History of the Sega Saturn
1994
At the beginning of 1994 the first rumors about a new SEGA wonder console made the rounds in the magazines. Initially, some utopian hardware services were distributed, which then became more and more concrete over the course of the year.
In April 94 the German players got to see the first photos of the console, which was held in silver in Japan - at the same time the launch in Japan was planned for September.
In November 1994, the wait for Japanese gamers was over - the latest SEGA console was available in department stores for the equivalent of 850 DM (Playstation for 750 DM) with 20 games.
Over 400,000 units were sold in the first month, which was a huge success in Nintendo-ruled Japan!
As an import, the console cost a proud DM 1000!
1995
In the planned year of release of the console in Europe, SEGA initially tried to keep the players happy with the launch of the 32X, which (as we painfully discovered) was probably the biggest flop in SEGA history.
Only 40 games appeared worldwide for the MegaDrive attachment!
After numerous new Saturn import games were tested every month in German gaming magazines, the mood towards the Saturn was very positive, as almost all manufacturers had promised to support Saturn games (some of them also as exclusive developers).
At the annual E3 in Las Vegas in June 1995 (the largest computer and video game fair in the world), SEGA had the largest booth and did a lot to push the upcoming start of Saturn in the rest of the world.
On July 8, 1995, the time had come for European players (2 months earlier than announced) - the SEGA Saturn was on the shelves and cost a lot in the basic version with the console, a joypad, AV and power cable and 1 demo CD 750 DM ...
At the start, SEGA offered an exceptionally good software package (Clockwork Knight, International Victory Goal, Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter were all rated between 74% and 90% in the magazines)
Panzer Dragoon, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Cyber Speedway, Clockwork Knight 2, Digital Pinball, Parodius Deluxe and Street Fighter - The Movie ... soon followed.
In terms of quantity, the Playstation was clearly subordinate to the starting line-up, but SEGA offered higher quality titles - and another 50 games were announced by Christmas!
The Saturn owner received hardware support from a mouse, steering wheel, 6-player adapter and Joyboard ...
1996
This year the Saturn established itself in many European gaming households and delivered a hot head-to-head race with Sony's Playstation ...
In mid-1996 SEGA of America then lowered the price to a mass market-ready $ 199, which gave the Saturn in America another boost ...
As a result, the prices in Europe also fell to a pleasant level of under 600 DM! And also in 1996 SEGA supplied the Saturn owners with some game pearls, e.g.
Virtua Fighter 2, SEGA Rally, Panzer Dragoon 2, Street Fighter Alpha, Nights, Fighting Vipers, Tomb Raider, Thunderhawk 2, Virtua Cop1 + 2 and some Playstation implementations such as Wipeout and Toshinden ...
At the end of 1996 SEGA of America brought the three-pack onto the market (VirtuaCop, VirtuaFighter2 and Daytona USA for free with the purchase of a Saturn) - this clever move finally helped Saturn break through in America!
1997
1997 turned out to be the decisive year for Saturn ...
The supply of games for the MegaDrive ended in February and Nintendo launched its Nintendo64 in Germany in April of that year ...
As a countermeasure, SEGA offered its workhorse as an Action Pack at this time (Saturn including SEGA Rally and Worldwide Soccer 97 for a sensational DM 450)
But the first rumors were already circulating about a Saturn successor (code names: BlackBelt, Katana and Dural) ...
Up until the end of the year, the supply of games in Japan was still huge, but the European and American markets began to experience a noticeable crisis.
But in 1997 games such as Dark Savior, Fighters MegaMix, Andretti Racing, Saturn Bomberman, Shining: The Holy Ark, Warcraft 2, Resident Evil, SEGA Touring Car and numerous SNK NeoGeo implementations were released (since they entered into a cooperation with SNK which should evolve in the NeoGeoPocket / Dreamcast support)
1998
In 1998 the SEGA Saturn era finally ended in Europe and America ...
In April 1998, SEGA of America decided to stop supporting Saturn games because of heavy losses ...
In the short time, game hammers such as Panzer Dragoon Saga, Burning Rangers, Shining Force 3 or Winter Heat appeared!
At the end of October, Deep Fear was the last game in Europe!
In Japan, however, game development continued until March 2000! (Last Saturn game: Final Fight Revenge)
Almost exactly one year after the last European Saturn game, the Dreamcast appeared as the successor to the Saturn in German department stores ...
Overall, the Saturn was a successful SEGA console and was clearly superior to the PlayStation in terms of 2D games (jump'n runs, shooters, RPGs, etc ...) and in terms of the quality of the games (in terms of 3D, I say only nights :)) - but you just couldn't beat the Sony hype! Seen in this way, Saturn was unfortunately the loser in the console war!
After the SEGA crash in 2001 and the announcement "only" to produce games, we all hope for SEGA's motto:
"The Game is never over!"
Sales figures
Saturn sold worldwide: 10,960,000
Saturn sold in Japan: 5,600,000
Sold Saturn in USA: 2,100,000
Saturn sold in Europe: 2,300,000
Saturn sold in Germany: 420,000
Sold Saturn rest of the world: 960,000
Best-Selling Game: Virtua Fighter 2 (3,540,000 Worldwide)
