Next Generation story on the Sega Saturn at E3 1995

breaking Saturne Sega's 32-bit system launches early, surprising gamers, the press and (most importantly) Sony he best kept secret of E became common knowledge on the morning of Thursday, May 11. Tom Kalinske, president and CEO of Sega of America, gleefully announced to an astounded conference that the Saturnday September 2 launch was a decoy, and that "We [Sega] started our roll out yesterday; we're at 1,800 stores around the US and Canada today." NEXT Generation had learned of Sega's Saturn plans a week before the conference (too late to make it into last month's issue). Sony had seemingly learned of its competitors surprise move merely hours before its own "official unveiling" of PlayStation (a shaken Steve Race refused to admit that Sega had SATURI Virtua Cop was promoted as a hot title, with a view making the Saturn version a hit in the fall gained an edge over Sony, but admitted that he was "ecstatic" about the delay of Ultra 64). And joyous gamers stumbled upon Saturns by accident. At $449 (with Virtua Fighter) and $399 for a standalone unit, the retail price is as was expected. NEXT Generation has learned that the retail no profit on the hardware (buying them from Sega direct at $399), and are instead aiming to make a profit on the six games available at launch. While this news makes a future price drop unlikely, the addition of extra bundled games may be Sega's answer to PlayStation's $299 September launch. Sega had little exciting new Saturn software on display - and proud new Saturn owners shouldn't expect Virtua Fighter has been refined for its US launch, removing many of the original's glitches chains carrying the Saturn are making Six Saturn games available at launch too many new games in the near future. Instead Sega relied on Sega Rally, an eight-player arcade Daytona USA link- up, and the shock factor of Saturn's launch to make an impression. The 32X, gasping for a life-giving injection of decent software, was left to suffocate while the Genesis looks set to benefit MeGaire Tt stroke 366 verds 18mpb from a sharp Earthworm Jim-inspired platformer called Vector Man arriving at stores closer to the holiday season. In essence: Sega 1, Sony 0, but this is the first round. More next month on the full Saturn story. Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Clockwork Knight, Worldwide Soccer, Pebble Beach Golf Links, and Panzer Dragoon (clockwise from top left) make up Saturn's launch lineup. Imminent releases include Bug!, NHL All-Star Hockey, Virtua Cop, NBA Action, 3D Baseball, BlackFire, and Virtua Racing 17 NEXT GENERATION July 1995

magazine scan surprise release console wars

Origin Entry: Sega

Notes:

This page is part of Next Generation magazine's coverage of the 1995 Electronic Entertainment Expo , the first E3. The biggest story of that year's event was arguably the Saturn's release being moved up from September to an immediate release that day, with six games at launch and a $399 price tag.

Although this maneuver is seen as catastrophic in retrospect, Next Generation magazine seemed to indicate that this turn of events favored Sega. Elsewhere in this issue, they imply that Sony's PlayStation will have to make up for lost ground against the Saturn's early release, even at a lower price point.

To be fair, note that in Japan, the Saturn outsold the PlayStation each year until 1997, when Square and Enix started releasing their big JRPG's for the platform. The only really big PlayStation games in this early era were Arc the Lad in 1995 and Resident Evil, Tekken 2, and PaRappa the Rapper in 1996. Even a lot of third party support was still being directed towards the Saturn: major third party games for the Saturn at E3 1995 included FIFA, Gex, Myst, PGA Tour, Rayman, Robotica, etc.

The moral of the story is probably that what seems obvious in retrospect may not be so in the present.

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