The Combatants: PlayStation vs. Saturn
The weapons: Ridge Racer (PlayStation), Virtua Fighter 2 (Sega Saturn), Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation), Nights: Into Dreams (Sega Saturn), Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation)
The trash talk: "Fly, plaything, fly." - Voice-over from 1996 Sega TV commercial, as a PlayStation drops from a building
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The battle: Executing a first strike (sorta) worked before, so Sega did it again with the Saturn - only this time it was a surprise attack. The machine launched at industry event E3 1995 and went on sale more or less in the middle of the company's May press conference, leaving Sony fans to wait four long months until September. Just one problem: Saturn was only available in a handful of select stores, which alienated all the other retailers who weren't on Sega's buddy list. Suddenly all the retailers who felt burned by stocking unsold Sega CD and 32X units while waiting for the Saturn shifted alliances. Sony had a perfect translation of Namco's Ridge Racer and an exclusive deal for Mortal Kombat 3, if anybody wanted to wait. A lot of people did.
Amid reports that the Saturn's myriad processors were tough for programmers to tame, Sega kept up its sugar-rush marketing push; commercials went as far into muckraking as they could without actually verbalizing "PlayStation is ass." If you want to point a finger to exactly where the gloves came off, it was during this fight.
Stranger still, it started spilling over from the marketing campaigns and into the boardrooms. The industry had grown to the point where magazines like Next Generation could chronicle the game industry as the business it was, featuring interviews with CEOs like 3DO's Trip Hawkins and Sony's Steve Race. That's how you get priceless, meanspirited quotes like Kelly Flock's desperate attempt to discredit his football competition. Suddenly, the olden days of "we say our product is more fun, and we think you'll enjoy it more" look quaint.
The spoiler: You can point to 3DO or the Atari Jaguar, but you shouldn't. The Nintendo 64 really unbalanced this race with over 32 million units sold worldwide. Neither Sony nor Sega wanted you to look directly at it, with its archaic cartridge technology, but the truth was gamers liked cartridges: they were reliable, they were fast to load, kids didn't scratch them, and they were the only things that played Super Mario 64.
The victor: No wonder Sega screamed. By the time the PlayStation was done, it had sold well over 100 million consoles worldwide and defined video gaming for the new - or rather, the "next" -- generation. Meanwhile, despite loyalty in Japan, Sega was unable to produce a quality Sonic the Hedgehog game for Saturn and those retailers in the US were still super-pissed. Sega moved a little over 9 million Saturns worldwide, and just 1.3 million in the US. It's a valuable lesson: Keep the stores happy, and don't rabbit-punch your own customers into submission with multiple incompatible platforms.
