I think there’s enough anecdotal evidence to draw on to suggest this was almost certainly is the case. Surprisingly there isn’t a tremendous amount of information available today on how much the individual components cost. One of the things said about the Saturn is that it was an expensive bit of kit to build, so expensive in fact that Sega ended up selling it significantly below cost. On the cost of building the Saturn – Next Generation, August 1995
That couldn’t be the case though, surely? Advertisements I think the Sega Guys are right to suggest the decision must have been bigger than Bernie Stolar: even if we remove the complicated politics between Sega’s Japanese and American arms, the decision to effectively remove a company from its main marketplace for two years is so self evidently suicidal that there must be something else going on, surely? Logically the conclusion would have to be that, as Sega were a business, they thought that simply releasing games for the Saturn would cost them more than killing the platform and starting fresh. The more I thought about this the more I thought we were collectively missing something. Potential system sellers were cancelled, moved to the Dreamcast or – in the case of third parties – moved to the PlayStationsphere exclusively. The likes Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force 3 were well placed to tap into Final Fantasy fever had they received the correct marketing nudge. Ha.) The Sega Guys make the argument for why it was wrong to abandon the Saturn almost too well: though far from threatening the now-rampant PlayStation, the Saturn had seen an increase in sales through the end of 19.
In an excellent episode of their podcast (and not just because it name checks my good self. Appointed as the head of Sega of America after maverick leader Tom Kalinske left the company, Bernie Stolar is widely credited with being behind a number of key mistakes – not least killing off the Sega Saturn in the West. Among Sega fans there are few figures hated as much as Bernie Solar.
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