The Sega Saturn in Japan

[Music] you guys know i love the sega saturn it came at a time of great stress in my life i was a 19 year old kid recovering from some really bad decisions that derailed everything for me and with the help of my family friends and gaming i got my life back on track i loved so many of the saturn's unique games i mean you couldn't play stuff like knights burning rangers dragon force or guardian heroes on any other console hell some of its games you still can't it was the perfect complement to my love of the arcade scene as well with a number of ports that looked and played spectacular while we all lament its performance in the west there has been a growing and overwhelming trend to candy coat the saturn's performance in japan it's even to the point where the saturn is considered by many to be a success in japan and the nintendo 64 a dismal failure despite the two platforms selling very close numbers to be clear i'm not excusing myself from this statement as i have said many times in my videos that the saturn's fortunes in japan were much better and have used that to sell the idea that the saturn was special the truth of that isn't quite so simple however and in this episode we will be looking at just how the saturn performed in its native country and whether or not all those claims about how much better things were are actually true i hope you guys enjoy the sega saturn in japan before we get into the saturn's life it's really important to understand where japan was before the system was ever available unlike in the rest of the world the 16-bit era had been thoroughly dominated by nintendo and its super famicom in japan for what we knew as the super nintendo the japanese mega drive or genesis to us here in north america was absolutely slaughtered in terms of both hardware and software sales even the pc engine the japanese version of the turbografx 16 outsold sega's 16-bit efforts quite easily the arcade scene was of course radically different at this point things have been working up to an explosion of 3d polygon based games for years at this point with the likes of namco and sega locked in a technology war that had given us some great games already and this ultimately became the real draw of the fifth generation of consoles in japan they promised to bring home titles like virtua fighter daytona usa and ridge racer or to look at it on a grander scale 3d polygon games that could never have been done by the super famicom and mega drive the 3do had already been released in early 1994 in japan and had some success with its library of arcade ports and multimedia inspired capabilities the japanese market was primed and ready for these machines and their promise of a new era of gaming when the saturn launched in japan on november 22nd 1994 it was destined for immediate success virtua fighter had been a massive hit there in the arcade and the home version was one of the most anticipated releases of the year to be blunt the sheer popularity of this title alone pretty much guaranteed that the saturn was going to move an impressive amount of hardware units the hype was real and it was driving interest in sega's new machine at an incredible pace but you have to understand that the stars were aligning here for sega on an unprecedented level for also in november of 1994 virtua fighter 2 had been released in japanese arcades this was a one-two punch for sega with pretty much the entire campaign being built on the premise that you could play the first virtual fighter at home now virtua fighter 2 in the arcade and eventually its homeport in the near future i cannot stress enough how much the entire saturn experience was based on this thinking in fact there were only five games released in japan at the japanese launch and sega had rested the entire fortune of their success on the virtua fighter franchise alone daytona usa wasn't ready panda dragoon wasn't ready even the secondary lineup like a stall and clockwork knight weren't ready for the launch but it didn't matter virtua fighter was the anchor and sega was betting heavily on its appeal to own it at home so influential was this game in japan it actually inspired the man behind the sony playstation ken kuduragi to make that system entirely polygon focused because he saw the future of the industry in those simple flat shaded visuals that's right my retro loving friends had it not been for this game the playstation likely would have ended up a very different machine sega's bet on virtua fighter paid off big time the saturn's first day on the market it moved 170 000 units of hardware with virtua fighters selling at a one-to-one attach rate that means that every single saturn sold there a copy of virtua fighter sold with it a 100 percent attach rate by the end of december that year sega had sold half a million saturns and was firmly ahead of the playstation by nearly a two to one margin [Music] with its first year under its belt the saturn was doing strongly in japan in both hardware and software numbers a release of virtual fighter remix had kept interest up for the platform as did a number of high profile releases like panzer dragoon and it was already receiving strategy puzzle and rpg games to fill in the blanks around its arcade focused lineup to celebrate its 1 millionth saturn sold sega lowered the price of the hardware a bit and packed in virtua fighter remix increasing its appeal even more it was continuing to outsell the playstation handily at this point in japan and a new wave of excitement and hype kicked up with the coming trio of virtua cop sega rally and of course sega's ace in the hole virtua fighter 2. the anticipation of this drove saturn sails again to new heights and by the time 1996 began sega had over 2 million saturn's in japanese homes virtua fighter 2 became the platform's best-selling game moving 1.7 million units of software in japan alone to sum this up as simply as i can the first and second entries in the virtual fighter series had almost single-handedly been responsible for millions of saturn sold in japan for the very first time there sega's arcade related software had equaled success for its home console and things were looking quite bright for saturn's future one ready go [Music] uh [Music] [Music] ko in early 1996 sega redesigned the saturn and released it as the white round button variant we all know so well today this also came with a massive drop in price of the unit now retailing for less than half its original launch asking price combined with high profile successes like shin megami tensei devil summoner sakura wars and langrisser 3 the saturn's momentum was going strong throughout the year in fact just in 1996 alone the saturn received more software in japan than the platform got in its entire life in the rest of the world sega had built the saturn for its own games but third-party support had been strong in japan as well it was receiving a varied lineup of arcade-based 2d and 3d games as well as a pile of exclusive home-based content that was keeping customers happy the vast majority of these games would not come to the us and europe forcing saturn fans from other regions to heavily import titles which of course only served as a further boom for the japanese market as 1996 came to a close sega and its saturn continued to be japan's top selling hardware with an additional 2 million system sold it had not fallen victim to the negative press about its capabilities like it did in north america and the popularity of the virtua fighter series had given it enough boost to counter much of the software sony's playstation had seen the saturn had even weathered the japanese launch of the nintendo 64 which landed with something of a thud despite the availability of mario 64 the popularity of the saturn easily overshadowed it 1996 had also afforded sega as much as a million systems sold lead over sony but things were about to change in a big big way while sega had been enjoying its successes in japan and riding the wave of virtua fighter fever sony had been cultivating third-party support since 1994 and it was about to pay off and turn the tide completely if there was one game the japanese wanted more than virtua fighter it was final fantasy and part 7 launched there in january of 1997 exclusively for sony's machine the impact of the single release cannot be denied on the japanese market it sold over 2 million units in just the first few days it was available and the japanese gaming press doled out praise for it universally this massive boost to the popularity of the playstation in japan erased sega's lead virtually overnight sony's first and third party releases began to pay further dividends as 1997 moved on with releases like castlevania symphony of the night final fantasy tactics breath of fire 3 and gran turismo all tearing up the japanese charts to add to sega's woes the failure of the saturn in north america and europe had produced widespread panic and disillusionment within the company most of the western management left by mid-year and the new guys coming in made it clear sega was looking to replace the saturn as soon as possible magazine articles began to show up about sega working on new hardware and the writing was on the wall sega had gone from having the lead platform in japan to a company about to abandon it and as 1997 closed sony had caught and passed them and hardware units sold sega's management was in disarray and the world now knew that the saturn was not sega's future i want to stop here in 1997 to bring up something i hear far too often that would be how the saturn's performance in japan was influenced by sagata sanchiro our rough and tumble sega spokesman who whipped ass if you weren't playing your saturn time and time again i hear about how those ads were directly responsible for the saturn's image in japan and how it helped sega sell the hardware so well this couldn't be further from the truth unfortunately sagata actually didn't show up in saturn commercials and print ads until the second half of 1997 well into the system's life in fact looking at the numbers the vast majority of the saturns had already been sold in japan before sagata ever showed up and by the time the campaign really got going in 1998 the saturn was mere months away from being replaced by sega's new dreamcast make no mistake sagata is one of the coolest ad campaigns ever but he was late in the saturn's life and contributed absolutely nothing to its success aside from some really cool memories [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] things would stay on the downturn in 1998 sony began to pull away as more and more software began to hit the playstation much of it which never made its way onto the saturn in the west 1998 would be the last year the saturn would see new releases and its market collapsed completely the saturn remained strong enough in japan to see quite a few more releases throughout 1998 and into 1999 including some fantastic games from capcom the glorious grandia and of course panzer dragoon's saga but the damage of an impending replacement prompted third party support to drop off heavily with the dreamcast launching in japan in november of 1998 those third parties moved on and the saturn was left behind companies that already had saturn games and development finished up existing projects to close out the platform saturn game slowed to a trickle as 1999 wore on and the japanese market disappeared beneath sega's new interest only three games would see release in 2000 for the japanese saturn the final games for the platform while we're on the subject it's important that we meet the truth head on there is this overwhelmingly misguided myth that the saturn was loaded with an absolute wealth of 2d content that the playstation couldn't do or do as well i believe personally that it comes from the dominance the saturn exhibited with its ram cart titles stuff like x-men vs street fighter just wiped the floor with the playstation version but the truth is is that the playstation had a huge library of 2d games in japan that often ran and looked just as good as their saturn counterparts you know that massive helping of shoot em ups you see on the saturn most of them were released on the playstation as well those capcom generation discs came out on the playstation and believe it or not so did most of their 2d fighting games the list keeps going beat'em ups platformers and even the oddball stuff often had playstation versions that held their own a lot of times of course the pendulum of which was the better version swung back and forth quite a bit but the playstation was quite a powerful 2d machine itself its only real deficiencies came in that it had less video ram than the saturn both in the base system and in terms of ram expansion capabilities and it lacked the fancy bdp-2 effects the saturn was capable of this tipped the scales mainly when it came to fighting games but even then later playstation releases like street fighter alpha 3 managed to be incredibly good on sony's supposedly weak 2d machine the simple truth was they both did 2d games infinitely better than the machines before them and they both had the power to do them extremely well and perhaps more importantly the playstation received most of the 2d games that appeared on the saturn and then some [Music] [Music] ah so what's our takeaway here the short version is that while the saturn did sell well in japan in 1995 and 1996 sony took that lead away from sega and never looked back starting in 1997. by 1998 the saturn began to lose third party support even in japan and once the dreamcast launched late that year the saturn began a spiral that would see it fizzle out by the latter half of 1999 the saturn did see a lot more software released in japan and much of it couldn't be played anywhere else there's no question that the saturn had a better market there but this notion that it was somehow a bastion of success is simply not true while virtua fighter 2 sold nearly 2 million units most saturn software didn't even come close to those numbers and there are numerous japanese playstation games that sold much much more a deep dive into the best-selling saturn games of all time reveals some pretty tame numbers even when looking at them worldwide what that really means is is that while sega moved decent hardware units in japan and virtua fighter 2 was a monster most other software did numbers well below the big hitters then landed on sony's machine japanese third-party playstation titles like final fantasy vii gran turismo and dragon quest outsold the best saturn performers by millions of units it wasn't even close once final fantasy 7 launched in early 1997 sony took japan never let go and went on to absolutely smash the saturn in terms of overall hardware and software sales there the reason i made this video and what i want to leave you with is the idea that the saturn can still stand on its own two legs based on the quality of its software library alone we do not need to romanticize this notion that the saturn performed so well in japan that it somehow legitimizes your love and respect for it i've never understood why sales has such a huge influence on the argument of a video game console's worth i mean if you take a look at any other artistic format whether it be movies or music or whatever the product accepted by the masses is often considered the inferior a lot of times yet when a video game or system doesn't sell well it's immediately considered not just a business failure but an artistic one as well i can't tell you how many times i've heard someone use video game sales numbers as a reason their choice was best or someone else's choice was total i have and always will subscribe to the belief that sales mean absolutely nothing when it comes to the worth of something like a video game i have seen games i have to spy sell millions of units and i have seen games i have loved crash and burn selling next to nothing you can punctuate your love of the saturn with the fact that it's sold better in japan but no amount of spin will ever change that sony still crushed it there after only two years and honestly none of that matters the least when talking about which one you prefer on the plus side one could argue with the saturn's installed base of just under 10 million units sold officially through 1998 it had a much higher attach rate for many of its best-selling games i'm not saying that saturn owners appreciated a better quality of game but i will say this of the 100 million plus playstation owners in the world many of them were happy with like ford racing and dukes of hazzard never having touched games like metal gear solid or silent hill i'll let you draw your own conclusions from that i'm sick of lord x thank you guys for watching and i will catch you next time [Music] you

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 77,056

Rating: 4.927937 out of 5

Keywords: segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari

Id: NkuD8rOndSo

Length: 22min 56sec (1376 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

This dudes channel is GREAT.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/Reset_Tears]

I get the impression that in Japan, if you bring up the topic "classic Sega games" people there would be much more likely to think of the Saturn rather than Genesis/MegaDrive. It makes me wonder why Sega has never tried that hard to bring back classics from the Saturn era, when gamers in their homeland would have the most nostalgia for those games. I'm aware Saturn tech is tricky to work with, but it's been 25 years, surely if there's a will there's a way. Sega Ages at least needs to start moving into the 3D polygon era's arcade titles, if nothing else.

The other development I hope to see continue to grow is fan translations of games for the Saturn. There just might be more Japan-only text-heavy games for the Saturn than there are for any other classic home console. Loads of RPGs and VNs that never got to be experienced by English-speakers, and I'm sure there are plenty of hidden gems that have hardly ever been brought up at all in classic gaming discourse outside of Japan.

The biggest thing I've always wondered about the Saturn is why did Sega decide to launch the Dreamcast so early in Japan. Nearly a year before it launched in the States. Seems like it would've made a ton more sense to have it be the other way around. Saturn flopped in the West, so let's get the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure out there to regain interest in Sega gaming before too much time passes. Japan meanwhile could continue to enjoy loads of Saturn content for another year or so, and not snub the devs and fans quite so suddenly.

[u/TigFlipman]

Love that guys videos- he makes some good points, too. The way the Japan launch was structured was really masterful when laid out as it was in the video. But it was structured for that success- a couple of days ago a post here showed how odd and non-informative / persuasive the NA ad campaign was. A way to get attention, sure, but not much else.