@SegaLordX
Video games are one of the few forms of art where sales are often cited to indicate quality. Imagine the arguments if music or movies that didn’t sell millions of units absolutely sucked? No doubt Saturn was a rough time financially for Sega, but it’s ridiculous to call the system and its games bad because of those numbers. Loved the video and the narrative. Great work.
@ScarletSaddler
It's so refreshing to finally see a video on here that accurately echos my feelings about the Sega Saturn. I still remember the day I got my original Saturn. I was sat in the front room of my Grandparents house playing my Mega Drive when I spotted my Grandad coming home from work with a big box under his arm. He came in, put the box down next to me and simply said "Here you go, turn that off and let's get this plugged in instead". He'd spoken to a friend who worked as a delivery driver at a department store who managed to keep a Saturn aside for him ahead of the UK launch to surprise me with. He got the model 1 version that came bundled with Virtua Fighter 1 that had Akira and Jacky on the console box. They may look crude now (they did even back then) but I was absolutely blown away seeing 3d characters I could play with in a fighting game for the very first time. I played it so much in the following weeks my Grandad even got sick of the sight of VF so took me into town to (the now defunct) Virgin Megastore where he let me pick Bug as my 2nd Saturn game. I know this is overly wordy but I still have such vivid recollections of that time when I got my Saturn which, despite also loving all consoles, I couldn't quite say about my PS1. The Saturn really did leave a lasting impact on not just me, but my friends who always wanted to come to my house play Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Nights Into Dreams and Guardian Heroes because they couldn't play them on their PS1s at home. The Saturn was truly magical for me as a kid and I still hold the biggest soft spot for it nearly some 30 years later.
@BoyBlaze2002
The Sega Saturn has definitely garnered quite the fan base as of the last decade. That makes me very happy
@pokepress
The Saturn is in a similar category to the Dreamcast and Wii U. Much better than its sales would suggest.
@AaronVictoria
I agree with you 100% here. I hate that people measure the success of most things only based on how much money they earned or how well they are perceived to have done commercially. I remember bringing my Sega Saturn to a military deployment. Nobody showed any interest in bringing any kind of console because we were told there wouldn't be any time or any device to connect one to. However, I brought mine because I knew another guy that said he was considering bringing his PS1, and I just wanted to have my preferred console. We managed to find an old PC monitor that happened to have a video converter adapter and between operations we'd all jump on the Saturn. We used our time on that Saturn to bond and to truly unwind from the war right outside the base. That console and those games were our peace during that time and really helped bolstered our relationships. I'll always remember that time as the most fun time I've had on my Saturn, and I still pull it out from time to time to play it with my kids and tell them about those times. I love my Saturn and will always consider it a big win, regardless of its commercial/financial accomplishments.
@tournaline3448
At school I was the only kid who had a Saturn. I never felt jealous of my PlayStation-owning mates. My favourite console of all-time.
@segaswissfan
Thank you for the love you convey for the Saturn, which I've also loved since November 1994. for me, I didn't like the fact that sales weren't good, because that would inevitably lead to fewer games being produced. Publishers would give up and some good games would be exclusive to the PS1. Of course, just because everyone's jumping off a cliff doesn't mean we have to follow them too. What I mean is, just because everyone was buying PS1 games, doesn't mean they were better. In the end, the important thing is to have fun and keep having fun with your systems. I would have liked more games translated into my language (French) or at least into English. The same problem with the Dreamcast. Thank you for sharing your passion for the Saturn. It deserved it and still deserves it today. Translated
@wettuga2762
If Sega of America had supported the Saturn instead of the 32x/SegaCD fiasco, we wouldn't be seeing these "failure" videos, because the console would have sold much more units, with the same great games we all know and love and possibly even more.
@RetroGamesBoy78
Saturn was never a failure as far as i'm concerned, it was a success! i'll never regret buying mine in may 1996, from that day to the last game released, it never failed to keep me (and all my friends) entertained, and has continued to entertain me on and off ever since. theres a special feeling every time i slot a disc in, close the lid and press the on button on my Sega Saturn. 🐐
@dragaoastro69
Love Sega, the Saturn is my favourite console of all time and happy birthday Dreamcast!
@SonofSethoitae
Having just bought a Saturn this summer, i have to say that it's been really fun delving the depths of the Saturn library and pulling out the gems. And there are a lot of gems, across all the markets. Tons of experiences you can only have on Saturn, it's like entering a parallel universe of gaming from what I knew as a kid. Super fun.
@Fisto-wl2zj
I loved my Saturn but it was painful at times seeing crap ports or worse, no ports, of the best PS games. When that golden era of Sega Rally, VF2 and Virtua Cop hit, I was convinced the Saturn had made it. Then, of course, Sega did what Sega does and messed it up.
@maroon9273
I wish sega did a better job providing more of there game engines, sdk and tools to 2nd, 3rd parties developers. Cancelation of saturn titles and its suprise launch killed the console quickly in the west. I'm glad the saturn brought near arcade perfect titles and kept 2D gaming alive during the 3D craze in the 5th gen console era. Happy birthday to my favorite sega console tge dreamcast.
@JoeDouglas
At the risk of sounding like a self promoter, I just finished writing a book on SEGA's history, and one of the really interesting things I found in my research was devs at the time saying it wasn't particularly badly designed, it's judt that many either didn't have the smarts or couldn't be bothered to figure out it's intricacies. Totally different narrative than the narrative the YouTube bros would have you believe
@ClockedIt
Great video James. For us who played our Saturns back then, there wasn't a moment where we felt that the system was lacking. From an overall perspective, every system delivered must plays and the Saturn had a welath of must plays, many of them utterly unique and exclusive to the system. th crazy thing is, there's still so much more you can say about the system and what it offered us back then. Sega's best system for me; Always has been and always will be.
@The_Gaming_Bristolian
I find a lot of Youtubers only seem to want tell the Saturn's story from a North American Prospective. Using The idea that it failed here, so it must have failed everywhere, Ignoring how popular it was in Japan (Even in the UK I remember it being somewhat popular). I think a very Similar thing happens with the Master System.
@jrod75
As a Sega loyalist in the 87’ in America, I was the only kid in my school that had the master system. I continued with the Genesis, then Sega CD, Game Gear and the ill fated 32X. It was a no brainer to get me a Saturn as I wanted to play Virtua Fighter. I enjoyed the games that was released yet a little envious of the games that were planned on the Saturn but was later cancelled and became a PS exclusive. On the final year of publishing. I made sure I got on the pre-order list of each NA released game and started to buy the imported Japanese games. It was crazy that the imported games were always sold out. The market was hungry for Saturn games but they killed it early for almost a year till the Dreamcast was released. I enjoyed the Dreamcast when it was alive but that too died an early death. For me the Saturn was a unique experience as I loved the creative games it had. It was the last generation that a system had games on multiple platforms but look and played differently on that console like how there were different versions of the same games between the Genesis and SNES. Even with all the missteps, bad decisions and poor support. I would still not trade my Saturn experience for the world.
@Shyning77
Thanks James for calling out fake or biased narratives as well as restoring some balance! Some people seem to be still fighting for a console war that ended decades ago, sadly. If I could go back in time, and even knowing that the Saturn would ultimately "fail", I wouldn't change a thing and would still buy a Saturn over a PlayStation.
@RetroWez
I really enjoyed this video. As someone who had never owned a Saturn, and often joked about it, I’ve recently changed my tune and purchased one. I was so brainwashed. I love it! Like you said, it doesn’t re-write history. But now after all these years I can actually allow myself to enjoy what the Saturn offers. I can’t wait to finally get to Dragon Force!
@sammorrow7007