Comment on What If History Had Taken a Different Path?
CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 1 week agoEven developing the next generation isn’t a guarantee of success.
The Commodore 128 was a failure. It was far superior to the 64, but they made it backwards compatible by literally embedding a Commodore 64 inside. Software developers just kept developing for the 64.
On the other hand, backward compatibility has worked well for Nintendo and Sony.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Oh yes, the 32X was one of the things that killed Sega. It wasn’t the only thing.
The Sega Saturn, as beloved a console it is with fans now, was deeply flawed. Because Sega couldn’t make up their minds whether to stay with 2D sprite hardware or to go all-in on 3D (as the PlayStation and N64 did), they ended up doing the worst compromise and including hardware for both.
The result, a dual-CPU and 8 processor architecture, was complex and difficult for developers to take full advantage of. It was also very expensive at $399 US, a full $100 more than the $299 PSX.
A big issue with the Saturn’s development was that Sega of America president Tom Kalinske wanted to make a deal with Silicon Graphics but Sega of Japan refused. As we all know, Nintendo made that deal and the Nintendo 64’s powerful hardware was the result.
Sega Saturn’s failure wasn’t just a major financial setback for Sega, it really damaged Sega’s brand in the consumer eye. They went from extremely cool with the Genesis / Mega Drive to out of touch and irrelevant with the Saturn.
The fact that the Dreamcast later fixed all of the Saturn’s issues made it an awesome console, but it was too little too late!