The Sega Saturn may be considered a failure in North America, but it sold very well in Japan, taking second place above the Nintendo 64 and below the Sony PlayStation. However, Final Fantasy 7 may have driven sales up even further for the system had negotiations gone according to plan.
The Sega Saturn, while it had a wide variety of games, was lacking in specific genres like RPGs. It turns out that SEGA was working to change that, though, as a retrospective from a longtime employee indicates the company's interest in negotiations with Square for Final Fantasy 7's release on the system. Video game news source VGDensetsu has published a summary of an article written by SEGA creative director Yosuke Okunari, translated into English, which recounts the Final Fantasy obsession of RPG players at the time, and how securing the rights to release the next Final Fantasy on the Saturn would have driven sales en masse.
In 1996, SEGA's efforts with the Saturn pivoted to a more general audience, and as such genre expansions came along with the shift in focus. Many RPGs for the system were released that year, and more were in negotiation for a Saturn release. Unfortunately for SEGA, Square Enix ultimately decided to release Final Fantasy 7 on PlayStation the following year. In response, SEGA would release Panzer Dragoon Saga to compete, but it would take two years to do so and by that time the PlayStation had already cemented its market dominance as the fifth generation drew to a close.
Shocked but undeterred, the developers at SEGA's studios continued to expand the Saturn's library, starting the year off with sports simulation games before later releasing acclaimed titles like NiGHTS Into Dreams, Dragon Force and Sakura Wars, with Sakura Wars being a series SEGA would later revive for modern audiences. Dragon Force and Sakura Wars had particularly troubled development cycles, as Sega had originally outsourced them but later brought the development in-house to avoid concerns with the outsourced company's management.
1996 was a major year for the Saturn, with a large amount of landmark releases, but ultimately it would remain second to the PlayStation in Japan and dead last sales-wise in North America despite major titles like Resident Evil receiving Saturn ports. Many factors including a difficult development environment and an unexpected early launch contributed to the Saturn's poor sales here, but Final Fantasy 7 being a PlayStation exclusive undoubtedly drove sales of its main competition even further.
Even 27 years later, the Sega Saturn continues to have interesting stories brought to light about its surprisingly innovative game library, the many factors that contributed to its low sales, and the releases that could have been. No Final Fantasy game ever made it to the Saturn, but other classic RPGs were released exclusively for the system such as Panzer Dragoon Saga and Shining Force III, so at least SEGA's mission of bringing a wider appeal to the Saturn was accomplished in the end.
Final Fantasy 7 is available as a re-release on Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Steam and Xbox One.