Sega's hardware business was always doomed, even if the Dreamcast lasted longer than 2-3 years. As gaming moved from a niche to mainstream market, the amount of money required to compete (both in R&D and marketing) has gone way up. Sega wasn't a big enough company to hang in there. Their past hardware mistakes just quickened their demise.
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Why the Dreamcast Failed, Sega speaks out (Famitsu, translated by Polygon)
- Thread starter ThreeSixty
- Start date
Mikey Jr.
Member
Yes, I had a genesis and a 32x with Chaotix or whatever.
So what? You can't release a system for hundreds of dollars, have 1 or 2 good games, and call it a day. And you can't do that time and time again. Yet Sega did it.
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
Great read. Loved me some Dreamcast. The fighters dream system.
Dreamcast failed because the Saturn failed.
Stuff like being forced into price war with Sony was ultimately because the PS1 was a sales powerhouse and the Saturn was a dud. So everybody wanted to wait for a PS2 because nobody cared about Sega anymore.
Honestly, I think that's all it came down to. Sega got so many things right with that system that I really can't blame them for not breaking out. It was all just baggage from the Saturn.
Stuff like being forced into price war with Sony was ultimately because the PS1 was a sales powerhouse and the Saturn was a dud. So everybody wanted to wait for a PS2 because nobody cared about Sega anymore.
Honestly, I think that's all it came down to. Sega got so many things right with that system that I really can't blame them for not breaking out. It was all just baggage from the Saturn.
cj_iwakura
Member
Sega CD and Saturn alike had many good games. The only one of the three I consider useless was the 32X.
Also, the Saturn was anything but a failure in Japan. It tanked in the US.
Dorimukyasuto
Member
Yeah, there were a lot more good games on the Sega CD than people give it credit for. People think it was just Sonic CD and FMV games, but that isn't the case at all. Lunar, Robo Aleste, Android Assault, Popful Mail, Snatcher, Shining Force CD, Vay, Soul Star...
Even in the US, Saturn had close to 250 games. Dreamcast was basically in that same range. Sega CD had over 170.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Ok, so you were ok with the quick discontinuation of both of those systems?
Gamer @ Heart
Member
Everything he said makes snese, but the build up to the Dreamcast created a situation that only a mega success could pull the company out from. Sega losing so much good will and money with the 32X and saturn is what really killed the system alongside the PS2. The company was so mismanaged as the two main branches battled for direction. Not good.
Ragnarok
Member
Tainted brand name + no DVD drive is what did it. Just having a DVD drive would have been a huge help. Affordable system with DVD capabilities out a year before ps2 with strong software lineup could have made it a real contender. DVD not only makes it a multimedia machine, but it increases storage size significantly and most importantly would have discouraged piracy. No Madden or square hurt it a lot too although I think the 2k series trounced Madden.
katsubento
Member
Loved it. Had an imported one and a US one. It was sadly, just not enough against the behemoth the PS2 was.
32X was the only time Sega really screwed over their fans. They advertised it as a step-up to the 32bit generation for those who wanted a cheaper alternative, and promised to support it even after the Saturn was released. Less than a year later it was cancelled.
Sega CD was on the market for 4 years before it was discontinued in 1996. The system was never particularly popular, and Genesis sales were winding down, so why would they continue producing it?
Saturn was dead at retail in the West, and therefore discontinued early (after 3 years), but the gap between it and the Dreamcast wasn't any smaller than the gap between the Xbox and the 360 (and longer than the gaps between the Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, and Nintendo DS).
zero shift
Banned
To be fair, the SNES used a super underpowered CPU. If the SNES used a quality CPU than the SNES would have performed closer to a GBA. I still can't believe the horrid CPU Nintendo chose.
SEGA was screwed but they went out with glory. It was the last time we saw attack ads.
Never forget.
They mocked PS2 at first, two months later the entire company got wiped to the floor!
That's what happen when you mock the king!
mr teaspoon
Member
Me too, it was the first console I ever saved up for and bought myself. Getting to actually have the system in September when it came out, as opposed to waiting til Christmas, was awesome. I remember I was 14 or 15 at the time and my grandma drove me to the midnight launch.
The DVD format is what really killed the Dreamcast in Japan. A lot of Japanese have NYC sized apartments. A lot of them said, why waste space by getting a Dreamcast and a DVD player when we can just get a PS2.
Xbox was a $4 billion loss before 360.
I remember loving the Dreamcast. So ahead of the rest at the time. Lol NFL on 56k.
PS2 was favored because it was a more capable machine, people saw MGS2 trailer back in 2000 and realized that DC is nothing compared to PS2. add to that DVD playback and BC to PS1.
So sony actually approached sega? Reminds me of that guy from The Incredibles. Just wanted to be a super hero and team up with the famous ones, got shunned, then decided to crush them all.
At least thats how I remember it
I'm sure the Dreamcast could've pulled off something like that... the file format was the thing holding it back.
At least thats how I remember it
I'm sure the Dreamcast could've pulled off something like that... the file format was the thing holding it back.
Selling underpowered tech seems to be Nintendo's modus operandi. As everyone takes two steps towards the future Nintendo takes one small step. I just wonder how long they can keep doing that before they are left behind.
Tizoc
Member
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Katana_Strikes
Member
High five my friend.
What a blast that game was. Such a huge shame the Wii version was a let down. Not by the quality of the game but by the shoddy controls that were off.
The Dreamcast was way ahead if its time. During that point I was a big Sega fanboy and really hated everything Sony at the time due to them pretty much demolishing the DC.
One of my fave systems ever. I was quite emotional on that day
ComputerMKII
Banned
RIP Dreamcast
mr teaspoon
Member
One of my fave systems ever. I was quite emotional on that day
And wasn't it like the same day that PSO went live? My god, talk about epic gaming memories.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Basically the Sony PlayStation is the bastard child of both Nintendo and Sega's arrogance.
I'd love to see what things would have been like if Sega had said yes. It might still be a Nintendo vs. Sega market.
Eclectic Jabber Monkey
Member
My roommates and I played the heck out of Power Stone, House of the Dead 2, NFL 2K, Hydro Thunder, Crazy Taxi, etc. So many good games in the early years for the system.
*Puts on super flame shield.* It may have had tons of sales, but its one of the ugliest consoles of all time, IMO. Also only two controllers ports? Please....
michaelius
Banned
Sounds like current Wii U situation altrough competitors also use lot more outsourced parts in their machines then back then.
Fixed for accuracy.
He is right about Sony having a pricing advantage. When you're a major decision makers behind which electronics/computer industry standards are going to be implemented, you're inherently going to end up with a lot more design flexibility.
For starters, you pay fewer licensing fees, which is one of the reasons why the Wii U has a Blu-Ray drive, but not the decoding software to play Blu-Ray movie discs. As cheap as that software is, when you multiply that cost by millions of units it adds up.
Then of course, when you know what a standard is, and what it'll look like ahead of time, you can design your system around it early on. This is why the PS3 had a Blu-Ray drive, despite the fact that they weren't completed until very late in the PS3's development phase.
Sega and Nintendo, don't have advantages like that, Sony and Microsoft do.
For starters, you pay fewer licensing fees, which is one of the reasons why the Wii U has a Blu-Ray drive, but not the decoding software to play Blu-Ray movie discs. As cheap as that software is, when you multiply that cost by millions of units it adds up.
Then of course, when you know what a standard is, and what it'll look like ahead of time, you can design your system around it early on. This is why the PS3 had a Blu-Ray drive, despite the fact that they weren't completed until very late in the PS3's development phase.
Sega and Nintendo, don't have advantages like that, Sony and Microsoft do.
ElectricBanquet
Member
This is a good point. The ability to play DVDs is a trivial feature for a console now, but I remember that was a huge selling point for the PS2 back in 2000 when DVD players were still expensive. I was working in a game store at the time and I had more than a few people tell me they were getting a PS2 because they figured why just buy a DVD player when for around the same price they could get a machine that plays DVDs and games.
"I think the Dreamcast really symbolized the changing of the guard that took place around that time"...
This. It marked the change when huge international corporations that weren't built specifically for gaming were starting to take the lead in console development and video game entertainment.
That generation, not only did Sony become #1 dominantly but Microsoft became #2.
You can draw parallels with Nintendo. They are starting to sell hardware at a loss, pushing newer technologies and gameplay abilities while others then copy and take further etc.
Dreamcast was a great system, but nothing could have prevented it's demise really.
This. It marked the change when huge international corporations that weren't built specifically for gaming were starting to take the lead in console development and video game entertainment.
That generation, not only did Sony become #1 dominantly but Microsoft became #2.
You can draw parallels with Nintendo. They are starting to sell hardware at a loss, pushing newer technologies and gameplay abilities while others then copy and take further etc.
Dreamcast was a great system, but nothing could have prevented it's demise really.
actually the two controller ports really bugged the shit out of me. sony basically kept local multiplayer way down when sega, nintendo, and microsoft had systems with better support for about 6-7 years running.
Xbox sold more or less like the GC.
It's like saying nowaday that PS3 (or 360) is #2.
It doesn't matter, they tied.
GC and Xbox were fairly distant alsorun system compared PS2.
I honestly haven't found much of anything on the system that I actually enjoy playing (I do like the original JSR). I'm not a fan of rythm games or fighters and Shenmue and Sonic Adventure have aged absolutely terribly. I kind of regret buying one, though I may try Skies of Arcadia sooner or later.