 In January 1994 , Sega began to develop an add @-@ on for the Genesis , the Sega 32X , which would serve as a less @-@ expensive entry into the 32 @-@ bit era . The decision to create the add @-@ on was made by Nakayama and widely supported by Sega of America employees . According to former Sega of America producer Scot Bayless , Nakayama was worried that the Saturn would not be available until after 1994 and that the recently released Atari Jaguar would reduce Sega 's hardware sales . As a result , Nakayama ordered his engineers to have the system ready for launch by the end of the year . The 32X would not be compatible with the Saturn , but Sega executive Richard <unk> @-@ Lindner pointed out that the 32X would play Genesis titles , and had the same system architecture as the Saturn . This was justified by Sega 's statement that both platforms would run at the same time , and that the 32X would be aimed at players who could not afford the more expensive Saturn . According to Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller , the 32X served a role in assisting development teams to familiarize themselves with the dual SH @-@ 2 architecture also used in the Saturn . Because both machines shared many of the same parts and were preparing to launch around the same time , tensions emerged between Sega of America and Sega Enterprises when the Saturn was given priority . 
