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The Atari Panther was scheduled to be launched in 1991 at the same time as the SuperNES. Technically it could have out performed the SuperNES. Even though the Panther used a 16-bit Motorola processor, the system used a 32-bit object oriented graphics processor. 

The Panther was nearing completion when Atari was approached to assist in the development of a multiprocessor console dubbed “Flare 2”. Atari continued to develop both consoles simultaneously. Development of “Flare 2” began to progress at a rapid pace. The Atari USA's President of Software Development at this time, Larry Segal., made the costly decision to halt all development on Panther in favor of the renamed 64-bit Atari Jaguar. The games that were written for Panther, such as Crescent Galaxy and Raiden, were subsequently converted to the Jaguar console.

The Panther was near it’s final stages of development when it was suddenly scrapped. It will never be known if the Panther would have been the console to steal the thunder from Sega and Nintendo’s 16-bit dominance. Perhaps if they did Panther at the same time as SuperNES... things would have turned out differently for Atari.