| Wman1996 said: Saturn: E3 1995. Saturn killed itself in the global market after rushing to market in North America and costing $100 more than PS1. N64: Holiday 1997. The double-whammy of Final Fantasy VII and Gran Turismo in 1997 (and their sequels in the future) were simply too much for Nintendo 64 to deal with for the rest of its life. N64 may have gotten LOZ: Ocarina of Time for Holiday 1998, but it wasn't enough. N64's droughts and high software prices were simply too much to come close to the sales of PS1. GCN: September 2003. Most of the GameCube's heavy hitters released by this point and even a new aggressive low price of $99.99 (down from $149.99 and the launch price of $199.99) was not enough. Even the new kid, Xbox, sold about 3 million more globally despite being a nonfactor in Japan. |
Look... No.
You are repeating some dogmas, implanted in the media by some people, for too long. And they are FALSE:
Saturn... I don't know in US, but for sure was selling better than PSX in Europe and Japan by the end of 1995 and during most part of 1996, so no way.
Why? cause PSX had crappy exclusives franchises, apart from Ridge Racer, in 1995.
In Saturn, in 1995, you had Sega Rally, Virtua FIghter (original and Remix), Virtua Cop, Daytona USA (and, please, don't tell me "it was a crappy conversion" THAT early port in Saturn was amazing and fun as hell and fantastic for everyone who got it or could play it. Even today it's fun as hell. It's bad fame was totally astroturfed), Panzer Dragoon, both Clockwork Knight 1 and 2, International Victory Goal (that was probably the best soccer game by then, in a console. Not joking) and even Virtua Fighter 2 (january 1996 in Europe).
Many gamers in Europe and Japan prefered BY FAR a Saturn in 1995 than a PSX, no need to trust me if you don't, but it was like this, sorry.
And NO, nobody knew about that 100$ E3 crap there, until 20 years later, thanks to some Youtube video. In Japan, by the way, both consoles were already in the market since 1994, and Saturn was selling better: How that "100$ comment" in 1995, could even do an influence there?
Instead, PSX in 1995 had Ridge Racer, Toshinden (and people totally forget about Toshinden by 1999 or even before), the very first Wipeout, Destruction Derby 1, Tekken 1 (Tekken 1 was NOT as famous and loved as Virtua Fighter series by then) and... things like "Kileak the Blood" (yes, that was "an important title") or Jumping Flash (another title many PSX users doesn't even known... 3 years later). BUT, Wipeout and Toshinden... were also launched in Saturn some months later (as soon as early 1996 in Europe for Wipeout, and late 1995 in Japan for Toshinden). And even Destruction Derby was launched in Saturn in 1996 in Japan and Europe. Not even those games were exclusive for PSX.
Playstation was a very weak machine in 1995 and part of 1996 in catalogue. Also, it had no RPGs, at least in western countries, until 1997.
I'm not saying PSX was worse as a console. It wasn't. I'm saying Saturn was much desired by gamers cause its titles and exclusivities in 1995 and even 1996. Even the very first Tomb Raider (a PSX classic series, by many) was launched some weeks earlier for Saturn in 1996.
All that crap about "the 100 dollars and the famous E3 speech of Sony's guy" is an American BS exaggeration. Don't extrapolate that to Europe and Japan, because you'll be wrong: yes Sega America could do some things wrong in the 90s, but the real problem for Saturn, worldwide, was not that "speech", but the GIANT and COLOSSAL importance Sony had by then as a conglomerate, in many industries, and they used all its influences they alredy had in the music and TV/film industry, and in the big megastores (as an appliance manufacturer), to sell the PSX. They used everything they could and buyed all the adds and sponsorships they can in the media (magazines, radio, TV channels...) and in the top sports events during many years (for example: being "Playstation" the "UEFA Champions League" main sponsorship during some years, the most important soccer competition in Europe). Everything to sell its console, as well as buying many third party exclusives starting by 1997 or even 1996 (Tomb Raider 2, Resident Evil 2...).
And they eventually succeeded. Sega did not had all that money and influence. Neither Nintendo by then, btw.
So... They did the very same thing Sony fanboys accuse Microsoft to do it now against them, but much more openly agressive.
Of course, by 1997 everything started to change in favour of PSX, because ALL of that. Sega just could not compete. Maybe by then, also, some Sega America's CEO made things even worse and THAT also affected Europe. OK. But not because "that random guy" in may 1995 telling US americans a 100$ discount since day 1 in PSX US launch.
And about N64. N64 had a PHENOMENAL Holiday 1997. All 1997 and 1998 were just AMAZING in N64... I can hardly understand why are you talking about the 1997 holiday. Yes, FFVII was a spectacular game and huge success for PSX, and most probably was the moment PSX boosted its sales and put itself as the winner, good for Sony. That had to be expected, after 3 years in the market with huge financial support, some great games had to come. Gran Turismo, by itself... yes, it sold a lot, but Crash, Spyro, Tomb Raider series and MGS were also very important for PSX. And all of them, started to come in late 1996. Not before.
But N64 also had LOTS of great games during all those 2 years (now, very classic ones, and not only OoT or other Nintendo games, but Rare, Acclaim, Konami ones...), and sold very well in US. Not that well in Japan, were Saturn sold better caused by a continuos and better support from Sega Japan until 2000. Sega America started to abandon Saturn already in 1997.
N64 suffered a lot because the original idea of restrict third party presence in the N64 searching for "quality", the price difference caused by cart technology, and in some markets, the HUGE piracy PSX had (and that was totally decisive to understand the final PSX numbers, apart from the huge amounts of money Sony put into its promotion during the first years, and some time later, buying exclusives)
GCN suffered from not having DVD player in 2001, being launched way too late in PAL markets (mainly Europe, mid-2002), and not having the GTA series when 3D GTA games arrived. Basically.
Also, its name, shape and purple color promoted as the "main" color... were not so popular in 2001: People (broadly) started to like GC 15-20 years later.
The machine was excellent, but PS2 had total control of the market after being alone in the next-gen market practically one whole year (thanks to Sega's dismissal of Dreamcast in January 2001: Impossible to choose a better timming... to help Sony). So, third parties just ended doing PS2 ports to GC, and after 2-3 years, stopped to do even that. Capcom was the only third who tried hard to support GC the first 3 years (after its none existing support for the N64).
XBox had a similar GC situation, but got a DVD player, and MS spent lots of money to promote it, specially in US. So... it ended to sell more than GC.
