Poor old Sega Saturn. In another timeline, one where Sega hadn't spectacularly mishandled its launch, this might be the machine fondly remembered as the 32-bit champion.
With Sony's imminent entry into the market, at E3 1995 Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske announced that the Saturn would be available THAT DAY — four months ahead of the American schedule and at $399. He thought it would get a jump on the then market upstarts and kill their PlayStation stone dead before it was released. Instead, Sega managed to simultaneously blindside and completely hack off their retail partners and key third-party developers, none of whom were ready to start shipping product.
When the PlayStation did arrive, it did so with more support from developers, smoother 3D and a lower price. Game, set and match.
The tragedy is that the Saturn was genuinely excellent at what it did best. The hardware, built around twin Hitachi SH-2 processors, was notoriously tricky to code for — developers who mastered it produced some stunning results, but most didn't bother when the PlayStation was so much more approachable. In the UK the Saturn launched in July 1995 at a punishing £399. In Japan, however, the story was a little different: the Saturn dominated the home market for much of its early life, partly on the strength of spectacular 2D arcade conversions. Titles like Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon, Nights into Dreams and the exceptional Radiant Silvergun demonstrated what the hardware could do in the right hands.
Sega's own Sonic Team had nothing ready for launch — Sonic X-treme, intended as the system's flagship title, was cancelled mid-development in chaos and embarrassment. Sega never fully recovered. By 1998 the Saturn was discontinued in the West, and the Dreamcast was being rushed to fill the void. The Saturn remains a cult favourite today, especially among fans of 2D fighting and shoot-em-up games, who consider its library one of the finest ever assembled for the genre.