Should Sega have released the Dreamcast later and focused on the Saturn?

Sega couldn't compete with Sony's advertising machine, imo.

Back then the PlayStation was literally everywhere while only a few knew about the Saturn.

There was nothing wrong about Saturn other than being problematic to develop for. (which also applys to PS2 but that didn't stop it from getting the most support)

And even if they had heavier advertising and if the system got a "proper" Sonic game and if SoA released some of the Japan-only games, I think it still wouldn't fare much better than it did.

I mean, even Sega fans were jumping ship in favour of the PS.

The Saturn was kept alive only artificially in it's later years.

DC did quite good considering how little time it was supported and I think they could have supported it longer than they did but they felt they couldn't compete with three titans (i.e. Sony, MS and Nintendo) and retreated to 3rd party. (which was their saving grace at the time as the company was in a bad financial situation due to past mistakes)

I actually believe it, but the other way around: I think the Dreamcast should have been focused on more.

Everywhere but in Japan, the Saturn had already lost the console battle. Both PS1 and N64 were doing much better. While it would have been nice for the existing fanbase to have a longer console lifespan, they just weren't getting enough new Saturn owners while the PS1 and N64 consoles were selling.

The Dreamcast, however, had a much too short lifespan. When the plug was pulled on it, it was still selling. And many developers were in the middle of developing games when Sega made the announcement. There's a long list of games in development that you can find if you Google it. I know many people believe the PS2 would have crushed it, and they might be right, but it would have been nice to see play out.

agreed^^^

Saturn was lost ( apart from in Japan) for a long time

i remember seeing virtually no Saturn games around, obviously in different territories it might be different, but if Sega waited any longer on the Saturn it would of folded i think before DC got released!

the games industry is a business remember, not very wise to flog a dead horse and the Saturn was very much dead when Sega left it. Just because it had some cool games that people still enjoy to this day doesnt make it a smart move to continue on with it at the time.

i think also some people get caught up with the romance of a machine like the Saturn. It gains credibility over time and people start thinking its cool. fair enough i get that

but remember at the time EVERYONE left it for psx and nintendo

What really buried Saturn was Sega's debut of the thing. They literally announced it, like all companies do, before the masses at the CES then said at the end: "Oh and by the way, it's already in stores now".

The media had no opportunity to hype its arrival, to build a proper console war.  Worse still they burned bridges in the process by leaving out key distributors in the process.  Kay-Bee stores literally dumped all of Sega's stuff and refused to carry anything from them again.  Factor in Sony's media machine that the Playstation would become and really the Saturn was buried in the US right from the get-go.  And I was an adopter who had to make the choice at launch and actually chose the Saturn over the Playstation.

Dreamcast couldn't undo the damage Sega had already caused to themselves by then and this isn't even taking into account the disaster that the Genesis would inspire in later years with add-ons and failed support there.  It was all about burnt bridges.

I don't know if focusing on the saturn would have been a good idea. It strikes me as a lost cause.

The real probekms with the Dreamcast were that it was more of an intergeneration console than a full member of the next generation, an consumer confidence was shaken after the Saturn. So maybe waiting to release it so it could compete against the next gen would have been better.

well I think it was a decent decision to release the DC relatively early, what I think Sega did wrong was that they basically abandoned the Saturn too early, they announce its discontinuation early, which causes developers to leave the system , and they themselves stopped releasing games for it by mid 1998 in the west, meaning that for over a year there was no Sega console, or any new Sega games on the market

so basically, the shift to the Dreamcast wasn't a bad choice, but the way they transitioned to it was flawed.

SEGA got themselves into a really poor situation. Third party developers and consumers didn't trust the brand as much as they had during the glory days of the Genesis/Mega Drive. SEGA had already lost thanks to the sega CD/32x addons. They were between a rock and a hard place. They could have continued to support a failing Console or they could have chosen to kill the console early a support the DC. Both options were bad for SEGA.

The biggest issue here was neither Saturn or Dreamcast, it was segacd and 32x.Heirren

[QUOTE="Heirren"]The biggest issue here was neither Saturn or Dreamcast, it was segacd and 32x.StaticOnTV

sega did everything right with the dreamcast and everything wrong with the saturn. the saturn had 8% marketshare in 1997. that means a system is dead. simple as that

Nope what hurt sega was a big combination of things starting with game gear,      6 aas who had time and money for that ,       

the 2 add ons definatelly left their mark , i dont need to talk about that but what really got me was when sega announced the saturn they basically went like this ---here everyone heres our next system -- -the saturn    ,,,    ,  showed off games ,    ,,, price announced,  ------  oh by the way -- its already in stores at this very minute , thus giving no one time to preorder or prepare they had to have the money there and then ,  no body knew about saturn until it was too late! 

No. The Saturn was dead in the water. It had absolutely no hope of catching up to the N64, let alone the Playstation. And as previously stated, retailers wouldnt carry it because Sega were dicks about who they would let sell the console. They had to start fresh. As for the Dreamcast, it would have been interesting to see if they could have held on another year or two. There was a really cool looking horror game (Agartha) in the works for it by the same guys who made Toy Commander - No Cliche. Check it out on Unseen64.com.