Sega's Saturn launch stunned retailers — and handed the PlayStation the market

The Sega Saturn, released in 1994 in Japan and 1995 in North America, was Sega's attempt to follow up the successful Genesis. The console used an unusual dual-CPU design — two Hitachi SH-2 processors at 28.6 MHz each — which promised power but was notoriously difficult to program. Yu Suzuki, Sega's top developer, estimated that only 1 in 100 programmers could get full performance out of it.

Sega of America launched the Saturn at a surprise event in May 1995, four months ahead of the announced September date, at $399.99 with only six launch games. The early launch angered retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, who had prepared for the September launch; KB Toys refused to carry the Saturn at all. The PlayStation launched in September at $299 with a superior library of third-party games and quickly took the lead.

The Saturn's third-party support collapsed as developers found the architecture hard to work with, while Sony's low licensing fees and easy tools attracted them in droves. Sega canceled its planned 3D Sonic game, Sonic X-treme, in early 1997, eliminating any hope of a killer app. The Saturn sold 9.26 million units worldwide against the PlayStation's 102 million. Sega reported a net loss of ¥35.6 billion ($270 million) in fiscal 1998 and withdrew from the North American console market for the Saturn in March 1998.