Saturn article on 1UP

[Ex Ranza]

I didn't realize that the Saturn came out 10 years ago last May. Time goes by too fast.

Yeah, so probably most of us already know this stuff, and what info is here is pretty vague, but there are some quotes from Tom Kalinski and Victor Ireland. Also there's an interesting sidebar on the horrible US controller (focus testing.. bah!).

The article is linked here.

So discuss the Saturn, if you wanna.

[lithium]

Other than DDR and ITG, I play my Saturn more than all my other consoles combined.

[Yoshi]

Wow. There's actually new (to me at least) information in there. I never realized that the Saturn architecture was a result of a Chinese fire drill to combat the PS1's architecture.

[Jeremy]

Holy Hell, it's been ten years already. Damn. It feels like yesterday that I was opening the box and playing Virtua Fighter for hours on end. Thanks for linking us to this piece, it'll be a great trip down memory lane. I think I'll play some Saturn stuff later today to celebrate.

[Cowdisease]

The following three years would see Sega's dramatic freefall from industry leader to owning about 1% of the gaming market. Although Sega itself constantly produced quality titles for the system, and somehow managed to have a strong holiday season every year, the lack of third-party support (thanks to difficult-to-program-for system architecture) and the need to constantly drop the price of the system was simply a deadly combination, and one that no system manufacturer would be able to overcome.

Hmm, this sounds awfully familiar.

[Diff-chan]

This article totally shows what happens when you fail to listen to the marketplace and insist that your own self-imposed bubble is superior.

Their marketing was awful (except for NiGHTS, which somehow turned into an A-list product), their hardware was crap, and most of the games worth a damn stayed in Japan. Sony just killed them, it was unbelievable. And then they turned around and tried to rebuild the FUBAR'd Sega brand for Dreamcast, which sunk even faster than the Saturn.

[Brisco Bold]

I wished they spoke to Bernie Stolar for a bit of balance.

Stolar comes off as the villain here, but I'm sure he must have had a rationale for his decisions.

[Fe 26]

This article totally shows what happens when you fail to listen to the marketplace and insist that your own self-imposed bubble is superior.

Their marketing was awful (except for NiGHTS, which somehow turned into an A-list product), their hardware was crap, and most of the games worth a damn stayed in Japan. Sony just killed them, it was unbelievable. And then they turned around and tried to rebuild the FUBAR'd Sega brand for Dreamcast, which sunk even faster than the Saturn.

=\ do you always have to be so negative when you point this out? You act like sega raped your dog.

[Jeremy]

Eh, he acts like everyone raped his dog. He does bring up good points here. I'm still amazed that the DC sank faster than the Saturn, in spite of its far superior games and marketing campaign. That just goes to show how much damage was truly done by the Saturn.

[Diff-chan]

The Dreamcast's marketing was awful, and SegaNet was an abortion that lived.

The DC really had no chance, Sega shouldnt have even bothered. If they put JGR on PS2 instead I would at least be able to play it without hooking up my DC (and Im too lazy to do that, so no JGR for me).