building off of the successful joint development of Moonwalker games for the arcade and home two years ago, there was an open sharing of ideas from both sides on the development of a new game that would appeal to all audiences. This time, the focus was on an arcade game making full use of high quality CG in a virtual reality system, as well as an innovative home console game. Both sides hit it off very well.

At the end of the conference, president Nakayama presented Michael with a new Megalo 50 arcade cabinet loaded with Puyo Puyo and Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder as a sign of friendship, which Michael was very happy to receive. A few days before on December 10th, Michael had visited the Roppongi GIGO game center, where the Megalo 50 was the arcade machine that had most captured his interest.

After the conference, Michael enjoyed playing the newly released Sonic 2 as well as some CD-ROM games. In addition, Michael said he would love to see Sega’s cutting-edge development room, so president Nakayama himself provided him with a tour of the latest VR technology. Within the Yasuda warehouse, Michael gave the new AS-1 a test ride. His shouts of excitement could be heard as the machine shook about in all directions. In the end, Michael achieved the high score and was selected as the top player, which caused the staff in attendance to send up a magnificent applause. In the blink of an eye, the scheduled one and a half hours had passed, and Michael left the headquarters showing a great sense of satisfaction.
 
His sonic 3 contributions will forever hold a place in my heart, such a unique/distinctive style. The end credits song is top notch.
 
Speaking of SEGA, they’re now owned by Genda Inc.
 
Blodia;4312341 said:
His sonic 3 contributions will forever hold a place in my heart, such a unique/distinctive style. The end credits song is top notch.

Same here. Was (and still am) a Sonic fan and the fact that two of my favorite things actually crossed over at one point will always be a bright spot in my life. Wish we could have heard more from Michael himself about his involvement. Hell, had he lived long enough to see the making of Sonic Generations it would have been awesome for him to come back for that game (since pretty much every other composer that ever worked on Sonic came back for that).

PoP;4312495 said:
Speaking of SEGA, they’re now owned by Genda Inc.

That's news to me. Seems COVID hit them pretty hard this past year, too. The famous red SEGA arcade building in Akihabara even shut down a few months ago due to losses. A shame... I always wanted to go to that building. =/
 
Love, love, love all of these images! Also all this info is fantastic! My favorite is definitely this one with them playing Puyo Puyo(?).
MJ-Sega-09.jpg


His sonic 3 contributions will forever hold a place in my heart, such a unique/distinctive style. The end credits song is top notch.

Same, but it's a shame none of the songs he wrote seem to be on there. We know a couple of Brad's contributions for the game, but not any specific Michael ones.
 
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