20 Years 20 Days Since the Launch of the Dreamcast. What went wrong?

Dreamcast did not fail the fans, the fans failed Sega. The dreamcast had amazing games, that was not the problem, Sega burnt the trust away before the console launched and never forgave them.

Yes, this was an issue with the previous generation as mentioned in the Documentary. You would think though that Dreamcast would have somewhat redeemed it. Maybe not.

I only owned the Mega Drive before the Dreamcast, had no idea about the history until the DC finished. My favourite console ever, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II were some memorable classics.

It's easy to say that the hype for the PS2 killed it. The PS2 was announced around the time the Dreamcast was released. Not only were people used to the PS1 series and controllers, but the PS2 could play DVDs too. People were willing to wait for a new console rather than going with the Dreamcast. Perhaps if the Dreamcast was released a year earlier it would have done a lot better. Sega did a piss-poor job at advertising as well. Sega is what went wrong.

I only had Sega Genesis in the 90's and never cared for the Dreamcast since Sony launched the PS2 which was the better system. I eventually got a Dreamcast after Sega pulled support for the system and went third party. Dreamcast had great exclusives like Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, NBA 2K, NFL 2K, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi but aside from that they lacked third party support. Sony got exclusives from Capcom, Rockstar, Namco, Konami to develop for the PS2 which got me excited in 2001.

@Xtasy26:

Sega just couldn't keep up with the PlayStation 2 when it launched. I love Sega especially the Genesis but for me I hated how they failed to support their systems in the past like the 32X. I remember buying one and renting Knuckles Chaotix and couldn't get it to work so ended up returning. A few months later it was discounted at ToysRus for $40 where I paid $80 for it. For me I think Sega just was terrible at marketing and they thought they would get a headstart at launching the Dreamcast but it backfired on them.

Sega produced too many consoles at a time and people lost confidence in Sega. First the CD, then the 32X, then a short time later the Saturn, and not much more or less than 2 years later, the Dreamcast.

Where as the PS1 had a lot more games available, and you knew that Sony would give you a good five to six years with their console, where as with Sega you kinda figured you'd get two...maybe three years. Meanwhile, Nintendo 64 was seen as that console that shortchanged developers with storage capacity and had expensive carts, and Microsoft was brand new to the market, so the Xbox was a big risk at the time.

Had the PS2 been Sony's first console, I doubt it would have dominated the way it did, though it's price point and dvd player capabilities would still lead it to crush the Xbox and Dreamcast in my opinion. The Gamecube would have probably been able to keep better pace in that scenario.

As others have said here, the problem lies with Sega pissing away their goodwill, especially in the west. The Dreamcast did damn near everything right, but people were so burned by Sega turning and burning at the first sign of failure (The Sega CD, the 32X, the Saturn) that few people were willing to give it a shot.

It's sad, really, but it goes to show how much more important relationship-building is than simply putting out products for immediate profit in this business. Had Sega stuck with the CD, the 32X or the Saturn, people wouldn't have said no to the Dreamcast. The PS2 coming out the following year and Microsoft's announcement of the Xbox did Sega no favors, certainly, but at the end of the day, the blame for the Dreamcast's failure lays squarely with Sega themselves.

What went wrong with the Dreamcast wasn't the Dreamcast, it was the Saturn. Overpriced, not very intelligently built, limited third party support because of this, poor collection of exclusives, and no good advertisement I can even remember from the era growing up. So the Saturn was so awful, that most peoples more adult-oriented alternative to the N64 was the Playstation. By time the Dreamcast came about, people were already anticipating the next gen stuff a year or two away. So having missed the Saturn, like most people I knew did, there just weren't any exclusives for the brand that anyone cared about anymore, and we were saving money for the next Nintendo and Playstation consoles. Also, I tested a Dreamcast in the store and thought the controller was the oddest, most awkward, uncomfortable hunk of shit I've ever held.

I own a Dreamcast, I bought one this year, and honestly, for its time it was a fantastic system. Nobody did 480P then, and it took a while after until they did. Online gameplay was pretty much non existent until the OG Xbox came out, but Dreamcast had it. But, by time it came out people were pretty much over Sega. And in retrospect, it really didn't have a lot of great games for it that weren't also on other consoles, albeit generally looking better on the Dreamcast. The exclusives were just "meh."

So I think the Saturn sank Sega so hard, so fast, not even the Dreamcast could save it. Like trying to fix a decapitation with a band-aid.

What is sad about this, is before the Saturn came out, Sega of America already had deals pretty much written up and only needed the signature of Sega's CEO in Japan. One of those deals was for the device that later became the Nintendo 64, and the other deal was with Sony to release a fifth gen console they were calling the "Playstation." Sega of Japan refused both and went with the Saturn.