180°

What if the Sega Saturn Succeeded?

Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "So far in this series of ‘what if‘ articles, we have looked at four system, that while interesting and unique in their own rights never really had a serious chance at taking the gaming world by storm. But the next system on this list was billed as no pretender to the throne. A powerful, 32-bit console that would capitalize on the success of its predecessor and defeat both its now bitter rival and an upstart newcomer. The Sega Saturn was to be the king. One of the most anticipated video game consoles of all time with nearly unimaginable levels of promise. But, it was never meant to be and the Saturn is now remembered as one of the key reasons behind Sega’s fall from grace. But what if it hadn’t played out that way. What if the Saturn was the hit it was always meant to be?"

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PhoenixUp2699d ago

Various parts of Sega's American and Japanese divisions all tried to launch an entire solar system of extraterrestrially codenamed products (CD, 32X, Saturn, etc.), plus numerous other, often incompatible, combinations thereof. The resulting collision landed with a dull thud in the marketplace and was largely responsible for obliterating Sega as a hardware manufacturer.

If the branches had better cohesion the overall company would’ve found success going forward in the 3D generation of hardware

2699d ago Replies(1)
Eonjay2698d ago

There probably would be no Xbbox.

timotim2698d ago

I actually agree with this...their very well may have not been.

Einhander19712699d ago

I love 2D gaming the Saturn really was geared up as Sprite shifting power house. Unfortunately Sega underestimated the advent of the 3D polygon age. Obviously Sony took advantage with PS1, the rest is history. But even so I love the Saturn I have some amazing games for it.

2699d ago Replies(1)
rainslacker2698d ago

Saturn was a pretty well rounded system. It could even do 3D pretty well. It just had so many processors that it could be a pain to get working. The system wasn't overly complicated to program for despite this fact, but 3D was more work than it was on the PS1.

The problem with support was how Sega released the system rather suddenly, which also put off retailers who weren't ready for it, and then by the time the developers had time to really catch up, they went and released the DC, which turned off most of the other publishers.

I do have quite a few favorite games on the Saturn. Magic Knight Rayearth and Guardian Heroes being among the top two. It also had quite a few nice JRPG's of note.

HeyNowChillax2699d ago (Edited 2699d ago )

What if the Deamcast succeeded. I loved that system, it was the Arcade at home. Even had a hook up for earthlink via dialup modem.

TheEnigma3132699d ago

I think everyone loved that console. The reason it didn't succeed was because the game were easy the bootleg and Sega losing so much money on Saturn.

2699d ago
Fearmonkey2698d ago

What if the Dreamcast would have had a DVD drive? I wonder if that might have made a difference. Possibly no game copying.

darthv722699d ago

Saturn did succeed, just not to the same level as the PS1. Especially in JP there are hundreds of quality titles that never got localized and that was a real shame as many were superior to the PS1 versions.

Sgt_Slaughter2699d ago

Succeeding in only one region out of the three+ it released in, isn't much to write home about. In America it was a total dumpster fire of a launch and never connected fully with western audiences like the PS1 or N64 did.

Not that it's a bad system, but overall it was another SEGA failure in the long line of failures.

darthv722699d ago

Despite popular belief, Saturn was actually able to hold its own in all three regions with JP having much more support than NA but EU was quite popular as well. There were games being released for it up to and even after the release of the Dreamcast.

It was Sega that pulled the plug on it not the consumers. There was still consumer demand even after the DC launched because of the plethora of JP games that should have been released in NA. Hell, even EU got a few games from JP that NA didnt. It was Sega that failed the Saturn, not the other way around.

Drithe2699d ago

The Sega Saturn was a great system. Guardian Hero's ruled!

ApexWolf222698d ago

It's available on X1, still a great title.

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50°

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