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[Daxter Too]

I hear this arguement a lot, and always found it to be a reasonable one. Then I thought back to the days of the Saturn. That system was a huge flop, even though it looks SLIGHTLY better than the Playstation, it sold for crap. Sega abandoned it for the Dreamcast, and while it made somewhat of a splash, it's hype was crushed by the announcement of the PS2.

Will the hype building on the Xbox and the MS brandname be enough to differentiate the Xbox2 from the Dreamcast curse? Will the hype of the Xbox counteract Xbox2 hype? Or does MS have things planned for the Xbox 2 launch that will REALLY blow our minds?

MS needs to phase out Xbox hype early 2005 and start some SERIOUS hype on the XBox 2. The launch games need to be there, and in force. The real question is, can they pull it off? It will be one of the most tricky marketing balancing acts ever imo.

 

[jarrod]

Software will be enough to differentiate Microsoft from Sega. EA among others will make sure of that.

 

[StoOgE]

1) Saturn did NOT look as good as Playstation. It was argued that if the Saturn was maxed out it would look as good as a playstation (with the exception of NiGHTS, nothing came close). PSX launched with Tekken and Ridge Racer, both very good ports. Sega launched with shitty ports of VF and Daytona... as a Sega fan I used to argue that the Saturn looked better than the PSX (and when it came to 2d games, it did) but the rage was 3d and Sony was much stronger in that department.

2) Saturn had a terrible launch (the sneak attack double secret E3 launch), the games were not ready and all the first gen software with a few exceptions (PD) was terrible.

3) Sega had several flops in a row before Saturn ever came out.. Sega CD sold well but had minimal support and what was there was pretty bad, the Game Gear while a great piece of hardware never took off, the 32x had been an abysmal shame, Sega had the CDx and the Nomad as well which were failed hardware attempts.. the Saturn was just another in a long string of horribly supported, ill fated, early abortion consoles...

4) Moreover, the Saturn failed to deliver what people wanted. No Sonic games, terrible arcade ports.. it never had the game that defined itself in the eyes of anyone let alone casual gamers.. When I had my saturn, none of my friends had any idea what games were on the thing...

The Dreamcast was doomed before it ever launched, it didnt have EA or Madden, the Sega name did not instill confidence in the consumer, and Sega's games for the system, while very good on the whole, mostly were quircky little niche titles that had no mass apeal.

Microsoft is coming in to their second console in a better position than Sega ever launched a console in... the only thing they have in common is that they launched before Sony's new console.. people who pick one thing and try and draw parrallels between two things based on that one item are stupid... its a logically flawed arguement.

 

[bob_arctor]

Dreamcast was doomed before it ever launched, it didnt have EA or Madden, the Sega name did not instill confidence in the consumer, and Sega's games for the system, while very good on the whole, mostly were quircky little niche titles that had no mass apeal.

*Sniff* God bless 'em.

 

[sonycowboy]

Stooge,

You do know that Saturn was a big success in Japan right? For the longest time it was going toe to toe with the Playstation until it was clear that the platform was dying in the other regions. Somewhat similar to M$ status in Japan.

 

[ravingloon]

Nothing came close? I thougt Sega Ralley looked BETTER than Ridge Racer Revolution at the time. The initial developement tools SUCKED, and by the time they'd gotten their act together, it was dead in the west. Virtua Fighter 2 is another game. Thought it looked better than Tekken 2.

 

[StoOgE]

I am aware, I imported a ton of great games (SFA3, Radiant Silvergun) that never made it here after the system died here... In fact, as I recall it was beating the playstation in Japan for a good long while... of course, most of its great games were 2d, and Sega's niche games played very well over there... throw in the RAM upgrade and the system simply played better to that demographic.

however, if you recall those system launches were not very good. the gaming industry was coming out of a very rough time as the 1 bit generation came to a crashing hault with companies going out of buisness over single titles that cost a ton just for the carts.. so while the saturn kept up (it even kept up in the US for the first year) both consoles sold like shit at first by todays standards.

However, its simply not the case that the Saturn was as strong, overall, as the Xbox is now, especially in mindshare... the Sega Saturn elicited giggles, the Xbox stopped doing that shortly after its launch... we are comparing apples to oranges here, and justifying it because they are both fruit and sorta roundish.

 

[StoOgE]

Nothing came close? I thougt Sega Ralley looked BETTER than Ridge Racer Revolution at the time. The initial developement tools SUCKED, and by the time they'd gotten their act together, it was dead in the west. Virtua Fighter 2 is another game. Thought it looked better than Tekken 2.

Sure, but that was the second Xmas, the console had been out for more than a year (if memory serves).. those games did look good (Virtua cop 2 was the other of those 3 games that looked good).. but by that point, it was too late. The launch versions of Virtua Fighter and Daytona were stuck in the back of peoples minds... at the same time, by then EA had dropped support, third party games still looked horrible and no one wanted to deal with the dual processors.

Another issue I ignored was launch cost.. didnt the Saturn launch at 400 or 500 dollars? I know the Playstation cost less than the Saturn by about 100 bucks. I would be shocked if the next round of consoles costs most than 300 bucks at launch.

 

[COCKLES]

Sega just ran out of money in the end. If they hadn't of had the disasters of Nomad, 32X and their other fruity bombs things might have been different.

 

[ravingloon]

I'm not saying the lauch titles left a lot to be desired, but your reply made it sound like the system was vastly inferior and if both were maxed out, Saturn was still vastly inferior. It was an incompetent launch and development software, the machine itself was pretty nice.

 

[jarrod]

Sega Rally and VF2 were Christmas 1995 releases worldwide. They were 1st year games in America (launch was May 1995 here), and they handily blew away any comparable efforts on PlayStation that year.