From the moment Sega announced that they were discontinuing the Saturn, fans all over North America cried foul. "We want more games," fans shouted. "The Saturn is still viable! Bernie Stolar is the antichrist!" I was one of those people. But once I thought about it, maybe it was time to pull the plug. Maybe Stolar was right when he said, "...the Saturn isn't our future."

For those uninformed readers, Bernie Stolar is the newly appointed head of Sega of America. He came from Sony, where he was one of the people who worked on Sony's launch campaign.

However, Stolar wasn't the one to blame for Saturn's failure. He's the one who enthused it. The Saturn was down for the count long before Stolar came aboard a year and a half ago. Spring, 1995. The industry was buzzing about September 9th, when Sony and Sega would release their new machines. Sega surprised most by bumping Saturn's launch up to April. Sega's honchos told the gaming public that this would be a "limited release", and that the "Saturn-day" September 9 release date was to be when there would be enough Saturns for us all.

Pretty good move. Too bad it backfired.

Many retail managers didn't know what to do with this new product. In some cases, several Toys R Us managers didn't even know it was coming out until it showed up with some banners. And official product information didn't arrive until a month after that. The gaming public and die-hard Sega-holics knew what the Saturn could do, but your average person didn't. Imagine, walking into a store. You see all these banners and posters for a new system. There's an employee near you. You ask the employee about the system. "It's Sega's new game machine," they tell you. You press on for more info. Like games and peripherals. "We got this Clockwork Knight game, and Virtua Fighter. I think some more games will be out soon." Would you drop 4 c- notes for it? Didn't think so.

On top of that, Sega's "limited release" cut out some retail markets. Kay-Bee wouldn't carry the Saturn after being cut out of the action from jump. Several other retailers flirted with the idea, also.

So between April and September, Sega pissed off retailers and late sending information to retailers. No big thing, normally. Things like this happen when launching new products. Unfortunately for Sega, Sony was breathing down their neck. Sony made sure that stores had information on the PlayStation early. When I worked at Toys R Us, they told us in JULY that the PSX was expected to be a huge seller. We had literature available for customers with plenty of pretty pictures. All the employees who worked in the video games knew about Tohshinden, Ridge Racer, Jumping Flash, and MK3. Saturns still sold well, but people were lining up to pre-order PlayStations

Sony also launched a HUGE advertising campaign. There were ads on TV, in magazines, you name it. Many people saw the games and said, "I have to have that. It looks soo cool!" Stores were inundated with requests for PSX info, which made stores tell customers that the only way to guarantee a PSX was to pre-order. Many stores would be receiving enough PSXs to cover pre- orders, which made more people pre-order. And so on and so on and so on...

Then SaturnDay came.
There were long lines at stores. Many places opened early to deal with the extra traffic. I arrived at Software Ect. around 7:30 AM to pick up my Sony. By 9:30, there were 50 more people in line. Everyone wanted a Sony. Saturns were still available later on in the day. The first big battle of the next generation system wars. Sega was trounced by Sony. And, a year later, Nintendo launched their system, which forced the Saturn in to 3rd place, and eventually, oblivion.