PS5 architect Mark Cerny says an intense Nintendo rivalry turned Sega into a "sweatshop" when he worked there: "Three people. Three months. That's a game"

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When Nintendo went to Timbuktu, Sega went to Timbukthree

Mark Cerny in front of Ghost of Yotei PS5 model
(Image credit: PlayStation via YouTube)

PlayStation lead architect and PS5 designer Mark Cerny says that Sega was a "sweatshop" when he worked there in the late '80s, because leadership believed the key to beating Nintendo was to release more games than its biggest competitor.

Speaking with Simon Parkin on the My Favourite Console podcast, Cerny explains the toxic working conditions he experienced at Sega's Tokyo office in the late 1980s. "Now, I've gotta caveat this," Cerny starts. "I'm only talking about the second half of the 1980s at [the] Tokyo office. But man, Sega was a sweatshop. Three people, three months, that's a game. And, you know, we would sleep at the office."

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George Young
George Young
Freelance News Writer

Freelance writer, full-time PlayStation Vita enthusiast, and speaker of some languages. I break up my days by watching people I don't know play Pokemon pretty fast.

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