Best Console?

[SignOfZeta]

Actually the Saturn was beating the Playstation 1 for quite a while.  It was considered a successful console over there.  It is sad because some of Sega's other consoles should have been at least as successful, but they weren't.  If the Mega Drive were more successful as well as the SMS and Dreamcast, I could only dream about the great games we would have seen by third parties.  Imagine a library of GREAT Sega CD games.  Didn't really happen.  The SMS definitely needed more Japanese love as well.  Perhaps... just perhaps... we could have had more mahjong games. 

I have read somewhere that financial difficulties had burdened SEGA from having much success with their consoles. The reasons for this seems to lie on the fact that they had given their consoles add-ons or upgrades. The Sega Saturn was also cheaper than the PlayStation was over there in order to help with sales possibly a little bit. Once the Dreamcast was released three years later in attempts to save them from this trouble, it was already too late. This is also why the Dreamcast was discontinued in 2001.

Basically, that is correct. People have a really f*cked up understanding of the fall of Sega. The DC was doing well enough to support itself, but not well enough to make up for huge losses from the past. The disastrous handling of the Saturn in the US (his initials aren't "BS" for nothing) in particular was hugely expensive.

The DC was discontinued as part of a strategy to get support for Sega games on other machines. Games like Gun Valkyrie, Sega GT 2002, Panzer Orta, Virua Fighter 4, and Rez all would have been DC only if they weren't bribed into putting them on other machines as exclusives. The most blatant move was Shenmue 2 for XB in the US, which tried to force US DC gamers into buying a shitty Xbox and waiting a year to play a game that was cancelled on DC two weeks before release. In the end the smart ones all just imported it from the UK.

As for the pricing though, I'm pretty sure that both the SS, and PS were 40,000 yen, or very close to it, when introduced. There were eventual mark downs on the SS, but the same was true of the PS.

[SNKNostalgia]

One thing that was weird is that the Saturn came out before it really came out in a sense. I remember putting down a $50 deposit and $20 to rent the system from Blockbuster Video in May 95. There were only 3 games to play, Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon and Clockwork Knight. I wonder if this kinda hurt the Saturn in anyway as these games were pretty generic, although Panzer Dragoon was pretty good. In Sep 95 and a little later it was like a different system when VF 2, Guardian Heroes, etc.. came out. By then most everyone I knew got the PS instead it seems. Games like Tekken, Twisted Metal, Warhawk, Philosoma, Ridge Racer, Air Combat etc.. just caught more interest to most people I guess.

I am glad a friend of mine bought the Saturn also after he got his PS1. I got to see a lot of great games and eventually bought one myself around 97. What sucks is as soon as I bought my Saturn the market was about dead for it US wise. Hell Dragon Force alone was one of the main reasons I bought it back then. Later on I went import crazy buying, Radiant Silver Gun, X-men vs. SF, D&D Collection, and most other Capcom arcade games. I have to admit that out of ten people I knew, one or two had a Saturn and all of them had a PS1 by Christmas 95.

[Paisa49]

Hell Dragon Force alone was one of the main reasons I bought it back then. Later on I went import crazy buying, Radiant Silver Gun, X-men vs. SF, D&D Collection, and most other Capcom arcade games. I have to admit that out of ten people I knew, one or two had a Saturn and all of them had a PS1 by Christmas 95.

I love Dragon Force for the Saturn. That game is so incredibly addicting. I still love playing the Saturn and the TG-16 to this day.

[Hobo Xiphas]

I love Dragon Force for the Saturn. That game is so incredibly addicting. I still love playing the Saturn

 

The DC was discontinued as part of a strategy to get support for Sega games on other machines.

And look how well that went.  I swear I could have run Sega better than their management, and I am horrible at business.

I remember putting down a $50 deposit and $20 to rent the system from Blockbuster Video in May 95.

You're not alone, I did the same thing!

Why is that sad? Why care about a company that you don't own?

Sega had massive potential and never had their place in the sun before they got their heart pulled out of their chest.  Just like poor Frederick III. 

I guess I could be a jerk here and say something along the lines of, "Why do people care about NEC and Hudson?"

[nodtveidt]

Sega had massive potential and never had their place in the sun before they got their heart pulled out of their chest.

This might be true, but remember that it was their own damn fault for that.

[ceti alpha]

I swear I could have run Sega better than their management, and I am horrible at business.

The same could be said of NEC's US marketing plan - what a debacle that was. If they launched the Turbo/PCE in the US properly, the Genesis would not have had the market control that they did. Though the Nintendo third party controls would still have been a nightmare. Hindsight...

[SignOfZeta]

I really don't think a well run Sega would have been as cool. By that mean that I seriously don't think that the products that came out of them would be the same. I mean, look at Sega now. Now they are doing much better financially but since killing the DC they've produced only a half dozen decent games (Feel the Magic, Rub Rabbits, Yakuza, Sonic Rush, Outrun 2, VF5) When the DC was alive they made a really good game...just about every month. Segagaga is one of Sega's greatest games, and its greatness is predicated on the player understanding that Sega was dying. The same can be said for Sakura Wars 4, the end of which...is quite a tear jerker if you get the metaphor.

A well run Sega of America could have been nice though. For example; buying the back cover of every game mag in the US to advertise Panzer Saga while not actually producing enough copies for people to actually buy...that's just stupid. Killing the Saturn early and deciding to release virtually nothing for over a year between the SS and DC...a horrible business decision.

[Necromancer]

The same could be said of NEC's US marketing plan -

What marketing plan? 

[Tatsujin]

Why is that sad? Why care about a company that you don't own?

[MissaFX]

Sega had massive potential and never had their place in the sun before they got pulled out their own beating heart pulled out of their chest and jumped on it over and over again.  Just like poor Frederick III an angst ridden teen.

Fixed
 

[ceti alpha]

Fixed Mr. Green

Drum roll please....

....and the play of the week goes to Missa!! 

[Kitsunexus]

Sega had massive potential and never had their place in the sun before they got pulled out their own beating heart pulled out of their chest and jumped on it over and over again.  Just like poor Frederick III an angst ridden teen.

Fixed
 

FTMFW. 

[Hobo Xiphas]

Fixed

I always knew you were Otto von Bismarck in disguise.  This just confirms my suspicions.

[rag-time4]

1)TurboDuo
2)NES + Famicom Disk
3)PS2
sold the rest sorry!! O:)

[Tatsujin]

you don't coercively have to own the stuff you like to favor