SEGA Saturn

The Sega Saturn is the 5th generation console developed and sold by Sega. It was released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11 1995 in North American and July 8, 1995 in Europe. It is the successor the successful Sega Genesis.

The North American launch was a surprise launch that caught many of the retailers by surprise as only a few retailers had been told about this. As a result few retailers refused to stock any of Sega’s products. The console boasted a dual-CPU setup with a total of eight processors. The games also were in a CD-ROM format.

The Saturn’s game library consisted mostly of the Arcade ports that included games such as Daytona USA, Last Bronx, Die Hard Arcade and many more. In 1998 surprisingly the system had more games than its competitor the Nintendo 64. The Saturn faced many problems in the American marketplace after selling well in Japan. The console was released 4 months prior and faced very shaky sales and to top it off the release of the Nintendo 64 in 1996 basically was the final nail in the coffin, with the SEGA Saturn being discontinued in 1998. The Sega Saturn sold a total of only 9.5 million units worldwide and was considered a commercial failure.

As there was a decline in the industry the failure of the Sega Saturn put a lot of financial strain onto the company. This caused departures within the company and for the discontinuation of the system leaving the Western Market without any Sega games for over a year.