If they would have sold Saturn at $199, it would have killed Sega even before Dreamcast. Hardware sold with loss even at $299 so it simply wasn't possible to lower the price. Anyway, I doubt it wouldn't have sold more than PS1 even at $199.

@Zizzla_Rachet

not really in a mood for an argument about "If X then Y would..." but look at the sales of the games I listed then look at the your game that sold 260k then you'll get the Idea.

However, considering the games available to each, I bet Saturn would still have died off, albeit more slowly.

Games sell consoles, not sticker price. Example PS3 at $400 has sold as good as a $99-$150 Gamecube.

Wow, that site is awesome. I recommend reading the editorials. Here's some of my favourites:

Fairly positive at the beginning despite the troubles...

"Even today, as the tide is beginning to turn, I have a very strong and positive feeling for the Saturn's future. Happy gaming, and here's to a wonderful future for the wonder machine we all know as Saturn! "

"In closing, let me just offer my initial thought once again. This Christmas you really can't go wrong. With 3 great systems to choose from, and hundreds of outstanding games, there simply has never been so great a selection"

"But you have even better reasons to feel that Sega is doing all they can to make Saturn the #1 choice for gamers."

But things don't go so well after that, and the worrying continues...

"The simple solution for sega's problems is not to "rush" a new 64-bit system onto the market , but to let the saturn go for about another 2-3 years and then bring one out. Let sony and nintendo bring out whatever they want, whenever they want. "

"Sega has approximately two years or so to turn this thing around. They did it with the Genesis against the Super NES; can they do it again? Why not take some pointers from SOJ, or better yet, from some of your customers? I KID YOU NOT SEGA, WITH A CHANGED IMAGE, THE SATURN SALES WILL BE REVITALIZED WITH RENEWED VIGOR."

(Does this look familiar)?

"P.S. For all of you who doubt Saturn, check out this list of upcoming games for the import and domestic Saturn and tell me it doesn't make you drool.

Lunar
Magic Knight Rayearth
Albert Odyssey
Shining the Holy Ark
Grandia
Metal Slug
Silhoutte Mirage
Resident Evil (umm..forget the voice acting)
Bulk Slash
Suikoden
Darkstalkers 3
X2
Cyberbots
Samurai Spirits RPG
Last Bronx"


And then the Dreamcast is set to be announced and hope is all but lost...


"Well let me propose an explanation for this mess: American gamers are STUPID"

"The other group of old stupid gamers aren't parents, but rather "casual gamers". You know, the uncle who bought a next generation system the day it came out, and has two games for it, but that was five years ago and it's been collecting dust under the VCR somewhere since then. The two games? Probably sports games or something. "

"Personally I have no respect for Sony whatsoever. They don't have the foggiest idea how to make games (as evidenced by their pitiful "attempts" on earlier consoles)."


Oh yea, that's good stuff.

Nice...it's fair to say that when PSX games saw WW releases and Saturn games did not....

^only taking about Japan here

Lunar-It was Meh
Magic Knight Rayearth- Awesome!
Albert Odyssey-It was ok
Shining the Holy Ark- THE JPRGS GODS BLESSED ALL OF THE LAND WITH THIS GAME ANYONE THAT SAYS OTHERWISE IS A MAGGOT NOT WORTHY OF THIS GRACE!
Grandia-Too many critical acclaims
Metal Slug-this was awesome!
Silhoutte Mirage-Not sure
Resident Evil (umm..forget the voice acting)-LOL....Fine.....Knights into Dreams...
Bulk Slash-WHAT?
Suikoden-How the hell did I miss that?...Was it multiplat in Japan?
Darkstalkers 3-OH YES!
X2-What?
Cyberbots-It was really fun...but dated....
Samurai Spirits RPG-I could not understand it...but it was turned based and had a KOF RPG mini in it...
Last Bronx"-LOL

And I was only talking about number of games...

Price obviously wasn't the only reason Sega failed with the Saturn.