The 32X initially sold well, and media coverage was much stronger than the 3DO/Jag/CDi. But SEGA abandoned support for it REALLY quickly. I had a 32X at launch and was excited, but almost all the games sucked. Shadow Squadron is like the only legitimate non-port, original game that's pretty good lol and it came out when the system was about dead.
I think consumers were def skeptical of the 32X despite the marketing, and that was the main thing, in addition to an unimpressive library. Magazine coverage was decent but Gamepro in particular was very negative toward it. Like, Chaotix sucks but the music is amazing, and Gamepro not only trashed the game but gave even the music low marks because "no 32X audio is apparent" lol.
In the end, PR and Sony's pockets beat SEGA. That's really it. SEGA had many self-inflicted wounds for sure.
Games: what games set the world on fire on PSX, really? Resident Evil in '96 and FFVII in' 97? And the Saturn had killer games esp in '96. So it's def not the library IMO.
Hard to code for: devs had no problem dealing with the Playstation 2 a gen later, and the DC was easy to utilize but everyone dropped it when SEGA discontinued it, even tho the user base was good (in the USA at least, not sure about EUR).
Consumer good will toward SEGA: yeah, but look at reliability issues with Sony and MS systems. They were pretty bad, esp with the 360, but these didn't hurt their console long-term health at all.
The SEGA CD was not a flop in the States at least. It was always a high-end, kind-of-unnecessary cool product with some great games, but no killer app. It was successful for SEGA. (The 32x WAS a huge eff up tho for everyone involved. But I don't think on a mass-consumer level it's brief existence single-handedly crippled the Saturn).
People will buy anything that's marketed well in the States (can't speak for EUR). The Saturn was marketed like CRAP in the US. SEGA had its head up its ass and threw out all that made the Gen more successful than the SNES.
We can talk tech and minor details about what worked and didn't work for the consoles, but it's really just marketing and no good Sonic at launch (or ever) that doomed it.
Games media were really wined-and-dined by Sony. I remember Ultra Game Players with a Pic of someone wearing a memory card around their neck and calling it sexy. Sony really beat SEGA at their own game. As a rabbit hardcore videogamer I was miffed why anyone cared about the system since it didn't have many (any, to me) interesting games until FFVII came out. All my friends were amazed by Guardian Heroes and Dragon Force especially, and I was like, why isn't anyone playing these????
It's not just old consoles that are reliable, it was SEGA (and Nintendo). When Sony and MS rolled in their consoles are ready cut corners in reliability, and here we are today. PSX and Playstation 2 disc-read errors are extremely common and crippling, even back then. But by the time people noticed they already owned a bunch of games and would just buy a new console lol.
I think consumers were def skeptical of the 32X despite the marketing, and that was the main thing, in addition to an unimpressive library. Magazine coverage was decent but Gamepro in particular was very negative toward it. Like, Chaotix sucks but the music is amazing, and Gamepro not only trashed the game but gave even the music low marks because "no 32X audio is apparent" lol.