No they were not.
People are trying to apply their retrospective opinions to the past and this is why people always factor in problems that, while may not have done Sega any favors, or not why Sega failed. The Saturn failed when the PS1 was having medium to large hits every other month with features games that were blowing up software sale at retail, while Segas feature games were not doing the opposite, it failed when the they couldn't get Genesis owners to move over and they leaked elsewhere, and Nintendo with the N64 managed to get SNES players to move to the N64 and for a a couple years, buy both, without much leakage, I'm talking about the west btw not Japan.
All you have to do is look at Sega's actions. Near the end of the year of the NA launch when Sega almost seemed competitive and Japan was doing well, Sega HQ pushed to use shipment numbers, already started making deals to bring games to other platforms like PC, and approved several pet projects to try and future proof the Saturn toward the competition because they clearly didn't like the numbers and where the trends were heading. This was late 1995, Sega has already lost it's lead in the US as the number 1 console manufacturer and had sunk a lot of money into failed projects before Crash Bandicoot even came out which was the first huge mainstream release on the console in the west that helped quickly push 2D to the backside. The N64 launched in the west later and cut Sega off. They had nothing by October to stay competitive and had already hemorrhaged sales and alienated older Sega fans who weren't interest in several of Sega's new properties.
1995 PS1:
- Battle Arena Toshinden Published By Sony timed before going cross platform
- Ridge Racer
- EA PGA Tour 1996
- Mortal Kombat 3 (Timed exclusive)
- WWF Wrestlemania (Timed Exclusive)
- XCOM
- Twisted Metal
- Tekken
- Wipeout
- Shockwave Assault
- NBA in the Zone
- Loaded (Timed exclusive)
- Primal Rage (timed exclusive)
- ESPN Games/1Extreme
- Jumping Flash
1995 Saturn:
- Clockwork Knight
- Daytona
- Bug
- Virtua Racing
- Virtua Cop
- Shinobi Legions
- Virtual Hydlide
- Astal
- Panzer Draggon
- Sega Rally
- Virtua Fighter
- Virtua Fighter Remix
- Virtua Fighter 2
- Clockwork Knight 2
- Double Switch
The difference was staggering, especially if you remove retrospective lens going back to the library, at the time this features lineup wasn't running the engine. Genesis fans actually has more connection and familiarity with the games the PlayStation had in 1995 than the Saturn, which also included in the west, US specifically, 3 Virtua Fighter games less than 8 months. People weren't interested in the direction Sega was going at the time and Sega knew this because they were trying to get ahead of the reality setting in, but they couldn't manage it.
The first few months of 1996 before August wasn't helping either:
Early 1996 PS1:
- Decent
- Return Fire
- Resident Evil
- Toshinden 2 (timed exclusive)
- Namco Museum volume 1
- Darkstalkers 1
- Starblade
- NBA Live 96
- Jumping Flash 2
Early 1996 Saturn:
- Hang-On GP
- Guradian Heroes
- Night Warriors Darkstalkers Rev
- Panzer Dragoon 2
- X-Men Children of Atom
- Golden Axe the duel
- Legend of Oasis
- Virtua Fighter Kids
Before someone mentions niche games I didn't include I'm only going with games Sega and Sony featured games that sold to an audience. While many will go back to the Saturn and perhaps regret being too hard on it and may be fans of several games on it even in early releases, most Sega fans from before the Saturn still to this day don't have much interest in the Saturn at all. If we were back in 1995 and you were a fan of the Genesis Sega basically pushed you aside and their choice of games didn't work. Sega launch in NA in May 1995, and until December they couldn't prepare ahead for the next year and beyond to convince Genesis owners to buy a Saturn. The appeal and sales power of the PS1 lineup was a big problem back then, and outside of fans looking back in retrospect, still is a problem even among Sega fans of the Genesis in the west. There was a complete severance between the two groups of Sega fans back then.
People can talk about the Saturn being hard to develop for, lacking in some areas of 3D, even Sega spending money on further pet projects, but the Saturn failed before any of that. It was being pushed out of the market before Crash and the big boys released on the PS1, and was finished when the N64 launched and kept it up by getting SNES players to upgrade on the other side. At that point there was nothing they could do to reverse the trend.
I'm sure if Sega could have released the Dreamcast a year earlier they would have. They still got it out pretty early though because Sega already knew ahead of time it was pointless fighting to save the Saturn. Every other problem people bring up regarding the Saturn is just window dressing.
I believe he was referring to the US not Japan, which is why he listed games such as Golden-Eye. N64 did still lose around 40% of the SNES market but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as Japan.