I stopped buying console games after ~1993 until sometime in the 2010s, so my experience with the Playstation and such was visiting friends who had them. It was pretty cool, but I think Sega was doomed in North America before that.
Sega released the (backwards compatible) Genesis two years before Nintendo released the Super NES -- anecdotally, I knew far more folks with SNES than the Genesis, and my impression was that was true all over NA.
Again, Sega released the (backwards compatible) Saturn two years before Nintendo released the N64, but I didn't know anyone at the time who had a Saturn and a few who had the N64.
My recollection was that Nintendo kept promising their console "tomorrow tomorrow" so that folks wouldn't buy the Sega consoles. And I think it worked.
I don't know if this played out in Japan and Europe, but in NA I think Sega was doomed long before the original PS.
In North America, the Genesis was actually more popular than the SNES until near the tail end of the 16-bit era - 1994 or so. By that point the Genny's paltry colour palette (64 on-screen 9-bit colours) was starting to look really dated - not just next to the new 32-bit consoles but even next to the SNES, as devs started to learn how to make it sing (see: Donkey Kong Country). And the bungling of the Sega CD and especially the 32X really did a number on their brand. When all is said and done they ended up pretty much neck-and-neck, with Nintendo pulling ahead a little bit, but any way you slice it, with 18M units sold in NA, the Genesis was an enormously successful product.
The late arrival of the N64 did little to hurt the Playstation, so you can't pin Sega's failure on Nintendo's delays.
In Europe, the Genesis (and Master System!) were even bigger than they were in North America, but the Saturn still bombed and Sony still ruled the next gen.
In Japan, the Saturn was actually quite successful - more popular than the N64 actually - whereas Sega's previous systems never really caught on. But, again, it still lived in the shadow of the mighty Playstation.
And, as a nit: the Saturn wasn't backwards compatible. The Genesis was, but no one outside of Europe and Brazil cared about the Master System.
> In North America, the Genesis was actually more popular than the SNES until near the tail end of the 16-bit era
I've heard this but IME "everyone" had an SNES while only a few people had a Sega Genesis -- and many of them also had an SNES. Maybe it was just folks I knew, but I went to college in a different state and SNES was much more popular among them.
So I know what I've read but it's so far off from my (pretty broad) experience that I wonder if the stats are misleading.
> The late arrival of the N64 did little to hurt the Playstation, so you can't pin Sega's failure on Nintendo's delays.
I think Sega got caught in the middle between Sony and Nintendo (they're completely different markets now) and many folks who would have bought a Saturn instead held out for Tomorrow Tomorrow on the N64, which was what I anecdotally saw with the Genesis vs SNES.
> And, as a nit: the Saturn wasn't backwards compatible.
The NA Saturn could play Genesis games. I didn't own one so I couldn't test if it played Master System games.
> The Genesis was, but no one outside of Europe and Brazil cared about the Master System.
I feel personally attacked. ;) I don't remember why I got the Sega Master System over an NES, but it may have been for Phantasy Star.
To the original post, I agree the Sony Playstation hurt Sega significantly, but I think Sega was in trouble before the PS hit the shelves (in part because of the issues w/ the SegaCD and 32x, as you said).
Sega released the (backwards compatible) Genesis two years before Nintendo released the Super NES -- anecdotally, I knew far more folks with SNES than the Genesis, and my impression was that was true all over NA.
Again, Sega released the (backwards compatible) Saturn two years before Nintendo released the N64, but I didn't know anyone at the time who had a Saturn and a few who had the N64.
My recollection was that Nintendo kept promising their console "tomorrow tomorrow" so that folks wouldn't buy the Sega consoles. And I think it worked.
I don't know if this played out in Japan and Europe, but in NA I think Sega was doomed long before the original PS.