Could The Saturn Have Pulled It Off?

[Erik_Twice]

The Sega CD was quite succesful, it was the 32X that shouldn't have ever been made.

Anyways, the Saturn was so plagued with problems I don't think it was really going anywhere. Sega's incredibly poor organization was an unsumornable problem and the barroque hardware and lack of third party support would have doomed the console on it's own.


Sega didn't have enough money to support the Dreamcast so it could stabilize. It had the most succesful launch ever and while the PS2 hype would have hurt a lot, the terrible launch titles would have made everyone return to the DC for a good while. Sega would have lost money for the first years but they would have won the war handily.


Sony is the luckiest company in the bussiness.

[Flake]

Sony WAS the luckiest company in the bussiness.

Fixed that for you!

Remember that you cannot blame Sega of Japan for the debacle that was the Saturn in the US. In Japan, the Saturn did pretty well for itself. Bernie Stolar and a few other asshats ruined things here in the States.

[lisalover1]

I always like to think about how things might have been if the 32X had never been released, and instead, its processor had been in the Sega CD alongside the 16-bit one already inside the add-on. It would have wowed gamers and would have been legitimately able to stand up against anything the SNES could muster, and a bit more. It would have made the transition from Sega's 16 to 32-bit era more of a sure thing, and might have forced the Saturn to become a more powerful machine by necessity. Although, I am quite sure the technology for the 32X's hardware had not existed for the launch of the SCD, so this is more of a dream than anything. I remember reading some early issues of Sega Saturn Magazine, and half the readers writing in to the magazine were worried about the commercial longevity of the 32X. Rightfully so, given what we know now. Increasing the horsepower of the Sega CD and eliminating the 32X altogether would have given the game-buying public more assurance.

[Breetai]

The Sega CD was quite succesful, it was the 32X that shouldn't have ever been made.

I don't really think the Sega CD was very successful. Yes, it wasn't a complete failure. It sold enough to keep itself alive, but that was about it. What good software was there? It has some good RPGs and.... really, just a handful of good stuff here and there. A few good shoot 'em ups, a couple good beat 'em ups, a few nice platformers, and a whole lotta junk (aka. way too much FMV and lame Genesis ports). Of all that, which was the most heavily promoted? The junk!

SO MUCH POTENTIAL with really minimal follow through. Was it worth owning? Yes, but barely.

I wouldn't really call that successful. I would call it a great idea with a very misdirected effort, followed by a piss-poor effort.

[ZeroAX]

The only way the Saturn could have pulled it off would be if the Sega from 1991 to 1998 was a totally different company.

Way to many mistakes were made for anything to be able to save that console. And even if Sega hadn't released an abandoned handheld, 2 add ons, a weird handheld/console the Saturn still would have struggled cause of its lack of 3D games in an era where the immature press couldn't see the gameplay merits of 2D gameplay when most 3D games sucked (let's be honest, the PS1 has probably the most badly aged games after the NES and the Atari 2600). So yeah the world would still have been unfair to the Saturn like it was unfair to the Dreamcast

[wip3outguy7]

What games do you think that were released on PS would have been just as good on Saturn?

I think Wipout XL would have been a good candidate for Saturn. How awesome would it have been to play Silent Hill on it too? Need for Speed games, could the saturn had played them right? Dino Crisis would be fun too....

Ummmm.. it IS good on the Saturn. It plays just as well as the PS1 version.




By the way, the Saturn did pull it off. In Japan, the Saturn was second place and competed very well to the PS1. It was well ahead of the N64 in popularity. A crap ton of games were released for the Japanese Saturn that you never saw in other countries.

Sega of America seriously messed up with the Saturn. They promoted it very poorly.

If the Sega CD was promoted well, and the 32X was never released, Sega would have had a lot more consumer confidence going into the 32-bit era. That would have helped, too.

Nailed it.

The Saturn thrived in Japan until Sega started loosing big exclusives to Sony.

I believe that Capcom was even building a version of Resident Evil 2 that used the 4 Meg Ram cart. They abandoned it when it was clear that the Saturn was dying.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I saw that edit wip3outguy7.

I believe Japan was also more open to 2D games in the 32bit era than the USA.

[Curlypaul]

I think that was its problem here, people here wanted polygons and the Saturn just couldn't stand up to the PS in that respect. Well I say people wanted polygons, but people generally want whatever the marketing and sales people tell them they want.

If Sega USA and EUR had more confidence to release and advertise the 2D games, that would have kept it alive long enough for devs to be able to exploit the 3D capabilities as well.

There are some good looking 3D games on it, such as PDS, PD Zwei, Virtual Fighter 2, Deep Fear, Sega Rally, Nights, Exhumed and the port of Duke Nukem runs really smoothly (even though some of the scenery was reduced in size and detailing)

[wip3outguy7]

I saw that edit wip3outguy7.

I believe Japan was also more open to 2D games in the 32bit era than the USA.

Wait, no better:

[theclaw]

Saturn could've done better. Though no matter how well it did, the complicated design was ultimately a wasted effort. In practice it turned out to not have much more potential than PSX. The distinctive capabilities had specialized purposes, finding little use among most developers. Saturn offered enough RAM the expansion wasn't near as important as PC Engine's Super System Card before it. While that FMV fad was dying off by the time MPEG card appeared.

Games ended up being neck and neck with various tweaks or added content. Not too many differences that seriously affected playability for casual users. (I'm taking an assumption the average person doesn't comb over animation frames or less essential graphics effects near as close as fans do)

It probably didn't help Sega's reputation was faltering. After 32X, Sega CD, and various weird or mixed quality games like Sonic Spinball and Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, getting users to trust them factored in.