The third console curse: Which was the biggest stumble?

[SanAndreasX]

Soundwave said:

In hindsight, Sega's best play with the Saturn would have been to agree to pay for 100% of Final Fantasy 7's budget and a fat money hat on top of that.

The Saturn was outselling the Playstation 1 in Japan in those earlier days, they should've just thrown everything at making a deal with Squaresoft that they couldn't possibly say no to the second they sensed any dissent with the Nintendo-Square relationship. 

Sega likely didn't have enough money to buy exclusivity to FFVII, when the PS1 was a more attractive alternative. The Saturn was difficult to make games for. Plus, Sega didn't have a great track record in Japan, where the Mega Drive not only got steamrolled by the Super Famicom, but Hudson/NEC's PC-Engine outsold the Mega Drive 2:1 to finish second behind the Super Famicom.