Current Events > How do you explain the Saturn getting obliterated by the PS1?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sega had multiple successful consoles, strong franchises, technical expertise, and consumer confidence. Sony, on the other hand, had spent a few decades making CRT TVs. How do you explain what happened?

because they literally unveiled the console at E3 and said "And it"s available RIGHT NOW!" but didn't give consumers time to budget for it, and time for 3rd party devs to even know it exists, much less make a game for it lol.

The PS1 was awesome and cheaper
The Saturn was meh

I hated the controller personally

Because Sega Saturn orbits what Sony plays stationed.

I don't know, but I miss the 90s...

...orange I guess?

Ps1 is a planet buster

There are so many great Saturn games that were only released in Japan and not America, doesnt make any sense.

I've heard the demise of the Saturn was partly due to the fracturing between major divisions of the company across borders.

The Saturn was more expensive and had nothing to play. The PS1 was cheaper and had something to play.

(Admittedly thin initially, but Sony fixed that problem while Sega didn't.)

Multiple successful consoles? Idk about that.
The Master System was successful in Europe and Brazil but not in Japan and NA.
Genesis was their most success console by far.
Sega CD wasn't utilized properly by game devs and filled with enhanced ports of Genesis games so no one bought it. There were several great original games made for it though.
32x was ass.

Regarding the Saturn, it was harder to develop games for it, the first version of the NA controller was awful, the surprise launch, a lot of in company fighting between Sega of Japan and Sega of America, and it was more expensive than PS1 and N64. It was a massive success in Japan though. 2/3rds of the game library was exclusive to Japan and had the main games worth playing on the system. These days since it's easy to play the entire Saturn library, the console has become a hidden gem among the retro gaming community.

Why the new topic?
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/400-current-events/80389713

A) They had 1 successful console & a bunch of crap. B) They had only 1 strong franchise C) They definitely didn't have consumer confidence

And most importantly, D) Sony had thousands more games

DKBananaSlamma posted...

because they literally unveiled the console at E3 and said "And it"s available RIGHT NOW!" but didn't give consumers time to budget for it, and time for 3rd party devs to even know it exists, much less make a game for it lol.

Also this is one of the most idiotic things a company could possibly do.

I was going to write something up, but most people have succinctly described why so far, so I'll just post this:

https://youtu.be/ExaAYIKsDBI

Even Nintendo would do bad if they announced that a Switch 2 was available to buy today at Pax east.

At least for modern day Nintendo.

DKBananaSlamma posted...

because they literally unveiled the console at E3 and said "And it"s available RIGHT NOW!" but didn't give consumers time to budget for it, and time for 3rd party devs to even know it exists, much less make a game for it lol.

And to top it all off, only certain stores were available to sell it. Kay Bee Toys was not included in that list and they refused to sale the system and games.

Saturn cost close to 400 dollars on release, PS1 cost 300 on release. PS1 had a deal with Squaresoft for Final Fantasy as well.

Japan
Genesis - 10/29/88
Sega CD - 12/12/91
Saturn - 11/22/94
32x - 12/3/94

US
Genesis - 8/14/89
Sega CD - 10/15/92
32X - 11/21/94
Saturn - 5/11/95

A lot of American's felt screwed on the 32x with the Saturn coming out 6 months later. In Japan, it was 3 years from genesis to CD, 3 years from cd to Saturn, 32x comes out a month later. Sega CD had a bit more support in Japan, but not overwhelmingly. I think Saturn had more goodwill because the 32x was clearly support for last generation, not current generation hardware in Japan.

Japan's economy was also I think still roaring in like 91 when the CD was released, whereas I think that was around the time of a mini US recession. So people felt screwed on the sega CD too.

Saturn was also tricky to develop for, sort of like PS3. Saturn first party games were ok to great. Just too few. Same as the N64 issue. Playstation was easier to develop and optimize I guess. Also too many of the good to great games came like 2-3 years into the life of the console. Released with few games and took forever for more games to come out in US.

Saturn was doomed from the start, but was certainly bungled with late releases.

I think if Sega CD and 32x weren't released, and Saturn brought over all its good games and managed to get a couple of them earlier, and didn't do the surprise release and kept up with demand earlier in life cycle, it still wouldn't have beaten N64 let alone PS1, but it would have been competitive with N64. Like instead of 10M consoles, 25M consoles sold. If if did that, then the Dreamcast would have stood a chance.

The end.

Speed rot

Saturn was basically shit on outside of Japan and never marketed properly
Retailers couldn't get stock and despite being overpriced, if you were a sega fan (and not a kid usually), you'd already gotten one from Japan anyway so like... you already paid probably upwards of 600$ and just got told 'oh yeah it's in English now and cheaper over here, please buy'

I remember convincing my parents to get a sega saturn because genesis was great. I changed my mind at the store to get something called a playstation. I am glad my young mind made that random decision when I knew nothing about it.

there was bad press around sega saturn too, like the idea that there were murderporn games on it. vague pearl-clutching exposs.