An overview of how things went for Sega in Japan with its Sega Saturn.
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Opening 3D Logo By:
Jan Neves
YouTube Page / jan3d
Opening 2D Animation By:
Kevin Bhall
Facebook / kevin.bhall.14
Episode Notes:
1. All 3DO, Saturn, PS1, and N64games captured on real hardware.
2. Virtua Fighter 2 ended up capturing roughly 33% of the Saturn market in Japan alone. A massive attach rate no matter the generation you are comparing it to.
3. Virtua Fighter 1 and 2 did not have the impact elsewhere in the world it did in Japan despite Sega's best efforts. In fact, worldwide it sold less than a third of the numbers it did in Japan alone.
4. Contrary to popular belief the Saturn sold well in a few European countries early on. It actually gave the Playstation some competition in 95 and 96 in the UK and France. When 3rd parties began to drop the system in 1997, it lost all of its momentum.
5. Japanese software releases went on in 1999 but most of it was very Japanese centric simulation, RPG, and mix genre titles that were damn near impossible to play if you didn't read or speak the language. Of the 1100 or so Japanese Saturn releases in Japan, I estimate close to 50% of them are so difficult to play it's not worth the effort.
6. I wanted to do the 2D segment because I actually have great respect for the Playstation's 2D abilities. It was able to do so much for a platform with limited RAM and a chip that was mainly designed to render polygons. Yes, the Saturn was able to do more in some cases, but in no way would I say the Playstation was a weak 2D machine.
7. The Saturn and N64 both sold just under 6 million units in Japan during their lifetimes.
8. The best selling game in the US for the Saturn was Madden 97. A holdover from the days when Sega fans ate up sports titles by the millions. It's further proof that Sega of America not having an NFL title ready at the Saturn's launch, or shortly thereafter, was just plain stupidity.
9. Once you put Sega's story together on how the Saturn performed in Japan and the US, it's easy to see you had a company in crisis. Sega could have survived with the Saturn in Japan had it not been losing so much money in other regions. This is the story of Sega in a nutshell really. It did well in certain regions every single generation, but always crashed and burned in others. It is perhaps the defining difference between them and their competitors.
10. The general consensus among Japanese gamers in 1997 was they couldn't believe Sega was looking to replace the Saturn so soon. After 2 years of solid sales and support, it was baffling to them that Sega was talking about a new machine as early as 1998. This led to a complete failure of trust in Sega's brand, which in turn decimated any chance they had with the Dreamcast. Dreamcast went on to sell poorly there, festering the wounds Sega had so desperately tried to heal.
11. Music in order:
1. Let me try again Astal
2. Sundance Kids Fighting Vipers
3. Dural Virtua Fighter
4. Track 20 VF2 Album
5. Staff Roll Street Fighter Zero 2
6. Big Chase Virtua Cop 2
7. Fade to Black Virtual On
8. Grandia Theme
9. Big Black Nekketsu Oyako
10. Ending Shining World