/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.6632042]

Why did the saturn fail?

[Anonymous No.6632052]

>

[Anonymous No.6632059]

>>6632052
>mobile filename
Bernie posters are the scum of the earth.

[Anonymous No.6632138]

>>6632052
t. Seethe segfag

[Anonymous No.6632175]

>>6632042
1. Nogames.
2. The games it did have were just weebshit, maybe an inferior arcade port if you were lucky.
3. The hardware was too costly to manufacture, Sega lost over 100 dollars on every unit sold; in spite of supposedly being more powerful than PSX on paper, it was awful at handling 3D.
4. The surprise launch, which pissed off both developers and retailers who decided to say fuck you to Sega and support PSX instead.
5. Releasing the 32X too close to its launch, either the Saturn should've been delayed or the 32X scrapped and its games moved to Saturn.

[Anonymous No.6632242]

sega couldn't make a mainline sonic game for it, what chance did other developers have?
imagine a nintendo console with no mainline mario game, it's unthinkable

[Anonymous No.6632261]

>>6632042
As a 64fag I will at least acknowledge that this is a valid, and reasonable point of view to look at gen 5.
I don't agree with it, but I can see how one would think that.

[Anonymous No.6632374]

>>6632042
Right out of the gate in the US it was $100 more expensive than the competition and pissed off half of the retailers it would have sold in had they not had shit communication with the surprise launch.

I went on to be the best selling 5th Gen console in Japan but in the states it was a Greek tragedy of poor timing and choices from day one when it prematurely nutted, faceplanted, and got banned from half the retailers in the country.

[Anonymous No.6632385]

my cock is soooo fucking hard

[Anonymous No.6632392]

>>6632242
>imagine a nintendo console with no mainline mario game

[Anonymous No.6632403]

>>6632392
supposed to be a portable, but even still, that kinda plays into my point, the virtual boy was a complete and utter failure, it failed so hard and fast that it didn't even make it to the eu regions

[Anonymous No.6632406]

>>6632392
Wario Land is close enough, and imo better than Mario's games.

[Anonymous No.6632408]

>>6632392
There was a planned game but it was scrapped and you still had clash but the scrapped game was an actual platformer

[Anonymous No.6632409]

>>6632042
Mismanagement from Sega and supposedly hard to program.

[Anonymous No.6632410]

>>6632042
lmao I was waiting for somebody to make this edit. you can even see the pixels from where the two dudes feet used to be. what's really sad though, is that the original artist thought the Saturn got second place LOL

[Anonymous No.6632414]

>>6632042
It was easier to work with the PlayStation's hardware and it was a better designed console in general (especially for the gaming climate of that time) with the backing of Sony which was a bigger and more powerful company than Sega. This plus they weren't able to release compelling first party games fast enough to get consumers to take much interest. Every problem after that stems from those factors.

[Anonymous No.6632426]

Way I remember it was ps and saturn were about equal for 2 years then around the 2nd year christsmas ps1 gets a price drop and saturn does the 3 games bonus deal but since that saturn was so expensive to make they couldn't really do much about it then all of a sudden saturns are on clearance and disappear from stores.

[Anonymous No.6632429]

>>6632426
>then all of a sudden saturns are on clearance and disappear from stores.
That was when a certain someone said it wasn't their future and killed off the brand and all sources of revenue for 2.5 years.

[Anonymous No.6632442]

>>6632409
>hard to program
was it ever, a dual cpu system at a time when devs were just starting to get their feet with with plain C
lots of games didn't use or barely used the second cpu
the saturn was powerful in theory, but pretty weak if you only used one of it's cpus

[Anonymous No.6632457]

>>6632442
>lots of games didn't use or barely used the second cpu
This is a myth. A lot of games are using the 2nd CPU. In many cases it's doing the Polygon calculations while the other CPU is running the rest of the game logic.

[Anonymous No.6632462]

>>6632457
Most Saturn games make fairly thorough use of the hardware, issues with optimization stems from inefficient use of the hardware. It's really cool seeing what homebrew devs are doing now, or when old devs recount their experience with the console and optimizing specifically for it. It seems like most developers liked working on it, I've heard from a few that said the cool thing about it was there was always something you could do to get more performance out of the console, some trick or tweak to push things just a little farther.

[Anonymous No.6632464]

>>6632462
>Saturn development
>requires you to spend weeks tinkering with it to cheat your way into doing effects you could do in much simpler ways on PlayStation
WHY DID IT FAIL????

[Anonymous No.6632467]

>>6632464
that wasn't why it failed lol

[Anonymous No.6632616]

>>6632464
>>6632467
Case in point, the PS2 was stupidly complicated to develop for and it was one of the best selling systems ever.

The Saturn's failure basically boils down to a botched US launch, followed up by an incompetent new CEO who tried to implement the same ideas he tried on the PS1 before Sony kicked him out. The truth of the matter is the PS1 was successful in the US in spite of Stolar's ideas, not because of them.

[Anonymous No.6632634]

>>6632616
>it was one of the best selling systems ever.
it's the single best selling console of all time

[Anonymous No.6632640]

>>6632634
No, that's the Nintendo which alone saved video games after the atari crash

[Anonymous No.6632658]

>>6632640
nes/fc: 61.91 million units
ps2: 155.00 million units

not even close
also, the nes didn't "save video games", the 1983 crash you mention only affected the united states, not video games as a whole

[Anonymous No.6632715]

>>6632658
not him but what does it feel to be an autist?

[Anonymous No.6632740]

>>6632715
like everyone is speaking in riddles, desu

[Anonymous No.6632747]

>>6632392
One of the biggest reasons VB failed.

>>6632406
>close enough
It really isn’t.

[Anonymous No.6632749]

>>6632385
8 inches

[Anonymous No.6633392]

>>6632616
The ps2 only sold a lotta units cause it was the cheaper alternative to the DVD player

[Anonymous No.6633408]

>>6632392
Sure there was no Virtual Mario World or whatever but Mario Clash was fun as fuck and Mario’s Tennis is super replayable.

[Anonymous No.6633413]

>>6632042
because this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ze_ANZXGf4

[Anonymous No.6633416]

>>6633392
Sony timed it perfectly. DVD players were dropping in price during that period. They were able to undercut them on release just before they dropped below standard console prices. It actually forced an already rapidly dropping price to drop even further. By Christmas DVD players were down to ~$200, which is insane to think about, but this was the early 2000s which was a revolving door for tech.

[Anonymous No.6633531]

>>6632042
t. Nintencel suffering from Saturn Derangement Syndrome.

[Anonymous No.6633554]

Psx was more gooder.

[Anonymous No.6633645]

>>6632429
That was some heavy-duty pants-on-head-retarded shit. What the fuck were they going to sell until their next console was ready?

[Anonymous No.6633654]

>>6633645
>What the fuck were they going to sell until their next console was ready?
At that point, since Saturn's software sales had been so abysmal, it was better financially for Sega to not produce/distribute hardware at all than to keep trying to prop up a dead console.

[Anonymous No.6633682]

>>6633654
That was a terrible idea. Buyers had already gotten burnt by the 32X. Dropping yet another console (especially a "full-size" one) barely two years after introduction would completely eradicate consumer confidence.
The better course of action would have been to just stay the course. Localize everything that's not too expensive, fund a handful cheaper games to show the company still vaguely cares about its fans etc.

[Anonymous No.6633875]

>>6632261
Yeah Id say its a fair assessment too. I owned both a PSX and a N64. I played N64 more but psx had a crapton of great games I couldnt appreciate as a kid because I was a dumbass kid who wanted to play mario.

[Anonymous No.6635737]

>>6632042
Expensive. Small library. I actually like the Saturn more than the N64, but Sega and SNK always have this problem where they're cannibalizing themselves; their consoles are competing with their Arcade Machines. they split their own userbase.

[Anonymous No.6635756]

>>6635737
>Small Library
It's bigger than the N64's Library though.

[Anonymous No.6635784]

>>6635756
are they really more english releases for saturn than there are English releases for n64? I had the impression that most sega saturn games were japan exclusive. Anyway, most sega saturn games are fucking bad. it's got a couple good ones though

[Anonymous No.6635825]

>>6635784
N64 NA games: 296
Saturn NA games: 249

[Anonymous No.6635843]

>>6635825
N64 Worldwide Total Games: 388
Sega Saturn Worldwide Total Games: 1092

[Anonymous No.6635859]

>>6635843
Who cares about jap-only shit, just a bunch of pedophile jarpigs and visual novel garbage.

[Anonymous No.6635883]

>>6635859
>It's only weeb shit and visual novels.
This is a myth. There's far more platformers, fighters, shmups, sports games, arcade ports, etc. than there are visual novels and JRPGs.

[Anonymous No.6635884]

I need this damn jacket in my life, sadly can't find it anywhere online.

[Anonymous No.6635893]

299

[Anonymous No.6636661]

>>6632042
The Saturn still had more good games than the N64.

[Anonymous No.6636663]

>but shiturn had more games
and all shit games or games that have a batter psx version, meanwhile n64 and psx had gotys that are still discussed today

[Anonymous No.6636685]

sage and report all trolling threads

[Anonymous No.6636784]

>>6636685
OP pic is accurate though

[Anonymous No.6636903]

>>6635859
Ah yes only weeb shit and visual novels. Find me a North American copy of clockwork knight 2

[Anonymous No.6636915]

>>6636903
Sorry I'm a tardfag, just realized there is a North American release. Gundam is another good example tho. Kinda weeby but even the most normalfag wants to shoot at other giant robots with another giant robot

[Anonymous No.6637080]

>>6635843
And that small list of N64 games sold more than a large library of Saturn, even in Japan, sadly.

[Anonymous No.6637112]

>>6637080
When there's less games to choose from that tends to happen.

>>6636663
>and all shit games or games that have a batter psx version
Grandia, Lunar, [Insert Capcom or SNK Port game], etc. all say hi.

[Anonymous No.6637116]

>>6637080
When there's less games to choose from that tends to happen.

>>6636663
>and all shit games or games that have a batter psx version
Grandia, Lunar, [Insert any Capcom or SNK game here], etc. all say hi.

[Anonymous No.6637124]

>>6637116
>When there's less games to choose from that tends to happen.
Psx says hi

[Anonymous No.6637138]

>>6632042
Saturn never stood a chance.
>more expensive than PS
>no sanic game at launch, or ever
>sega deeply weakened by many failed projects in prior years
>ridiculously difficult to program for
>worse 3D than N64, worse 2D than PS1
>sony scooped up squaresoft and other Nintendo defectors

[Anonymous No.6637160]

>>6637080
Ahh now it's a L. I. S. T and a L. I. B. R. A. R. Y

[Anonymous No.6637194]

>>6632042
No games. Hardware and documentation contributed to this, but Sega themselves could have done better.
Sega pulling back on production to meet end-year numbers because they lost money with each console.
Bernie's 1997 speech killed what little support the Saturn could get in 1998 (like Resident Evil 2)

[Anonymous No.6637216]

>>6637194
>Bernie's 1997 speech killed what little support the Saturn could get in 1998 (like Resident Evil 2)
Not the fact that a system much more capable of 3D was coming out the following year?

[Anonymous No.6637239]

>>6637194
imagine killing off your 5th gen console in 1997, when the 5th gen peaked in 1998-2000, most of the good games came out during that period

[Anonymous No.6637249]

>>6637239
I doubt Saturn would've been able to run any late 5th gen games, especially stuff like Rayman 2 or Soul Reaver, without massive lag anyways.

Sega made the right call in killing the saturn asap to get 3rd parties prepped for the DC.

[Anonymous No.6637268]

>>6637249
yea, it might have been difficult to get some of the later multiplatforms on the saturn
but still, i would like to have seen what could have been pulled off on it