Sega had a ~3 year hardware life cycle, so a failure like the Saturn would be replaced more quickly (Saturn launched november 1994 and Dreamcast launched 4 years later, but generally Sega had an addon or new console every 3 years or so). The problem was that because Sega has a 3 year hardware life cycle, their audience was not as trusting, their developers were too spread out over so many hardware projects and arcades, and ultimately failure after failure, without the conservative approach that Nintendo takes to spending, left Sega without the capital to ride a successful product like the Dreamcast.
Nintendo was able to learn from the Wii U, no, the Switch is not a direct successor to the Wii U, as many people like to think, the Switch is the natural result of Nintendo's handheld and console hardware teams merging, and the technology leap mobile had made from smart phones. Nintendo wanted you to think of the Wii U as just a box, a delivery system for the games, but the Switch dock is exactly that, just a box that you plug your handheld into, so it can become a traditional home console. The Switch also uses every piece of tech that Nintendo has used up to this point, except for the Wii U's one defining feature, asynchronous gameplay via the Gamepad and TV being used at the same time. All other aspects of Nintendo's previous hardware consoles, is actually captured pretty well inside the Switch, heck with Labo VR, it can even replicate the Virtual boy.
Saturn fractured Sega's hardware branches, while their North American branch was making Neptune (A 32X standalone system). Sega Japan built the Saturn, meanwhile: "a successor to the Sega Saturn was being considered by the firm even before the console had been released." Sega Saturn was never something Sega was happy with, it was always chasing something more powerful, and finally got that with the Dreamcast. Had the Dreamcast actually launched world wide in September 1998 instead of 1998 in Japan and 1999 in the west, I think Sega would have had enough capital to survive the launch of the other 3 consoles, Sega may have bowed out a year or two with 4 or 5 years of Dreamcast support, something that I (who bought a Dreamcast on launch as my first and only Sega console) would have appreciated. Who knows what could have happened, but Saturn was a problem that killed any chance of Dreamcast actually working.
Hypothetical warning:
There is only one argument that I think can be made to Wii U being a bigger failure, and that is again timing with console launches. Everything about the Switch was possible in 2015, the Tegra X1 launched Spring of 2015, had the Wii U not have been on the market. We actually saw at E3 2015 that the company gave up on the Wii U, just watch their digital event and tell me they weren't trying to avoid the Wii U as a product. If in 2008 instead of planning the Wii U, they just planned to release a Wii Pro, a HD capable Wii console, they could have extended the Wii's life another 2 years with a Wii Pro release in 2010 and launching games across both 3DS and Wii Pro in 2012-2014, with a Switch launch in Spring 2015, on the launch titles Splatoon, MarioKart 8 and DKTF, with a holiday Mario Maker.
Ramble warning:
This argument is on the assumption that with an early launch for the Switch, it could have competed even better against the base XB1 and PS4, which didn't have their midgen refreshes until ~18 and ~30 months after the Switch's launch, if Switch had launched in 2015, it would have a successor coming in 2021 most likely, putting the Switch successor in line with next gen consoles, instead of a likely 2023 launch, putting it right in the middle of the PS5/XBnext's life cycle. It would have also meant we got breath of the wild in late 2016, not really changing much here, but you can absolutely start to see the benefits of being more instep with the current consoles. It would have also changed the life sales total of the Switch, likely in a positive way, giving it's current sales another 35-40 Million, or doubling it's 25 month mark of ~35 Million consoles. Having 75 to 80 Million Switch consoles on the market, would set up the Switch successor in 2021 a lot more than the current Switch's ~40 Million consoles is setting up the successor's 2023 launch. Yes more developers will be on board, but if Switch was part of the current generation's life cycle, it would mean that it's massive success could more seemlessly fit into next generation, right now there are developers and gamers who don't know if Switch will continue to be a success when PS5 and XBnext launch, rather than everyone starting the generation off close together, and on the success and failures of their previous platforms right behind them.
Nintendo was able to learn from the Wii U, no, the Switch is not a direct successor to the Wii U, as many people like to think, the Switch is the natural result of Nintendo's handheld and console hardware teams merging, and the technology leap mobile had made from smart phones. Nintendo wanted you to think of the Wii U as just a box, a delivery system for the games, but the Switch dock is exactly that, just a box that you plug your handheld into, so it can become a traditional home console. The Switch also uses every piece of tech that Nintendo has used up to this point, except for the Wii U's one defining feature, asynchronous gameplay via the Gamepad and TV being used at the same time. All other aspects of Nintendo's previous hardware consoles, is actually captured pretty well inside the Switch, heck with Labo VR, it can even replicate the Virtual boy.
Saturn fractured Sega's hardware branches, while their North American branch was making Neptune (A 32X standalone system). Sega Japan built the Saturn, meanwhile: "a successor to the Sega Saturn was being considered by the firm even before the console had been released." Sega Saturn was never something Sega was happy with, it was always chasing something more powerful, and finally got that with the Dreamcast. Had the Dreamcast actually launched world wide in September 1998 instead of 1998 in Japan and 1999 in the west, I think Sega would have had enough capital to survive the launch of the other 3 consoles, Sega may have bowed out a year or two with 4 or 5 years of Dreamcast support, something that I (who bought a Dreamcast on launch as my first and only Sega console) would have appreciated. Who knows what could have happened, but Saturn was a problem that killed any chance of Dreamcast actually working.
Hypothetical warning:
There is only one argument that I think can be made to Wii U being a bigger failure, and that is again timing with console launches. Everything about the Switch was possible in 2015, the Tegra X1 launched Spring of 2015, had the Wii U not have been on the market. We actually saw at E3 2015 that the company gave up on the Wii U, just watch their digital event and tell me they weren't trying to avoid the Wii U as a product. If in 2008 instead of planning the Wii U, they just planned to release a Wii Pro, a HD capable Wii console, they could have extended the Wii's life another 2 years with a Wii Pro release in 2010 and launching games across both 3DS and Wii Pro in 2012-2014, with a Switch launch in Spring 2015, on the launch titles Splatoon, MarioKart 8 and DKTF, with a holiday Mario Maker.
Ramble warning:
This argument is on the assumption that with an early launch for the Switch, it could have competed even better against the base XB1 and PS4, which didn't have their midgen refreshes until ~18 and ~30 months after the Switch's launch, if Switch had launched in 2015, it would have a successor coming in 2021 most likely, putting the Switch successor in line with next gen consoles, instead of a likely 2023 launch, putting it right in the middle of the PS5/XBnext's life cycle. It would have also meant we got breath of the wild in late 2016, not really changing much here, but you can absolutely start to see the benefits of being more instep with the current consoles. It would have also changed the life sales total of the Switch, likely in a positive way, giving it's current sales another 35-40 Million, or doubling it's 25 month mark of ~35 Million consoles. Having 75 to 80 Million Switch consoles on the market, would set up the Switch successor in 2021 a lot more than the current Switch's ~40 Million consoles is setting up the successor's 2023 launch. Yes more developers will be on board, but if Switch was part of the current generation's life cycle, it would mean that it's massive success could more seemlessly fit into next generation, right now there are developers and gamers who don't know if Switch will continue to be a success when PS5 and XBnext launch, rather than everyone starting the generation off close together, and on the success and failures of their previous platforms right behind them.
