In March 1995 Sega of America announced that the Saturn would be released on September 2 in time for the Christmas holiday. Sega was in a race to beat the highly anticipated Sony Playstation which was also due out in September. However, despite the announcement, Sega surprised consumers in May, when a supply of 30,000 Saturns were released in American stores. Retail price on the system was $399. Included with the console was an eight button control pad and a CD-ROM of the arcade hit Virtua Fighter. Sega made the console available with no game for $349.

Also caught off guard by the early release of the Saturn were third party game developers. With no warning time, a minimal amount of software titles were distributed in the first months of the Saturn's American release.

Sega reported good initial sales for the Saturn but the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 systems soon dominated the market. By March of 1998, Sega of America had reported losses of $309 million. Sega continued to sell software for the Saturn but began concentrating on the release of the 128-bit Dreamcast system, which was scheduled for release in Japan on November 20, 1998, and in America during the autumn of 1999.

By Dave Beuscher
AllGame.com


FMV GAMES FOR SEGA SATURN

Corpse Killer

Double Switch

Quarterback Attack