Sega explains Saturn XBLA/PSN snub

Sega's Yosuke Okunari, producer of the upcoming XBLA and PSN Dreamcast re-releases, has explained the company's Sega Saturn snub.

In an interview with Impress Watch, the Sega man explained the decision to skip offering downloadable Saturn games was down to the global failure of console.

"The Genesis and Dreamcast are well known, but Saturn is unknown. During that period, PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were a success overseas, but to be honest Saturn was not a success. Because of this, we decided on Dreamcast," he said.

However, referencing the PlayStation 2 port of Nights, Okunari argued that Sega hasn't ignored the Saturn.

"It's not that we're ignoring Saturn I think you can see this, considering that we ported Nights Into Dreams and other titles," he said.

There may be some hope for Saturn fanatics, as Okunari stated that Sega are still considering ports of Saturn games and invited readers to share their requests.

"What we announced this time is a project where we will have consecutive releases of titles that were debuted on Dreamcast. Separate from this, we're of course thinking about ports of Saturn games. It's the same as how Sega Ages and Virtual Console were separate existences. It's not that we have no intention of porting Saturn titles, so please share your requests."

Although the Saturn wasn't a success, it gained popularity amongst 2D fighting game fanatics and was home to a number of memorable new Sega games such as the Panzer Dragoon series.

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They most likely abandoned new Saturn revival projects because of how difficult it is to emulate the hardware.

Sega Master System was even less popular over here and you see them emulating those games all the time.