This i remember when berine stolar was quoted for saying the saturn was not there future.What a way to be suicidal for SOA,when i was importing for the console.It did make me angry how most were japan exclusive.Originally Posted by sfchakan
This i remember when berine stolar was quoted for saying the saturn was not there future.What a way to be suicidal for SOA,when i was importing for the console.It did make me angry how most were japan exclusive.
I didn't confuse that for a moment. My point was they screwed up so so badly the pasting they got kept them from selling systems for many reasons inside and out. There was no way to become successful with the way reality played out, and even had they done a lot more right, devious Sony would have really beat their ass with their scheming media arm, buying off entire game tactics (or 1+yr delays to them), and various other shenanigans. Sega had some decent properties to their own, but they were never mass loved nor that solid across the board like Nintendo had which kept the 64 afloat along with some of those Rare games too or they'd have been fairly well just as screwed. Sega could have done some of the stuff Sony did swiping games and doing partnerships towards games Americans would buy and they didn't, they let it ride and sloppily too.
As homer there restated above, he recalls the PS1 being less, as I said it was $100 less. Sony waited to burn Sega at the stake letting them name a date and price first while having systems already done and ready to go, so they shoved the date forward, were $100 less with superior hardware and game backers in the wings and Sega was screwed. Sega wasn't Nintendo of the 80s/early 90s, there was no way they'd peddle an inferior piece of hardware for a $100 more against what Sony was doing, even N64 for that matter despite being on carts came in even far less at $200.
I'm not much of a Sega guy, and have only started picking up Genesis carts, but I'll give this a shot.
Get Squaresoft to partner with them for a major RPG.
Not FF7 in all likelihood -- the programmers would throw a fit from having to retarget YET AGAIN, this time for a system with even worse 3D -- but maybe a SaGa or Mana game? Or even steal the license to port a couple of Final Fantasy I-VI from Tose and showcase enhanced versions to show off the 2D graphics abilities?
*cough* Final Fantasy Tactics *cough*
Stealing something like Dragon Quest VII from Sony might've helped in Japan, not sure about the US.
Get the better Japan-only RPGs localized and released
This is a superset of the first thing, I guess, and would've come into play more in '97 and '98. The point is to undercut the perception of Sony being the unbeatable RPG juggernaut enough to keep sales from dropping further.
Release the graphics code Sega used to ease development
Send a message back in time
Further into fantasy than this thread probably is meant to go, but frankly I think that things were just too far gone by this point. The CD/32X->Saturn debacle had already destroyed consumer confidence in the brand and the surprise early launch damaged relations with their retailers.
Oh, and if this is true, Sega really *****ed the Golden Goose...pooch -- ah hell, ignore the mixed metaphor and just read it: :P
"One of the key reasons why I left Sega is when we had the opportunity to work with Sony, when [Sony Interactive CEO] Olaf Olafsson, [Sony Corporation of America president and CEO] Mickey Schulhof and I had agreed we were going to do one platform, share the development cost of it, share the probable loss for a couple years on it, but each benefit from the software we could bring to that platform,” he said. “Of course, in those days, we were much better at software than they were, so I saw this as a huge win. We went to Sony and they agreed, ‘Great idea.’ Whether we called it Sega-Sony or Sony-Sega, who cared? We go to Sega and the board turned it down, which I thought was the stupidest decision ever made in the history of business. And from that moment on, I didn’t feel they were capable of making the correct decisions in Japan any longer.” -- former Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske, who resigned April 15, 1996.
Supposedly, Kalinske also fought against the early release.
I hate it when people write their initials on a game cart's label. Can't get it off without ruining part of the label!
Genesis support would have helped Sega's bottom line, not specifically Saturn. That was a folly on SOA part.
FF7 definitely sold a lot of PS1s but Sony had tons of cash to pay for development/publishing.
Many of the first run Saturn polygon games looked atrocious. Again, bad decisions from Japan prior to launch
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Killing the Game Gear was equal stupidity too along with the Genesis/Nomad setup too. GG had gobbled up like a 1/3 of the market off of Gameboy and it would have done more had they kept pushing more games out as they had licensees making some quite nice stuff along side of their own things too. They had a strong source of retro gaming cash that could have come in, especially with Majesco handling the hardware at that rate on the cheap, and they threw it all away.
I don't know about you, but those 5 games you mentioned by named would have been instant purchases for me back then.
I've read arguments here that Pokemon alone was responsible for a lot of late-era Game Boy hardware sales. (thus, the portable market slumping)
Game Gear had also been comparatively struggling with third-party support, especially from key companies like Capcom and Konami (who didn't release anything) and Namco (who only released like a few retro classic ports).
I would agree that they are awesome games, but at the same time I can understand why they did not release them, especially with megaman. Mega Man x3 was released at the end of 95. I cant see many people back then caring much about the Wily Wars when Snes already has Mega Man X, X2, X3, and 7.I don't know about you, but those 5 games you mentioned by named would have been instant purchases for me back then.
I don't think there is much Sega Saturn could at that point compare to the 1993 to 1995 time period. The Sega Saturn already was hurt due to a rushed launch and the 32x mess.
I mentioned that time frame because Sega released the 32x in the states in 1994 and Sega rushed the Saturn launch in May of 1995.
The 32x was a mistake on multiple levels including causing bad pr for being so short lived. All the money spent on R&D, games and hardware on the 32x should've been spent on the Saturn, Genesis and Game Gear instead by Sega. I mentioned the Saturn in terms of titles in 1995.
The 32x also had rumored mill and prototype games that didn't come out and that is considered wasted money despite some those games were released on the Saturn.
Last edited by 7th lutz; 07-07-2015 at 08:48 PM.
1-3. FIRE. BERNIE. STOLAR.
4. Bring over all the Capcom fighters. So what if it requires a RAM cart? Bundle similar games together with a cart at a small premium. We loves us some 2D fighting games.
5. Be nice to Working Designs, so they will support both the Saturn and PlayStation. I will buy Lunar on both systems.
6. With 1-3 and 5 accomplished, ask Working Designs to lend a hand in localizing Sakura Wars.
7. See #6 also for the remaining 2/3 of Shining Force III.
8. Print more than 50 copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga (OK, so there were about 150,000 of these printed, but still... I believe no game without its own cabinet should be $300).
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Yes to all of that. /fanboydrool1-3. FIRE. BERNIE. STOLAR.
4. Bring over all the Capcom fighters. So what if it requires a RAM cart? Bundle similar games together with a cart at a small premium. We loves us some 2D fighting games.
5. Be nice to Working Designs, so they will support both the Saturn and PlayStation. I will buy Lunar on both systems.
6. With 1-3 and 5 accomplished, ask Working Designs to lend a hand in localizing Sakura Wars.
7. See #6 also for the remaining 2/3 of Shining Force III.
8. Print more than 50 copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga (OK, so there were about 150,000 of these printed, but still... I believe no game without its own cabinet should be $300)
I think it would have sold decently well because Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 were very popular games.
It was and it's not hard to track either. There isn't much data out there but what there is, in the past I know people could look up the yearly says of the systems (ie: Gameboy) and then also look up the sales of the Pokemon entries in those years too they came out. You'll find out that a large chunk of the Pokemon sales racked up against the new system sales and existing buyers too of the period as they sold like crack to those who still cared in the least bit about Gameboy, and then to another wave who just had to catch em all. Game Gear though pre-Pokemon had been eroding the GB pretty bad with the price drops and the comparatively priced color game carts they had with some solid titles, and I recall something like a 33-40% market penetration was thrown around then. Gameboy had slipped badly with them having that, Sega with their piece, and the other dudes (TE, Lynx, etc) gobbling up the scraps of the rest.
In all fairness I think among existing owners MM Wily Wars would have been a hit, maybe sold a few of those cheap Genesis systems at that rate too. It still is a draw, even the crappy ATGames portable emulator that refuses to add basic saving support featured on their latest revision MMWW and SuperSF2 on the box art. Seemed immensely retarded to me it didn't save since MM has no passwords on the Genesis (just battery.) I wish someone would hack that device and fix that, I'd buy it, because after 3 revisions they're clearly too lazy and incompetent to do it.
I was just thinking about this the other day - could Shenmue and Virtua Fighter 3tb have prolonged the system's life had they been released?
Last edited by Nathan Dunsmore; 07-07-2015 at 08:41 PM.
Virtua Fighter might have helped slightly, but Shenmue no. That one was too obscure and different to catch enough people to make waves. Fans(fanboys) of the series think of it in the now usually as many would have with many things, but thinking of the Saturn release had it hit the system, it's too different especially from what was the hottest at that time to catch on I think. The 90s were all about the new 3D stuff sure, but it was the big age for fighting games, racing games, and a few other things.
I found a video online where a gamer says how he thinks the Saturn could have been saved. About from 8:00 to the end of the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqx9Liby_uU
He mentioned a "Saturn 2.0" launch. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Real collectors drive Hondas, Toyotas, Chevys, Fords, etc... not Rolls Royces.
A port of Virtua Fighter 3 would have sold a bit, but I think the series lost some steam with the average gamer by then. It certainly wasn't the jump that Virtua Fighter 2 and VF 4 were from their predecessors.
A "one last hurrah" campaign for the 1998 holiday season in North America would have helped. Drop the price point to something sexy, eat a loss, and grease some wheels to get quality releases to North America.
Last edited by sfchakan; 07-08-2015 at 12:49 AM.
The simple truth is, the Saturn would have had a rough time even if Sega did everything right. There was just no stopping the Playstation juggernaut until the PS3 launch.
Don't go away mad....just go away!
No offense but you're grasping at straws as he is. Looking at your interests and user name on here, I honestly feel you can't have unclouded judgement on the subject of Sega.Even if the Saturn was handled to perfection, given the gimpiness of the system with 3D which would hinder stuff coming from the PS1, and because of how much Sony just buried both them and Nintendo that generation, they'd still have been screwed.
I'd wonder if some of PlayStation's early momentum probably came from Sega and Nintendo's mistakes. (when Nintendo decided to make the N64 a cart console, it drove away third-parties, especially Japanese. Would be interesting to think about what if Nintendo did use CDs... or some CD-like disc, knowing Nintendo's preference to proprietary formats. How would that have changed things?)
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