Confusing Three Games Day

Lyrics

[Intro]
May 11, 1995.
Los Angeles Convention Center.
Smells like coffee, carpet glue, and a little bit of panic.

[Verse 1]
Tom Kalinske adjusts his tie on the monitor wall.
We've got our press badges on, waiting for the call.
September was the plan, a full-scale retail war.
But a whisper came from Nakayama through the executive door.
Thirty thousand units, air-shipped in the night.
No one told the stores, no one thought to get it right.
My phone buzzes, it's a pager code I don't know.
Something's happening upstairs. Something's about to blow.

[Chorus]
Surprise! We're launching today.
Happy birthday, four months away.
He said the words from the E3 stage: 'Saturn is available... now.'
For three hundred and ninety-nine dollars, somehow.
At Toys 'R' Us, Babbage's, if you can find one around.
We just shot ourselves first, without making a sound.

[Verse 2]
The phones are melting at the booth. It's Walmart on the line.
It's KB Toys, screaming bloody murder, 'this was a friend of mine.'
We alienated everyone we needed for the fall.
For a four-month head start with nothing on the wall.
Just Virtua Fighter spinning in the drive.
And a handful of floor clerks trying to look alive.
They unbox the black plastic, 8:47 a.m.
No instructions, no warning, just corporate mayhem.

[Chorus]
Surprise! We're launching today.
Happy birthday, four months away.
He said the words from the E3 stage: 'Saturn is available... now.'
For three hundred and ninety-nine dollars, somehow.
At Electronics Boutique, if you can find one around.
We just shot ourselves first, without making a sound.

[Bridge]
And then the other guys walk up.
Sony. Olaf Olafsson.
He clears his throat, holds up a single sheet.
He doesn't make a speech.
He just says a number into the heat.
'Two-ninety-nine.'
And walks away.
And you could feel the future change, right there, on that confusing day.

[Outro]
It's a beautiful machine.
A perfect black box.
Click of the power button in an empty stockroom.
Humming to itself.
Born today.
Gone tomorrow.
Happy birthday to you.