Salnax on 13 October 2024
| firebush03 said: I forget the history with Sega during the 90s...from what I can recall, the Saturn was a powerful system (for its time) which had no mainline Sonic game (or no game of high quality). |
It was a bit more complicated then that. To briefly summarize some major issues:
- Sega was already on thin ice with customers after the underwhelming Mega CD and 32X.
- The Saturn was designed in 1992 and 1993 to be a high quality 2D console that was also capable of 3D graphics. This was largely wasted when gaming from 1995 onwards was largely defined by polygonal games.
- The Saturn's architecture was unusual, among other things having two CPU's. This along with other technical issues proved to be an early obstacle for making games on the console look as good as those on the PlayStation.
- Sega prioritized the Japanese market over the American or European markets, despite the Genesis doing better in the West than in Japan.
- The big new Sonic the Hedgehog game, Sonic X-treme, went through development hell and ended up being scrapped only a few months before its release date in 1996.
- The USA launch price was $100 higher than the PlayStation and said launch was premature, leading to hardware and software shortages.
- The biggest hit games on Saturn were largely ports of arcade games (Virtua Fighter 2, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Virtua Cop, etc). Problem was, this was the generation where conversions of arcade games became increasingly overshadowed by games first made for consoles.
The Saturn DID have great games. Sega games like Virtua Fighter 2, Nights into Dreams, and Panzer Dragoon Saga were among the best-rated games of the era, and there were impressive 3rd party games like Tomb Raider (which was a Saturn exclusive for 6 weeks), Dead or Alive, Grandia, the best versions of Capcom's 2D fighting games, etc. But these weren't enough to save the platform outside of Japan.
Last edited by Salnax - on 13 October 2024
