When Sega Saturn DESTROYED the PlayStation !

Sanka satin versus a Sony PlayStation a story of a completely one-sided Victory where the new kid on the Block would come out on top and true for a while you may very well have been led to believe that the PlayStation stormed onto the Market's place and began a period of dominance crushing everything that stood in its way the reality is that the story of this battle is far more nuanced than that the end results of this console war clearly shows us that the Sega Saturn was won in a series of missteps taken by the video game company that's once controlled a large chunk of the market in the 16-bit era but to call the Saturn a failure would be a disservice would there even being a point in time when the Sega Saturn was actually the most popular console of its generation thus Ryan the setter may have scored more victories than you were the fort so join me today to take a trip back to when sega's planetary Powerhouse was King so with all that said I am lady decade and this is the time that the Sega Saturn destroyed the Sony PlayStation the 90s console Wars it's an Infamous story that has been at the heart of retellings of gaming history for decades now regarding finding a successor the international branches of Sega could not reach an agreement despite the genesis's great success in America largely attributed to Tom kalinski's aggressive marketing campaigns that deviated from the parent company's strategies by the mid-90s the 16-bit blast processing Powerhouse still felt like it had some legs left with popular American Focus Brands such as Mortal Kombat and various Sports titles are driving the latter days of the cartridge console over in Japan on the other hand the mega driver there was a bit longer in the tooth with the obvious Advent of cd-rom-based media something Sega had found some success with thanks to the add-on for their other consoles the Japanese corporation wanted to shift to a dedicated disc based device after all what were they supposed to do wait for Nintendo to make one with Nintendo not having a successor ready the 3DO and jaguar preview going to be non-combatants and any sea failing to find a suitable successor to their PC engine within the pcfx Sega would be in a prime position to bring about a disc based Powerhouse the Saturn as the end product would be known internationally was launched on the 22nd of November 1994 in Japan for 44 800 Yen it would hit shelves at Wizards clearly being the dominant 32-bit console in fact it was the only true 32-bit console and things were looking rosy with its launch roster only boosted further with the Saturn receiving a version of sega's iconic arcade hit Virtua Fighter the launch day saw a minimum of 170 000 assassins are sold making it sega's most successful release of a brand new console ever what was even more impressive was pre-orders were sold out to two weeks in advance and lines for the system were hours long it would be very difficult to argue against everything coming up Milhouse for the Saturn by this point nothing existed that had a chance of stopping the Saturn well for two weeks at least the Sony PlayStation Woods release on the 3rd of December of that same year but for 5000 Yen cheaper than the established gaming Giants console coupled together from a found console add-on and combo units with Nintendo kenkutaragi would take the discounted device and lead the charge with the unassuming new console and let's be honest recently the public had seen that loads of Brands come along and try to insert themselves into the console were largely dominated by Nintendo and Sega Fujitsu had failed with their FM towns Marty the Omega City 32 was ill-fated the Philips CGI and 3DO were unsuccessful in carving out niches and the Jaguar didn't come close to restoring atari's Golden Age dominance looking at all the flops that preceded it the PlayStation had much to do if it wanted to come out on top the newcomer to the console Awards would see nine games released for it in 1994 so let's have a quick rundown of each of them so that you can get an idea of what early the Sony PlayStation adopters could experience so the PlayStation hardly exuded cool in its early days one of its few games was a freaking train simulator a for evolution by Art D-Link was available from day one on the hardware the system would also get a first person shooter with role-playing elements known as crime crackers developed by media vision and published by Sony reviews were far from strong with Next Generation writing that crime crackers May in the future find an audience with younger Gamers who are looking for their first taste of role-playing Adventure but the game is unlikely to make a significant Mark elsewhere aperrodius Deluxe pack was also available from launch day still this fun little Konami Q2 marbles hardly a title that could showcase what the PlayStation was capable of with parodius being purchasable and perfectly functional on the super famicom instead kikuni masahiko wairau fuku San Apache Hunter is a slot machine simulator with a story cut scenes serving as a video game that exists that I don't understand why anyone would even want to play it a strong case can be made that Kings field was the best a PlayStation game in 1994. this role-playing action game was played from a first-to-person perspective where players navigated dungeon environments rendered in a real-time 3D Graphics the problem was though the title was very poorly received on launch due to its difficulty and unconventional structure words of mouth would lead to good sales later on and sequels being made too but it certainly didn't assist very well with the PlayStation's launch the early PlayStation also got gmq but a three-dimensional puzzle game based on of the tetris concept Puma Hunter Lima special collection volume 1 which is a pcfx FMV anime nonsense the terribly uninspiring kakinoki shogi and a baseball game known as a GQ powerful Pro Yak Q95 pretty depressing Christmas and launch lineup to be fair that's right in its early days what the PlayStation has an offer in 1994 wasn't as good as what could be found on the 3DO these early releases are a far cry from the likes of metal gear solids Final Fantasy VII Tomb Raider crash band goods and Gran Turismo or any of the other Heavy Hitters that would eventually arrive on the platform but as of 1994 the selection was pretty embarrassing but was the Sega Saturn any better let's explore out of the Eight Games available on the Saturn one was the far from exciting Mahjong Goku tenjiku it's probably no secret to you that's most consoles in Japan have dozens of Mahjong games available for each of them so a Mahjong game being one of the first four sega's Next Generation powerful Hardware is uh underwhelming Tama adventurous ball and giddy Labyrinth is a puzzle game and a launch title developed by Time Warner Interactive for the Sega Saturn again it is pretty underwhelming but at least least it uses 3D polygons so it looked next-gen kind of but then again could anyone honestly say this looks any better than Star Fox for the Super Nintendo one chai connection that seems more like Philip CDI bollocks than it does a Sega Saturn classic men used to navigate FMV with live action is certainly not a generation's highlight now girl racer is a lot more impressive and certainly the sort of game you would want to look at on your Sega Mega Drive successor console offering up an experience that graphically looks better than anything available on the PlayStation that year this may be a port of the 1991 Sega system 32 arcade game rad Racer but it was a legitimate step up at home Mansion of his insults was available on the Saturn and Sega CDM was a seventh guest clone it serves as an action adventure game that plays a similar to D players in this one travel between areas via 3D a pre-rendered first person full motion video sequences this is yet another game that feels more Philips di than it does PlayStation or Saturn further to all of these Mists would see a Saturn release in 1994. the famous graphic adventure game has been available on Mac and PC for quite some time wired and the New York Times were among the Publications appointed to mist as evidence that video games could in fact evolve into an art form so to see it amongst the Sega assassin's launch lineup was welcomed to say the least in his first few months the Saturn would also gets Clockwork night a decent side-scrolling platformer published and developed by Sega themselves reception for Clockwork Knight was generally positive with praise for his visuals and gameplay mechanics functioning as an early Saturn standout title but it was far from the most popular option the Saturn offered this brings us the virtual fight to the most impressive video game available on any console in the 1994 war between the PlayStation and Saturn the Sega Saturn version of Virtua Fighter was a significant release for the console showcasing its 3D game abilities it was the first 3D fighting game to gain widespread popularity and critical Acclaim the game featured eight playable characters each of their unique fighting style and offered a variety of moves at Combos and strategies Virtua Fighter on the Sega set and utilizes system's Hardware to deliver a relatively faithful arcade game conversion the game managed to retain much of the graphical Fidelity and gameplay mechanics it was a landmark title for the Sega Saturn helping to establish it as a capable platform for 3D gaming Virtua Fighter made the Saints Saturn an exciting product right up the gate by Christmas in 1994 500 000 Saturns including the V Saturn variant would be in consumer's hands trouncing the 300 000 PlayStations this would lead to a strong user base for these future Classics and these combined 800 000 units of new disk based consoles apparently caused the sales of the Japanese variant of the 3DO to immediately hit the brakes so if all this momentum in place what would it be like for the Saturn going into the following year 1995 would be when the Saturn would make its name with over 150 titles internationally ranging from Platformers astal and Bug puzzlers like bakubaku races like Daytona USA Shooters like Panzer Dragoon and sequels to Clockwork Knight and Virtua Fighter but Weston developed or focused titles like NBA Jam and World Series Baseball would begin to storm the console and the dam of the consult highlights 2D arcade ports would be broken with a near perfect adaptation of X-Men Children of the atom by March of 1995 each company claimed to have sold around a 600 000 units it was clear come the summer of 1995 that the Next Generation had started the former console powerhouses of the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo would see their last era of international dominance and eternal fights will control of kids money gaming had grown up and those stylish shiny discs were here to stay with this strong launch in Japan but the looming PlayStation launch in America Sega would infamously attempt a mic drop by announcing its E3 1995. that the Sega Saturn will be launching immediately in the states months before their previous announcement for 399 this would anger retailers to throw developers off their plans and potentially be the biggest loss of face Sega would encounter in the 1990s meanwhile Sony would simply walk up to the microphone say 299 and leave a crater where Sega once stood American Gamers had a choice and spent 400 now for a very limited selection of titles or wait a few months save 100 and have a bigger launch library and gamble on the untested Japanese Electronics giant but this of course was only what was happening in America Japan did not have these problems by mid-year they would report one million units sold quickly drop the price to 5 000 Yen and repackage with a revised and upgraded version of the 3D brawler Virtua Fighter remix Sony would counter with lower licensing fees and gain a lead still Sega would return with a killer combo that's Christmas Virtua Fighter 2 virtual cop and Sega Rally Championship would all be released in the final weeks of the Year aiding sega's market share boosting 20 from 12 to 32 coming in rough equivalency to the flailing Nintendo's drop from 75 to 33 weeks later in Spring 1996 they redesigned variant wood release at twenty thousand yen bringing its incredible price a lower than the Aging super famicom and selling 70 000 in the first four days Nintendo would follow that September with the Nintendo 64 but Sega would have an established base of 3.7 Million by that November giving it a slight lead over the PlayStation so as you can see we are now now at Spring of 1996 and the Sega Saturn is still beating the Sony PlayStation in Japan speaking of this Japanese success for the Saturn an old email has recently circulated online that was sent out by Tom kalinsky to various Sega of America staff members on the 28th of March 1996. with the subject to fittingly being Saturn success in Japan it reads it is one thing to hear slash read about how well we are doing in Japan versus Sony it's another to personally witness it I just visited 10 retail stores in Tokyo mostly in akihapara it's now spring break so the crowds of teens college kids are huge we are killing Sony in every store Saturn Hardware is sold out and there are stacks of PlayStation the retailers commented they can't compare the true sales rates because Saturn sells out before they can measure accurately our interactive displays are better our software displays and stocking is far superior it is not unusual to see 40 to 50 copies of Panzer sway or Virtua Fighter 2 stocks in even smaller stores and they are selling fast I wish I could get all our stuff sales people retailers analysts media Etc to see and understand what's happening they would then understand why we will win here in the US eventually sadly as history shows us that Sega did not win in the US or Japan either for that matter so what would happen that would cause the tide to turn on a console that was initially doing so well in its Homeland the changing momentum can be brought down to the existence of one title Final Fantasy VII have you ever heard of it this Juggernaut of a title would not only be one of the major factors that allowed the PlayStation to overtake the Saturn but also Aid in bringing down Nintendo one of Sony's biggest challenges which they are still fighting today but what if Sega well when it was infamously stated in the Westlands the Saturn is not our future Bernie stolar the company's president at the time would quickly begin plans to secure their future the date would be 9 9.99 complete with the release of the Dreamcast their internet enabled gigadisc powered arcade Powerhouse we know that the brightest candles burn the fastest and the Dreamcast would have an absurdly short run with amazing arcade ports and original titles but couldn't muster up a fight against the dvd-powered PlayStation 2. leading Sega to gracefully bow out of the hardware industry and develop Up titles for their former competitors but for One Shining Moment or for 18 months at least sega's Saturn was the King of the Hill and to this day has an impressive Legacy in the Japanese markets Place speaking of which an amazing 785 titles were exclusive to the island nation while only nearly 300 would be available internationally part of this immense Library would be exclusives thanks to Sony's adverse opinion of 2D gaming at the time as I mentioned earlier the Saturn was a 2d beast and many games that thrived on the console simply would not work or would be released on the PlayStation often when the odd one did see the light of day the Saturn version would be superior the PlayStation would have nearly 8 000 titles in its decade on the market with his final games coming out well after the Saturn's success of the Dreamcast had already been dead and buried sadly the Sega Saturn hasn't received the actual reference from Sega that fans give it now but next time someone tells you the Saturn is a failure Point them to the platform's early dominance over the mighty PlayStation in Japan if you enjoyed this episode please subscribe then watch my video covering 80 Japan only Sega assassin games see you soon foreign [Music]

Channel: Lady Decade

Views: 83,635

Keywords: When the Sega Saturn DESTROYED the PlayStation !, sega saturn, playstation, sega saturn vs playstation, playstation vs saturn, sega saturn history, playstation history, sega saturn launch, playstation launch, retro gaming, gaming history, sega saturn documentary, playstation documentary, console wars

Id: 1lwQszYEZZo

Length: 17min 11sec (1031 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023