Worst of all, Saturn was cursed with a toxic reputation for poor 3D performance that continues to haunt it to this day. At the 1997 E3 trade show, Sega of America president Bernie Stolar notoriously declared "Saturn is not our future," and by Christmas, Saturn was all but dead, holding only 4% of the US videogame market (source: EGM), a shocking fall from the glory days of the Genesis. Gamers also quickly embraced 3D action-adventure games like Super Mario, Tomb Raider and Goldeneye, while almost completely rejecting traditional 2D and arcade games. Reasons for this failure have been hotly debated for years, including a surprise May 1995 US launch that alienated many key retailers, an overly complex hardware design that alienated software developers, the failure and confusion surrounding Sega's 32X, an insufficient supply of sports games, and the lack of a flagship Sonic the Hedgehog title. In the West, Saturn was far less successful, selling less than four million units in the US, UK and Europe. Sega announced and released its final home console, the Dreamcast, the following year in 1998, but Saturn software continued to emerge in 1999-2000, including Street Fighter Zero 3, Dungeon & Dragons Collection and Final Fight Revenge. In 1997, Sony secured exclusive rights to Square's Final Fantasy and Enix's Dragon Quest, Japan's two biggest videogame franchises, pulling away for good. The system outsold Nintendo 64 and ran even with Playstation through 1996. In Japan, Saturn became Sega's most successful home system, selling six million units (source: Saturn no Game wa Sekai Ichi, 2000), thanks to the blockbuster arcade hits Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter 2, as well as Sega's stable of coin-op hits, original titles like Sonic Team's Nights: Into Dreams and the tactical adventures like Sakura Wars and Super Robot Wars F. It also marked the creative peak, and the popular decline, of 2D pixel-art videogames, and the terminal decline of video arcades, once the life blood of the industry. The 5th Generation was a transformative and turbulent time for the videogame industry, which saw the emergence of groundbreaking 3D polygon technology, online play and the growth of the global market. It was the direct competitor to Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64, Atari Jaguar and 3DO. It was released in Japan on November 22, 1994, the United States on and UK/Europe on July 8, 1995. (October 22, 2019) - Sega Saturn is Sega’s 32-bit home videogames console.
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