In order for the Saturn to have been successful, it would 1) need to have been launched at a much more competitive price point, i.e. $299 or lower, and 2) have consistent 3rd party support beyond the first couple of years of its life.
What really doomed the Saturn (beyond its botched launch) was that the PlayStation started scooping up all the big 3rd party titles. While it did receive ports of games like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and Wipeout, the PS1 was generally the lead platform for these titles, and after 1996 3rd parties began to move away from the Saturn altogether and focus mainly on the PS1.
Had the Saturn been competitively priced at launch and received most of the same 3rd party non-exclusive titles the PS1 did, it's likely the console would've been more successful, but I still don't think it would have been as successful as its predecessor, and would probably still have finished a distant 3rd in sales behind the PS1 and N64.
Edit: Also, the Saturn hardware was a bitch to program for and was poorly designed for 3D games which obviously defined the 5th gen of consoles, so to add to my first two points, 3) the Saturn architecture would have to have been redesigned to make it more developer friendly and better focused on the coming wave of 3D gaming.
On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.
