Tom Kalinske, the former CEO of Sega America, believes the Saturn console flopped because the Japanese company didn't create a 'Sonic the Hedgehog' game for it.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog

The 32-bit machine was released in 1994 but was discontinued in 1998 due to disappointing worldwide sales and the success of Sony's first foray into the game market with the original PlayStation.

Kalinske, who was working for Sega America at the time, still can't believe his colleagues in Japan didn't have a 'Sonic' title ready for its launch and he finds it even more staggering that Sega's blue spiky mascot never made it onto the system at all.

Kalinske cites Sonic's games on the Sega Megadrive as the reason the 16-bit console did so well worldwide and took sales from Nintendo's machines.

Speaking to Polygon.com, he said: "I think they just didn't understand how powerful Sonic was in the western world. I mean, it's kind of a strange thing to say, because they could certainly see the sales numbers and the amount of revenue that was produced, and the passion that players and users had towards the Sonic character, and the TV shows, and the comics and, you know, everything else that [came with] the licensing."

Kalinske is certain that the original 1991 'Sonic the Hedgehog' game and the two sequels were responsible for 50 per cent of the success of the machine - which was marketed as the Genesis in the US.

He said: "I think we probably would have been successful at a modest level without Sonic. I mean, it would have been better than it was, you know, before I joined the company, but I don't think we could have possibly passed Nintendo in share of market. And I don't think we would have reached about a billion and a half in revenue in the United States and 900 million in Europe without Sonic. So Sonic contributed tremendously to that. And certainly that made me a lot more successful."

Sega is bringing back their most famous video game character in a new title 'Sonic Mania' which sees the speedster and his pals Tails and Knuckles return in a side-scrolling platform in the style of his first adventures.

It is being released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this year.