If you’re into the what-if/could-be scenarios of the gaming industry, then this story is for you. On the forum Assembler Gamers , something called the SEGA Pluto has emerged.

From Assembler Games (via <a href="https://gamegavel.com/">GameGavel</a>)

From Assembler Games (via Super Magnetic)

From Assembler Games (via Super Magnetic)

A user named Super Magnetic claims to have been “sitting on” the information of this console for 14 years, and has pictures to prove it. While it hasn't been verified that Super Magnetic ever worked for SEGA, or that his prototype console is real, the picture below are pretty compelling evidence. Read on!What is the SEGA Pluto? Apparently, it’s a modified SEGA Saturn (hence the logo). In short, “it’s a Saturn with a Netlink built in,” according to Super Magnetic. Better yet, he “was told that only two of these prototypes were made – and this is #2.”Super Magnetic reports that it’s “definitely the heaviest console” he’s ever held, and even managed to turn the console on. It works, though, as he notes, he couldn’t “even imagine how [he’d] go about testing the Netlink part of this device.” But just the fact that this thing actually exists and that SEGA may have been thinking about either redoing its failing Saturn system or releasing another one (pre-Dreamcast) is amazing.SEGA was continuously ahead of the curve with online access and play on its consoles. It created a monthly subscription service, the SEGA Channel, in 1994 that was compatible with the SEGA Genesis, and SEGA Saturn also had online play through the aforementioned Netlink. The Pluto simply integrated it permanently, a huge step forward for a mainstream console at the time.SEGA was still first to market with an online-ready mainstream console when it released the Dreamcast in 1999. So if anything, the Pluto was a halfway step between the failed Saturn and the promise of the dial-up ready console the company would later release.Pretty cool, huh?

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.