Could The Saturn Have Pulled It Off?

[AppleQueso]

While I agree the 32x was a bad move, I can't say that the CD really hurt them all that much. If I remember right, it was actually pretty moderately successful.

[d123456]

Could The Saturn Have Pulled It Off?
Just analyze Sega Rally. That game is incredible. Yes, the Saturn could have pulled it off.
Sega just screwed it all up themselves, like they always do.
They have so many great arcade games yet they acted like selfish brats not porting most of ´em. Boooh!
Hell they could´ve so easily just made Sega Rally Extended (fictional title) Just Sega Rally with 3 more tracks and 2 more cars. ..Tadaaah!

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Could The Saturn Have Pulled It Off?
Just analyze Sega Rally. That game is incredible. Yes, the Saturn could have pulled it off.
Sega just screwed it all up themselves, like they always do.
They have so many great arcade games yet they acted like selfish brats not porting most of ´em. Boooh!
Hell they could´ve so easily just made Sega Rally Extended (fictional title) Just Sega Rally with 3 more tracks and 2 more cars. ..Tadaaah!

Sega Rally has terrible draw distance and no transparency, and lacks quite a lot of geometric details. It's definitely not what I'd call an impressive game. It's aesthetic is pleasing, but a far better example of technical excellence would have been Burning Rangers or Sonic R.

While the Saturn would have likely been just fine doing RE2 and Tomb Raider 2, they'd be the inferior versions. The framerate for Tomb Raider on the Saturn is abysmal, and assuming they wouldn't tweak the engine for TR2, I'd expect similar results.

@flojocabron Wipeout XL did get released on the Saturn, just not in the USA. Again, looks basically the same except with a slightly lower draw distance and slower framerate.

Even the most talented of programmers couldn't make that machine do 3D as well as the PlayStation. It simply wasn't designed for it. That Shenmue prototype doesn't really look any better than most PS1 games, and apparently that was getting the most Saturn as they could possibly squeeze out of it. The Saturn's strength lies in 2D graphics. It'll kick the PlayStation's ass up and down the street in that area. Which is understandable, considering the PlayStation didn't actually have 2D hardware.

It's not the lack in graphical prowess that's really the issue, it's getting as much as they needed out of the machine that was the issue. It would've fared much better had it been easier to program for, even if underpowered in 3D.

Oh come on that doesn't count and you know it...

...wow does that seriously say "Sega Saturn Exclusive"?

do they not count the Genesis version or what?

Probably not, seeing as the Genesis version never was released in Japan.

[Cronozilla]

I don't think Sega could have stuck out the Dreamcast era, to be honest. The company was going to go belly up if they didn't severe the 100% financial loss that was the Dreamcast. They undersold the hardware, it was suppose to be $250, not $200. And they didn't recoup anything from software sales largely due to the rampant piracy of the games. Which unlike PC, did actually kill the platform. Sega ended up only losing money on the system.

I mean, the operations cost of the Dreamcast was so high that Sega didn't even release finished games, like Propeller Arena (Sega AM2's final game) Because the cost of publishing it and the amount they'd make would end up in a net loss.

If the Sega CD was marketed better (it deserves more respect as a platform, frankly) it would have done better. If Sega didn't pull Genesis support, they wouldn't have lost so much faith from retailers ... and if Sega didn't just, frankly, fuck up the Saturn's handling in every way possible, they wouldn't have needed to cut the Dreamcast short. Really, the Dreamcast's problems were just the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Breetai]

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.

[scarper]

I blame Sega of America, for several reasons.

It was a damn good console in Japan, and lasted til 2000, after the Dreamcast was released.

[Nemoide]

If Sega's marketing had a crystal ball, they would have allowed more RPGs to get translated/released in the US. Yeah, Playstation had Final Fantasy VII and that inspired RPG fever, but the Saturn could have competed with titles like Grandia or the three Lunar games that were released for it in Japan.
Then again, I've read old reviews from back in the day trashing games like Astal for looking too much like a 16-bit game, so maybe shying away from promoting 2D games in the US wasn't such a terrible marketing decision.

If the Saturn could handle the Tomb Raider and Resident Evil titles, I can't imagine what would make the sequels too much for it though.

[WrathOskvro]

I know this is fanboyism.
I think Wipout XL would have been a good candidate for Saturn.

Just pointing something out. Wipeout XL (aka 2097) is on the Saturn. It's a pretty competent port too. Framerate isn't as smooth as the PS1 version's though.

[Flake]

The Saturn's problems were entirely the result of Sega of America. If half the games that came out in Japan had made it across the pond, the 32 bit era could have been a very different story.

...also, releasing your console 3 months early without warning your key developers / distributors / potential customers is not smart.

[BoneSnapDeez]

If Sega's marketing had a crystal ball, they would have allowed more RPGs to get translated/released in the US. Yeah, Playstation had Final Fantasy VII and that inspired RPG fever, but the Saturn could have competed with titles like Grandia or the three Lunar games that were released for it in Japan.

Oh yeah. Sega really shot themselves in the foot by not releasing these games in the States.