sales on 28 June 2009
http://www.sega-saturn.com/saturn/other/june-n.htm
Next Generation Online has just learned that the "white" Saturn hardware (which is considerably less expensive), has been in Black US Saturns since as early as last August. What does Sega have to say about that? Next Generation Online explores... In opening an off the shelf Saturn which had been marked manufactured in August of 1995, Next Generation Online found an astounding fact. The hardware inside the black case, was identical to the hardware inside the new white Saturns.
The ramifications of the discovery are indeed potentially far reaching. Theoretically Sega may have been able to sell Saturn for as little as $199, last Christmas, a feat which Sony couldn't have matched and would have very likely secured them as the leader in the US 32-bit market.
So why didn't they do so? Why did they keep the price as high as $299 for so long? One possible reason could have been that the Saturn was moving so well in Japan, where it is the undisputed market leader, Sega of Japan wanted to keep the prices high there. By keeping prices higher in Japan, there was no way that they could implement a price cut in the US, as it would constitute "dumping" for selling a foreign product substantially cheaper than it is selling in its country of origin.
The ramifications of the discovery are indeed potentially far reaching. Theoretically Sega may have been able to sell Saturn for as little as $199, last Christmas, a feat which Sony couldn't have matched and would have very likely secured them as the leader in the US 32-bit market.
So why didn't they do so? Why did they keep the price as high as $299 for so long? One possible reason could have been that the Saturn was moving so well in Japan, where it is the undisputed market leader, Sega of Japan wanted to keep the prices high there. By keeping prices higher in Japan, there was no way that they could implement a price cut in the US, as it would constitute "dumping" for selling a foreign product substantially cheaper than it is selling in its country of origin.
The PSone would have died a brutal death. It would have been dead on arrival.
Sony would have been just another electronics company who entered the videogame hardware business and crashed. Like Philips, Panasonic before them.
SEGA could have had it all sewn up.
