The Saturn is probably one of the most jaded consoles I come across, on one hand I like some of the japan only games, but on the other, most multiplat games were better on the PS1.
Another thing I realised recently when researching about this console is that it didn’t really have a “killer app” sonic game that’d show off the capabilities.
What happened here? Did Sega leave development time too short on to refine some things about the console? Apparently it was difficult to code due to having 2 processors
Let me know your thoughts!
There were lots of things that impacted how the Saturn sold compared to the PS1. These include things such as its 2D vs 3D performance (it did 2D much better than 3D, which impacted the Japan vs Western sales since the Western market was all in on 3D whereas Japan still had an appetite for 2D games yet), its basis on squares vs triangles for rendering polygons (a major impact to that 3D performance), infighting between Sega of Japan vs Sega of America (the Saturn was developed in Japan to be Sega’s launch into that generation, while the Genesis was still selling well in America, leading to Sega of America pushing the 32X instead, and Sega of Japan forcing their hand on Sega of America and pulling a surprise Western launch of the Saturn, angering devs and retailers who weren’t ready, and leaving Sega of America holding the bag), and the cancelation of what was supposed to be that marquee Sonic game, Sonic X-treme.