Why did the Dreamcast Die?

Olie




The question asked by gamers for years on end.. the marvelous system known as the sega Dreamcast was discontinued about 2 years after it's release, but why exactly? It had great games, it was cheap, it had online capabilities, and the graphics were very advanced for the time.

I myself have 3 opinions on why the DC Died so fast.
  1. Piracy - The piracy "scene" found a way to boot burned games pretty quickly without any modification to the console
  2. Lack of support from EA - This is probably the biggest factor in the failure of the dreamcast. Sega had screwed over EA so badly in the previous generation, that EA stayed away from the dreamcast. This lead to the sega 2k series, but without EA they were doomed
  3. CD-ROM Drive - The lack of a DVD drive wasn't a deal breaker, but it would have helped to push units.
And let's not forget how the PS2 just fucked it all up.
Discuss.
 
I really don't know. A friend still has that console and is a really good one.

By the way, IMO the Sonics released in Dreamcast are WAY superior to the released in PS2 and others.

By the way, Dreamcast lacked...SEGATA SANCHIROOOOOO!
 
IMO the Sonics released in Dreamcast are WAY superior to the released in PS2 and others.
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They weren't superior to the Gamecube ones though (on account of the Gamecube Sonics simply being updated versions of the Dreamcast ones).

I always thought the DC's problem was that it was released too early.
The Dreamcast was a sixth gen console and was intended to compete with the Ps2, GC and XBox but...

Dreamcast: September 9, 1999
PS2: October 26, 2000
Xbox: November 15, 2001
Gamecube: November 18, 2001

This, coupled with the fact that the Sega Saturn died out so long before the other 5th gen consoles, it's easy to see why it could become a common misconception amongst uninformed youngsters that Dreamcast was not a next-gen console and for that reason they chose to shun it in favor of the big shiny new consoles that were coming out next year.

If Sega had waited another year or so before releasing it, things could have worked out differently.
 
i agree lee. i got the dreamcast almost immediatly when it was released and loved it but it was too early. if they had held it back a year and then used competetive marketing with the ps2 and xbox it would have done a lot better.
 
The 2K series of sports games were better than their respective EA franchises, there's a reason EA chose the route of monopolizing the NFL license and whatnot. :pirate:

Sega just sucked at supporting their consoles for more than a couple years before giving up and moving on.
 
Sega just sucked at supporting their consoles for more than a couple years before giving up and moving on.
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this

they dove into a technically superior next-gen console, cutting off production of the console they had built up a history and reputation with developers with, and then looked suprised when they took their business elsewhere
 
None of what you listed in the first post is anywhere close to the biggest problem with the Dreamcast, and that was Sega itself. Sega was a horribly mismanaged company and the Dreamcast never stood a chance. Internal issues at Sega are what eventually led to the Dreamcast's downfall. Sega USA and Sega Japan basically killed each other. From what I understand, there was almost no communication between the two and they both had no idea what the hell they, or the other, were doing.

The second most important part you seem to think of as an afterthough is how much Sony was able to convince people to wait it out. Probably wasn't too hard to make them wait after the spectacular failures of the 32x, CD, and Saturn.
 
I hope SEGA comes out with a new console which is highly unlikely, they used to make quality sonic games of which there hasn't been since like probably the Dreamcast actually
 
scarface22593 said:
I hope SEGA comes out with a new console which is highly unlikely, they used to make quality sonic games of which there hasn't been since like probably the Dreamcast actually
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Sega is not in financial shape to make a new console.
There is no room for another console from a brand that nobody cares about.
Sonic will suck no matter what they do unless they get a development team that isn't ass.
All the important people in Sonic franchise moved off long ago. Even Yuji Naka who probably had the largest hand in ruining the franchise jumped ship.
The Dreamcast Sonic games weren't that great (although I did like Sonic Adventure 2, it was a bit of a broken game).
 
There is no way Sega will release a new console.
For a lot of kids, the Playstation and Nintendo 64 were the only consoles since they started playing. To them, Sega is just another developer along with all the others.

The idea of getting software studios to support another platform is a bit laughable.
 
Vidd said:
There is no way Sega will release a new console.
For a lot of kids, the Playstation and Nintendo 64 were the only consoles since they started playing. To them, Sega is just another developer along with all the others.

The idea of getting software studios to support another platform is a bit laughable.
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This is probably true but it's so damn hard for me to wrap my head around. People out there exist who had no idea Sega was a hardware manufacturer @_@ Hm. Same probably applies to Atari too!
 
Strangely I haven't heard anything about DC being able to play burned games, didn't this have ALOT to do with their eventual downfall?
 
No it did not. I've already explained what had a LOT to do with their eventual downfall. It was because of how they were run as a business.
 
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