Editing Sega Saturn (section)

===North America===
The early launch of the Sega Saturn in North America meant that the console had only a handful of games available at the moment, as most third party games were slated to be completed and rolled out around the original September 2nd launch date and many successful Japanese titles were not yet imported. Third party publishers, particularly these based in North America, were angered as the surprise launch prevented them from capitalizing on the momentum inherent in an anticipated, planned release. Essentially the only software available on the shelves at launch was software released by Sega. Many within the gaming industry viewed the early launch as a calculated move to give Sega larger sales of Saturn software at the expense of independent developers.

In addition, the retailers who were not included in the early launch, most notably Wal-Mart and KB Toys, felt betrayed and some even retaliating by supporting Sega's rivals. This resulted in Sega having difficulties with these distributors for both Saturn and its successor, the [[Dreamcast]]. For example, Sega's actions so angered KB Toys that the latter refused to release the Saturn at all, and actually went as far as having some retailers remove anything Sega-related in stores to provide more retail space for the Saturn's competition instead.

By the time of the PlayStation's release on 9 September 1995, the Saturn had sold approximately 80,000 systems. The PlayStation sold over 100,000 units upon release in the U.S., and Sega's dreams of early domination of the new generation of hardware were quickly forgotten.

From 1995–1997, the Saturn became the "other" system, running a distant third behind the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation. However, it was the preferred system for many arcade gamers who eagerly anticipated Sega's classic games being ported to the system. Sales of the Saturn would generally spike as new arcade ports were released, then die off shortly thereafter. By the end of 1997, with Sega publicly saying that it would develop a successor, console sales and released games dropped dramatically.

Saturn's failure caused Sega to lose $267.9&nbsp;million&nbsp;USD and lay off 30% of its workforce.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=Sega Dreamcast|url=http://www.g4tv.com/gamemakers/episodes/1259/Sega_Dreamcast.html|series=Game Makers|network=G4|city=Los Angeles|airdate=20 August 2008|number=302}}</ref>