People tend to lump in the Sega CD with the failed systems, but it was actually the most successful console add on ever, supporting over 200 games.
This was part of the problem with the 32X. Sega USA ran with the CD and turned it into a success when Sega Japan didn’t want it. When Japan was prepping for Saturn, US demanded the 32X and when Japan said “no”, US said “yeah, well, look at Sega CD, what do you know?” Sega USA arrogance willed the 32X into existance and, well, you know the rest.
Guitar Hero sold more, but how many games USE the guitar? 4? 5?
The 32X was a disaster and it was bred from a conflict between Sega USA and Sega Japan.
In the US, the Sega CD had been a HIT. Japan wanted to drop it, US said “we’ll take it!” and it ended up being the #1 peripheral with more games for it than any other console add on ever. Over 200 games.
So when Sega Japan wanted to get the Saturn rolling, Sega US demanded a stop gap between the Genesis and Saturn. Japan resisted, and US went “Yeah, well look at Sega CD, what do you know?” and went with the 32X.
From the start, Japan wasn’t interested, did everything to ignore the product and effectively killed it.
In retaliation, US chose to launch Saturn several months too early. I think they knew going head to head with the Playstation was a death sentence, so they dropped it 5 months early to “select retailers”.
This had 2 problems:
The games were janky and not ready. The first version of Virtua Fighter was so bad they had to later issue a re-mix version for free.
The “non-select” retailers were pissed to be cut out of the early launch. So when the wide release happened in the fall, they leaned in more to support the Playstation than the Saturn.
Sega was a victim of the Dreamcasts success. They lost money on every console sold, didn’t make it back on the software, and spent too much money on things like Shen Mue.
So what happened was, they sold the base game for $60, then had multiple paid expansions over time.
A few years in, Bungie decided to start “Vaulting” content, literally removing it from the game. This included all of the original story based missions, 1/2 of the planetary destinations, the first two expansions, and all their associated missions, strikes, raids, etc. etc.
Just gone. Not in the game anymore.
The stated reason was that it was too much for new players to download, but then new players came in going “I don’t know where to start. What do I do?” because all the story based progression had been removed.
They have since changed their mind on vaulting MORE content, but at the same time, they haven’t restored anything either.