XPost: alt.games.video.xbox, alt.games.video.sony-playstation2,    
   lt.games.video.sony-playstation3   
   XPost: microsoft.public.xbox   
   From: weaponx013@yahoo.com   
      
   Doug Jacobs wrote:   
   > In alt.games.video.xbox Scott H  wrote:   
   >   
   >>       Sure, it wasn't for long, but it was doing well.  You and I both   
   >> know that Final Fantasy 7 moving over to the PS1 was the turning point   
   >> in its life cycle.  My only point is that the Saturn was not only viable   
   >> but successful enough to demonstrate that it was not an intrinsically   
   >> inferior product.  What do you think would have happened if SEGA had   
   >> been able to "convince" Square to make FF7 exclusively for the Saturn?   
   >   
   > Knowing Sega?  The game would have been brought out in Japan, but not   
   > exported to the US or Europe.  This would have basically prevented the RPG   
   > revolution that  was one of the strengths of the PS1 and PS2.  In   
   > addition, similar "Japan-centric" games like Katamari Damacy wouldn't have   
   > had a chance to make it in the US or Europe.   
   >   
   > Even if FF7 HAD come out for the Saturn and actually got released in the   
   > US, I doubt that the Saturn would have managed to surive in the US against   
   > the onslaught of US sports titles, which I recall going to the   
   > Playstation, not the Saturn or Dreamcast.  One of the reasons FF7 did do   
   > so well wasn't because RPG fans bought a Playstation to get it, but   
   > because other folks who had a Playstation for other reasons (sports) heard   
   > about the game and gave it a try.  Some liked it, some didn't, but FF7   
   > definitely helped drive the RPG from niche to mainstream genre in the US.   
   >   
   > Had FF7 been on the Saturn, I doubt many American Playstation owners would   
   > have gone and bought a Saturn just to try it out.   
   >   
      
         Okay, so there are obviously too many theoretical variables to   
   consider before saying flatly that FF7 would have made the same   
   difference for either system.  For the record though, Sony was against   
   Japan-centric games being released in the States too, which is one of   
   the reasons we don't have Working Designs anymore.  I have also heard it   
   theorized, since we're theorizing, that the SNES's RPG library was what   
   brought *Square* RPGs into the mainstream in the US.  If that is true,   
   and sales numbers would demonstrate whether it is, then FF7 would have   
   affected any system a very similar way.   
      
      
   --   
   Scott   
      
   http://www.gamepilgrimage.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)