What went wrong with the Dreamcast?

Really,what?

Cause it was a very good system of it's time.

It's said that Sega couldn't keep supporting it due to money loss from past business mistakes. Which I personally doubt a little but it is true they couldn't go 3rd party *and* keep supporting their own console. So it was basically Sega having a lack of faith in the system.

I think they had some particular sales figure they wanted to hit and when they missed it, they pulled the plug. Also, the runaway sucess of the PS2 discouraged them. You could write a book on what Sega mismanaged in the previous half-decade too.

Pretty sure it was mixture of lack of third party support, bad business decisions made prior to its release, and all the buzz over the PS2.

sega just had way too much debt on their hand and well they were not going to recover soon. thats why no 3rd party support and all that good stuff

sega just kinda threw it out there and they hoped for something good but sadly it didnt work out

but hey atleast people still make DC games, i dont see GC or xbox get that

so it just shows in a way the DC was basically a hardware parting gift to fans

DC is still kicking and thats all that matters

[QUOTE="famicommander"]1. SEGA didn't have consumer trust because of failures like SEGA CD, Game Gear, SEGA 32X, Saturn, Nomad, etc 2. SEGA couldn't secure major third party support, especially from companies like EA and Square 3. SEGA didn't have enough money to turn the tide when things started going south, couldn't compete with Sony's hype for PS2 4. Dreamcast used GD-ROM, a variant of CD-ROM, instead of DVD. This had three major negative effects: no movie playback like PS2 and Xbox had, much smaller storage capacity, and extremely easy piracy. 5. The Dreamcast was the least powerful system of the generation and it launched at a time when N64 and PS1 were at their heights (1998-1999), leading to a lot of confusion about who the system was competing with. 6. Lack of a second analog stick and lower system power made it impractical to stay alive by getting downscaled PS2 ports

1. Yea you are right i attribute to this cause the relative failure

A multitude of mistakes from Sega's part to be honest, starting all the way back to the Sega CD and 32X then killing off the Saturn prematurely, they spelled doom on theirselves from the start.

The publishers, the developers and even the gamers had lost faith in Sega already by the time that the Dreamcast was out.

.campzor

Exactly. The Playstation brand name alone killed the dreamcast.

1. SEGA didn't have consumer trust because of failures like SEGA CD, Game Gear, SEGA 32X, Saturn, Nomad, etc 2. SEGA couldn't secure major third party support, especially from companies like EA and Square 3. SEGA didn't have enough money to turn the tide when things started going south, couldn't compete with Sony's hype for PS2 4. Dreamcast used GD-ROM, a variant of CD-ROM, instead of DVD. This had three major negative effects: no movie playback like PS2 and Xbox had, much smaller storage capacity, and extremely easy piracy. 5. The Dreamcast was the least powerful system of the generation and it launched at a time when N64 and PS1 were at their heights (1998-1999), leading to a lot of confusion about who the system was competing with. 6. Lack of a second analog stick and lower system power made it impractical to stay alive by getting downscaled PS2 portsfamicommander

Can't argue with those points. It's all well documented at this point. It's ironic that GD-ROMs became so easy to pirate, from I read Sega decided to go with GD-Roms originally because they thought it would be harder to pirate than CD-ROMs. But I was under the impression that GD-ROMs actually held more information than CD-ROMs. I've heard of people having trouble fitting the never-released (but finished) Dreamcast version of Half-Life onto 1 CD-ROM.

As for the controller argument, which this is true, the problem could have easily been remidied by designing a new controller. PS1 did it with the Dual-Shock controller, which worked out just fine for them.

Exactly. The Playstation brand name alone killed the dreamcast.Heirren

[QUOTE="Heirren"]Exactly. The Playstation brand name alone killed the dreamcast.famicommander

I disagree. The excuse/reasoning behind not picking up a DC was "I'm waiting for the next Playstation."

[QUOTE="Heirren"]Exactly. The Playstation brand name alone killed the dreamcast.famicommander

1.2 GB is definetly bigger than a CD-ROM, though.

I disagree. The excuse/reasoning behind not picking up a DC was "I'm waiting for the next Playstation.Heirren

1.2 GB is definetly bigger than a CD-ROM, though.

Emerald_Warrior

[QUOTE="Emerald_Warrior"]

1.2 GB is definetly bigger than a CD-ROM, though.

famicommander

Yeah, I misread that post. There was a lot of CD-ROM, DVD, and GD-ROMs being thrown around, lol.

[QUOTE="Heirren"]I disagree. The excuse/reasoning behind not picking up a DC was "I'm waiting for the next Playstation.famicommander

I agree with you, and meant to include that--I have in past threads regarding this situation. It is sort of a situation that is impossible to theorize about because of all the factors involved.

Piracy killed it. I didn't know anyone who owned a Dreamcast without a pirated game and the infamous "Spinning Dog" loading screen boot disc. Sure the PS2 and Xbox had its fair share of piracy. But for those two it didn't become widespread and user-friendly until the 2nd half of their lifespan, and they had the means to sustain it. Unlike debt-ridden Sega.

The decision to use CDG discs instead of DVD Roms. Was the only wrong technical decision at the time. PS2 arrived and the ability to play DVD movies was a huge reason for it's success.

Piracy killed it. I didn't know anyone who owned a Dreamcast without a pirated game and the infamous "Spinning Dog" loading screen boot disc. Sure the PS2 and Xbox had its fair share of piracy. But for those two it didn't become widespread and user-friendly until the 2nd half of their lifespan, and they had the means to sustain it. Unlike debt-ridden Sega.

Aero5555

Actually easy piracy helped sell PS1 and PS2. This may be something that console makes don't want to hear but the fact is that hard piracy on the PS3 resulted in considerably less sold units than the first two PlayStations sold.

[QUOTE="campzor"]http://download.gamezone.com/assets/old/screenshots/NEWS_Kaz_Hirai_Becomes_New_SCEI_Chairman.jpgHeirren

Exactly. The Playstation brand name alone killed the dreamcast.

The fact is that Sega did not have the advertising power of Sony and brand value of PlayStation back then. Dreamcast was mostly bought by Sega fans and hardcore gamers while the masses were buying PS2s (and PS1s).

Sony's in a pretty bad state these days btw. Times are changing.

Piracy really hurt the Dreamcast. Just about everyone I know with a Dreamcast, pirated most of their games....

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

[QUOTE="campzor"]http://download.gamezone.com/assets/old/screenshots/NEWS_Kaz_Hirai_Becomes_New_SCEI_Chairman.jpgnameless12345

Exactly. The Playstation brand name alone killed the dreamcast.

The fact is that Sega did not have the advertising power of Sony and brand value of PlayStation back then. Dreamcast was mostly bought by Sega fans and hardcore gamers while the masses were buying PS2s (and PS1s).

Sony's in a pretty bad state these days btw. Times are changing.

As was stated earlier, Sega essentially diminished their brand name through a bunch of poor choices. MS is doing the same thing right now.

[QUOTE="nameless12345"]

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

Exactly. The Playstation brand name alone killed the dreamcast.

Heirren

The fact is that Sega did not have the advertising power of Sony and brand value of PlayStation back then. Dreamcast was mostly bought by Sega fans and hardcore gamers while the masses were buying PS2s (and PS1s).

Sony's in a pretty bad state these days btw. Times are changing.

As was stated earlier, Sega essentially diminished their brand name through a bunch of poor choices. MS is doing the same thing right now.

MS is stronger than ever tho.

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

[QUOTE="nameless12345"]

The fact is that Sega did not have the advertising power of Sony and brand value of PlayStation back then. Dreamcast was mostly bought by Sega fans and hardcore gamers while the masses were buying PS2s (and PS1s).

Sony's in a pretty bad state these days btw. Times are changing.

nameless12345

As was stated earlier, Sega essentially diminished their brand name through a bunch of poor choices. MS is doing the same thing right now.

MS is stronger than ever tho.

Because they are taking advantage of consumer. Like Sega with the CD, 32x, Saturn, and Dreamcast, consumer will eventually catch on. Or, a different company will step in and show how things can be.

Past business mistakes prior to the Dreamcast, paired with business mistakes during the Dreamcast helped contribute to the failure of it.

The inability to gain support from EA, along with many other 3rd parties.

Piracy was rather rampant on the Dreamcast compared to other home consoles.

It was a huge hit at first, both sale wise in US (hell, it sold so well that SEGA was unable to keep up with the orders) and game wise (to this day, it the best launch line up of any console). But, it was destined to fail due to the reasons mentioned here, which i'm not going to waste time repeat.

It's a shame, but at least SEGA went off on the highest note possible, creating one of the most beloved and memorable systems of all times.

Really,what?

Cause it was a very good system of it's time.

GreekGameManiac

very simple. for 90% it was sega ran out of money

very little 3rd party supportsoapman72

it had very good 3rd party support :roll:

250 games were released for it in 2 years time in teh wets. no console could even match that

i think its because of the games, i mean if you look at sega now its no difference. They experience the same path down, they make some good games but somehow they cant catch up and become mainstream. But i also dont understand why MS didnt bought up sega and brought xbox under the sega name. Cuz obviously someone was going to lose and Microsoft was very new in the business, they would sell much more especially japan for sure. irspasten

sega refused to eb bought by microsoft. thank god btw

[QUOTE="Heirren"]I disagree. The excuse/reasoning behind not picking up a DC was "I'm waiting for the next Playstation.famicommander

wow you are so full of it. do you even know dreamcast had the most succesful launch ever of any console up to that point? dreamcast was hot property. it was talk of the town in 99 and 2000 until ps2 was coming. it wasn't destined to fail at all except when you knew sega could never pay for it for multiple years

the sega cd was very succesful up until the senate hearings. it was not seen as a failure at all until years later by people who didn't know aout it. the 32x was a failure. and other sega stuff was so amll nobody knew about it. nintendo didn't just lose everythign when they released teh failure of the virtual boy either :roll:

Piracy really hurt the Dreamcast. Just about everyone I know with a Dreamcast, pirated most of their games....

CommanderShiro

this is correct. software sales took a huge hit in august of 2000 and hardware sales picke dup when the dremacast was "cracked" and literally over night the dreamcast piracy scene became bigger than the psx

It was, in a way, the Saturn reversed. It met success abroad, but not on its home turf.

In my view, Segas marketing for Europe was totally wrong.I don't know whether the situation was similar in other countries, In my experience the Dreamcast wasn't well known in Germany.If I remember me correctly there were no TV commercials and I don't remember have to seen any Sega Dreamcast products in video game stores and shopping centres, so nobody really knew what the name Dreamcast was represented for.

In my view, Segas marketing for Europe was totally wrong.I don't know whether the situation was similar in other countries, In my experience the Dreamcast wasn't well known in Germany.If I remember me correctly there were no TV commercials and I don't remember have to seen any Sega Dreamcast products in video game stores and shopping centres, so nobody really knew what the name Dreamcast was represented for.

Stefan91x

There were DC commercials in Europe but they weren't as frequent as PS2 commercials. The name PlayStation was everywhere. Dreamcast was not.

[QUOTE="Stefan91x"]

In my view, Segas marketing for Europe was totally wrong.I don't know whether the situation was similar in other countries, In my experience the Dreamcast wasn't well known in Germany.If I remember me correctly there were no TV commercials and I don't remember have to seen any Sega Dreamcast products in video game stores and shopping centres, so nobody really knew what the name Dreamcast was represented for.

nameless12345

There were DC commercials in Europe but they weren't as frequent as PS2 commercials. The name PlayStation was everywhere. Dreamcast was not.

I definetly remember there being Dreamcast commercials in the U.S., though. I can vividly remember the "It's thinking" whisper at the end of each of them. And I vividly remember the commercial where a bunch of Sega and video game characters are having a huge party inside of a Dreamcast console.

Dreamcast, GCN, and Xbox were the best of that generation. PS2 just never did it for me, not to mention the constant DRE I had to deal with. DC, Xbox, and GCN all had the better games in my opinion.FPSDad1161

Finally(!) someone that sees it the same way as myself.

[QUOTE="FPSDad1161"]Dreamcast, GCN, and Xbox were the best of that generation. PS2 just never did it for me, not to mention the constant DRE I had to deal with. DC, Xbox, and GCN all had the better games in my opinion.Heirren

Finally(!) someone that sees it the same way as myself.

I can agree with this assessment. The PS2 did have some good exclusives, but GC, DC, & XBox had the BEST exclusives. And GC & XBox usually had better multiplats.

I find the Dreamcast library to be so limited that I can barely find any games to justify owning it. PS2, on the other hand ...

1. SEGA didn't have consumer trust because of failures like SEGA CD, Game Gear, SEGA 32X, Saturn, Nomad, etc
2. SEGA couldn't secure major third party support, especially from companies like EA and Square
3. SEGA didn't have enough money to turn the tide when things started going south, couldn't compete with Sony's hype for PS2
4. Dreamcast used GD-ROM, a variant of CD-ROM, instead of DVD. This had three major negative effects: no movie playback like PS2 and Xbox had, much smaller storage capacity, and extremely easy piracy.
5. The Dreamcast was the least powerful system of the generation and it launched at a time when N64 and PS1 were at their heights (1998-1999), leading to a lot of confusion about who the system was competing with.
6. Lack of a second analog stick and lower system power made it impractical to stay alive by getting downscaled PS2 portsfamicommander

Also, let's not forget about the PS2's inferior launch line-up, which quite easily paled in comparison to the Dreamcast, in terms of both graphics and gameplay. The graphics of Shenmue, early in the DC's life, still rivalled the PS2's best graphics years later. If the Dreamcast was still supported, it could have been pushed even further than what we saw in Shenmue II.