Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Sega Saturn actually did very well in Japan (as Sega's best seller there) and yes, fighting games like the tons it had from both Capcom (Darkstalkers, Alpha, the Vs games) and SNK (most of their best games, as opposed to buying a Neo Geo just for - granted, arcade perfect - SNK games and paying hundreds for the system and tons for each game on top) as well as their own like the Virtua Fighter series and quirkier fighting games like Virtual On (which is actually a great port, I don't know what you're on about with saying it was bad, do you not have eyes to see the very video you linked or something, no honest unbiased review back then bashed it for its visuals other than noting the lack of true transparencies as in almost every 3D Saturn game and that it's not arcade perfect - when arcade perfect wasn't even a thing back then outside the mentioned Neo Geo) are things people do play for hundreds of hours and a big part of the reason it did well there. But you cherry picked things (well, 1 thing, lol) anyway, yes they had arcade ports (even some pretty bad ones, unlike Virtual On) but arcades are their legacy, if they can't do good arcade games they do nothing!
Yet they also adopted and had plenty home style games like three (!) Shining Force III games, Shining the Holy Ark, two Sakura Wars games, Panzer Dragoon Saga, two Dragon Force games, Legend of Oasis, Magic Knight Rayearth and 3rd party games like two (ish) Grandia games, Albert Odyssey, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, three (!) Langrisser games and Lunar: Silver Star Story to name a few in the most longform of genres as an example of how the library wasn't actually skewed as you claim. Still, arcade games aren't fad games (long running series like Virtua Fighter and still played games like Daytona USA show they were the opposite) and most of those got ported due to their popularity (some times with less than ideal results like the original Daytona port and the unfairly bashed Virtua Fighter, but they quickly improved).
Given its relative success in the region which was a much bigger portion of gaming than it is now they mainly had trouble in converting domestic success to international success despite having the same great games (obviously eventually cutting down on the translations as the market shrunk further and further in the West). From all we have heard since from actual sources rather than just Sony bought media and fanboys of the time, Dreamcast was also doing rather well, objectively, just not well enough, subjectively, for SEGA's particular circumstances. Ie, it couldn't single handedly dig them out of their pre-existing hole in time and so they pulled the plug. Basically, you have no idea what you're talking about, 5 minute google searches + ignorance + confirmation bias = afro republican threads attempting to rewrite gaming history as we know it and saw it unfold.
People who want to get informed about the Sega Saturn and its games library which is far from just Virtual On and similar (if great) games can check out (and participate in) this existing thread instead: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/neogaf-official-sega-saturn-community.1507666/
Edit: nowhere did I claim Virtual On sold millions (but over 300k copies in Japan isn't a bad number, what are you even trying to show besides your ignorance?), only that it wasn't a bad game or port as you claimed and that games like it, arcade games, fighting games, competitive games, all the games you probably can't play for shit and call them fads, weren't actually bad and a minus but a plus for Saturn's library and sales (just as arcade series like Tekken and Ridge Racer were a plus for the PlayStation's library and sales with people still clamoring for a new Ridge Racer being made for every PlayStation console launch until very recently). It had more games than Virtual On, like the games in my very first sentence which you somehow were unable to comprehend as well as the games in the next paragraph alongside tons more in tons of different genres, how is your next post any kind of a reply to all or any of this? I also didn't say Saturn sold as good as the N64 or PS1 in Japan, yet you respond as if anyone said anything of the sort, that's just another straw man as is your usual ignorant tactic. I didn't even say it was some runaway success story, just that your arguments about the reasons it didn't do better are pure ignorant bullshit. The Sega Saturn had a diverse, quality library as proven already so no, your perception of a focus on Virtual On and other great games you may single out as examples of whatever isn't the reason it didn't do better.
Yet they also adopted and had plenty home style games like three (!) Shining Force III games, Shining the Holy Ark, two Sakura Wars games, Panzer Dragoon Saga, two Dragon Force games, Legend of Oasis, Magic Knight Rayearth and 3rd party games like two (ish) Grandia games, Albert Odyssey, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, three (!) Langrisser games and Lunar: Silver Star Story to name a few in the most longform of genres as an example of how the library wasn't actually skewed as you claim. Still, arcade games aren't fad games (long running series like Virtua Fighter and still played games like Daytona USA show they were the opposite) and most of those got ported due to their popularity (some times with less than ideal results like the original Daytona port and the unfairly bashed Virtua Fighter, but they quickly improved).
Given its relative success in the region which was a much bigger portion of gaming than it is now they mainly had trouble in converting domestic success to international success despite having the same great games (obviously eventually cutting down on the translations as the market shrunk further and further in the West). From all we have heard since from actual sources rather than just Sony bought media and fanboys of the time, Dreamcast was also doing rather well, objectively, just not well enough, subjectively, for SEGA's particular circumstances. Ie, it couldn't single handedly dig them out of their pre-existing hole in time and so they pulled the plug. Basically, you have no idea what you're talking about, 5 minute google searches + ignorance + confirmation bias = afro republican threads attempting to rewrite gaming history as we know it and saw it unfold.
People who want to get informed about the Sega Saturn and its games library which is far from just Virtual On and similar (if great) games can check out (and participate in) this existing thread instead: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/neogaf-official-sega-saturn-community.1507666/
Edit: nowhere did I claim Virtual On sold millions (but over 300k copies in Japan isn't a bad number, what are you even trying to show besides your ignorance?), only that it wasn't a bad game or port as you claimed and that games like it, arcade games, fighting games, competitive games, all the games you probably can't play for shit and call them fads, weren't actually bad and a minus but a plus for Saturn's library and sales (just as arcade series like Tekken and Ridge Racer were a plus for the PlayStation's library and sales with people still clamoring for a new Ridge Racer being made for every PlayStation console launch until very recently). It had more games than Virtual On, like the games in my very first sentence which you somehow were unable to comprehend as well as the games in the next paragraph alongside tons more in tons of different genres, how is your next post any kind of a reply to all or any of this? I also didn't say Saturn sold as good as the N64 or PS1 in Japan, yet you respond as if anyone said anything of the sort, that's just another straw man as is your usual ignorant tactic. I didn't even say it was some runaway success story, just that your arguments about the reasons it didn't do better are pure ignorant bullshit. The Sega Saturn had a diverse, quality library as proven already so no, your perception of a focus on Virtual On and other great games you may single out as examples of whatever isn't the reason it didn't do better.
Last edited: