32x and what was Sega thinking?

[MrPopo]

Launching a console in that era with poor 3D performance would be akin to launching a console today with very limited or no online capabilities. Even if it had great games, it would still end up failing financially.

*coughWiicough*

You guys act like the Saturn had the 3D capability of the Super FX chip or something. It's 3D performance clearly wasn't that poor. It could hold its own against the Ps1, that's all it really needed.

Sega of America's abysmal handling of the console in the US is what caused it to fail. It could've completely annihilated the Ps1 in terms of power and been a dream to program for, but it still would've failed with how SoA handled things.

To be fair, ALL the early 3D games looked like ass; people hadn't figured out how to make good console 3D graphics yet because all the 3D guys were staying in PC land. I think late gen PS1 looks much better than late gen Saturn. You are right that SoA was the biggest factor in the Saturn tanking, but if the Saturn hadn't been so idiosyncratic you would have seen more of the PS1 exclusives either as Saturn exclusives or as dual releases.

I just read someone say the exact same thing about Kolibri on a youtube video the other day. Did that happen to be you, or is the internet just getting WAY too small?

There was a running gag on Penny Arcade using that phrase.

[BoringSupreez]

Launching a console in that era with poor 3D performance would be akin to launching a console today with very limited or no online capabilities. Even if it had great games, it would still end up failing financially.

*coughWiicough*

I was thinking more along the lines of Gamecube's level of online support.

[BurningDoom]

And being that this add-on was proceeding their already failing Genesis add-on, the Sega CD...

Was the Sega CD deemed a commercial failure?

No, it wasn't a failure. On other other hand, it wasn't as successful as was hoped.

I wouldn't call it a success. Barely anyone I knew back in the day had a Sega CD. And while there are definetly gems on the system, it did have a LOT of shovelware and re-released games.

I think it was the one thing Sega just wouldn't let go of and kept supporting in spite of it's unpopularity because they knew CD-Rom was the future.

[isiolia]

Being less powerful than the competition didn't seem to hurt the Atari 2600, NES, Ps1, Ps2, or Wii, so I don't think power was much of any factor at all. Not to mention the fact that Saturn wasn't THAT incapable at 3D anyway. Most of the 3D multiplatform games were pretty comparable to their Playstation counterparts.

It wasn't so much a matter of being less powerful, and a lot more a matter of doing 3D differently from how everyone else was doing it, and largely still does for games (at least). Developer interviews highlight that the Saturn, at best, required a different approach to things at a time when you really needed to squeeze all the power out of the hardware.

More or less, the thing was a pain in the ass to program for (as was the N64 AFAIK), and the PS1 wasn't. IMO, that's where a lot of the spec-war runners-up tend to win. Being the straightforward-est. That or they succeed based on legacy like the PS2 (in particular) did.

[dsheinem]

I wouldn't call it a success. Barely anyone I knew back in the day had a Sega CD.

the true measure of success!

[noiseredux]

I wouldn't call it a success. Barely anyone I knew back in the day had a Sega CD.

the true measure of success!

I had one. So in my house it was successful, haha.

[MrPopo]

I wouldn't call it a success. Barely anyone I knew back in the day had a Sega CD.

the true measure of success!

I had one. So in my house it was successful, haha.

Nothing in your house is successful.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Sega CD falls into the same category as the TG16 - it may be a "failure" in terms of revenue and general public perception, but it's a hidden gem that all retro gamers should look into.

You know how I got my 32x? The local retro game store clerk said he had a "box of shit" he would sell for $20 - inside was a 32x, a couple of Genesis/Master System controllers, Virtua Racing, and a Nintendo 64 plastic tool thingy (I think it's designed to remove the jumper pak?) A box of shit indeed! I was happy to get it for that price.

[dsheinem]

I've said before and I'll say it again: the 32X has the highest percentage of good games of any 16-bit system.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Wait... isn't it 32-bit?

Honestly, I've never played a bad TurboGrafx-16 game.