It was the PS2. Piracy was a thing on all platforms, the DC actually had some great RPGs (Shenmue, Grandia 2, Phantasy Star Online), and the Saturn was only a commercial failure in the West.
But, the hype around PS2 plus the fact that it could play DVDs was just too much for Sega. They couldn’t out-spend Sony on marketing, the PS2 was (somewhat, in some ways) the superior machine, and Sega didn’t have a DVD player.
