The current EA executive remembers the damage the Saturn caused.
While they're still kicking as a game developer, the "fall" of Sega as a hardware manufacturer has long been a touchy subject for some fans who grew up playing Sega consoles exclusively and still have a hard time believing that such a mighty company could fall so hard within the span of a decade.
There are few in the video game industry with as much perspective on what happened to Sega during its' final days as current EA executive Peter Moore who had previously served as a high-ranking official for Sega during the company's last efforts as a console maker. In a recent episode of IGN Unfiltered, Moore stated that he blames the Sega Saturn, in part, for the fall of the company's console line:
"When I first arrived at Sega, that was our first challenge," said Moore in the interview. "How do we somewhat apologize for the Saturn and then really position a fresh start with the Dreamcast?"
Moore went on to state that the market failures of the Saturn were so great, that some within Sega felt that it might be best to leave the Sega name off of the Dreamcast entirely. However, Moore's research found that there was "still tremendous good will" towards the Sega brand at that time and that the company would be better off including their name with the Dreamcast.
Nevertheless, the Dreamcast failed to save the company's console efforts, and Sega was forced to make the transition to a third-party developer just a few years after its release.
Moore's focus on the Sega Saturn as the turning point for Sega's fall is a fairly accurate one from a strict sales standpoint. The Sega Saturn sold somewhere between 9.5 million units and 17 million units depending on which source you believe, which is nothing compared to the 102.49 million units the Sony PlayStation sold and the 32.93 million N64s that Nintendo moved.
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