Dear Future Gamer,

Firstly, a comment on JDX's letter (FG32). His comments that Future Publishing's publications are not impartial has at least some truth in it. Take Edge, for example, which during the Saturn/PlayStation 'glory years' (as such) conducted the most ruthless and prolonged anti-Sega bias I have ever seen in such a magazine - with the result that I ditched my subscription in March 1997. Every Saturn game that was previewed or reviewed or even mentioned was slagged off in the same breath. Odd, considering the Saturn had a far superior software line-up to the PlayStation.

I recently had a chance to flick through a few more recent issues at a mate's house, and spotted a review of Sega Rally 2 - by all accounts a superior game. But the review was composed entirely of negative and unimportant-sounding minor points, until the end, where they were seemingly 'forced' to give it 8/10!

I believe that it was the attitude of such 'market leader' magazines that slew the Saturn. Anyone who has ever played through Panzer Dragoon Saga or Nights will know that the Saturn had truly magical moments.

Spiderwig

FG: I don't agree. Whether or not Edge practised any kind of anti-Sega bias (and I'm not going to comment on that either way) it would have had little impact on the public. The target audience of Edge is very industry-based. It's never been a mass-market, populist magazine like say The Official UK PlayStation Magazine or Future Gamer. And though Edge is well thought of in the industry it's unlikely to be the key factor in a company's decision to support a particular format. Sega got it all wrong, when compared to Sony at the time, for many, many reasons and that's why the Saturn lost out, not because of Edge.