It is undeniable that the dreamcast was a solid machine that had good games and a sleek look, but was ultimately overshadowed by the goliath that is the PS2.
What do you guys think, how could the Dreamcast kept surviving? Should SEGA thought reeling back the Saturn?
It certainly was praised, but didn’t get the chance it needed, personally I considered it to be a part of the prior gen (N64, PS1)
Let me know your thoughts!
I always found the Dreamcast to be notable for being the first console to have polished 3D graphics. I don’t consider it part of the fifth generation because I believe those consoles went a generation too early for 3D gaming, at least to the degree their game developers did. The difference between your typical PSX game running at 15 FPS with claustrophobic draw distances and SoulCalibur (or any halfway-decent PC offering of the time) was night and day. You’ll hear cynical, lazy narratives about piracy, but that kind of thing was always on the margins in the 90’s. It was the rapidly-moving market that would be the problem for Sega in the end, as PS2 and Xbox represented yet another big step forward for nascent 3D technology.
The thing is, despite running up against the best-selling console ever made, the opportunity was still there for the Dreamcast. Sega bungled their Japan release but had a far better than expected showing in North America, led by a strong launch lineup and an untapped market filled by the 2K sports games. The Dreamcast is a great case study in the necessity of agile marketing; immediately pivoting towards a stronger Western footing after the successful 1999 launch would have put Sega in the position to capitalize on future success. The PS2 had supply issues and a thin library in its early years. Sega also had the foresight to put modems on their consoles, and Phantasy Star Online would go on to be one of the best selling games on the system. The US had better Internet infrastructure and adoption than Japan, and the lack of online service was the one weakness the PS2 had. Sega being positioned to compete with Xbox Live would have dramatically altered the market landscape. Instead, Sega only had one major online title in the end, but even that would come too late. When Shenmue flopped (due to major budget overruns), that was that. The Dreamcast library had peaked, and higher-ups at Sega were already moving to pull the plug.
I have always thought the Dreamcast could have survived once I learned the history of its downfall in detail. SEGA simply had no confidence in it and killed it hella quick and it was just a monumentally stupid idea. It was, and still is, a great machine with a fantastic library that could have been even bigger if they didn’t just kill it on arrival.
Seconded.
Dreamcast was solid. Decent games. Sega just had their collective heads up their assess. No one had confidence in their consoles. Genesis was a surprise smash hit…then Sega just spewed out consoles; 32x, Sega CD, mega drive, Saturn… Probably more. In that same time span Nintendo released…N64.
No one wants to buy a console that is outdated in a year or two. That game library is tiny and none of your friends have it.
Build a winner, milk it. Release another winner right as the previous one is winding down. Nintendo has mastered that formula.
Genesis was a surprise smash hit…then Sega just spewed out consoles; 32x, Sega CD, mega drive, Saturn… Probably more. In that same time span Nintendo released…N64.
Nintendo had the SNES, N64, N64 DD, GameBoy Pocket, Colour, Advance, etc.
Build a winner, milk it. Release another winner right as the previous one is winding down. Nintendo has mastered that formula.
Every other generation; they’ve not been consistent in their success. The N64 did quite well, the GameCube was okay, the Wii did great, the Wii U did not, the Switch has done very well, I reckon the next won’t.
I didn’t count handhelds. Seems like a different-ish market. Interestingly, I thought the game gear was way better than original game boy… Except it absolutely ate batteries.
I’ve never heard of the N64 DD. The 90’s had so many weird consoles.
The game cube ended up being a bit of a curse for nintendo though, or at least they seem to view it as such.
They kinda screwed up the timing with it. Launched when everyone and their mother already had a PS2 and got left in the dust. Was also difficult to get one due to limited supply. People tended to buy one console and stick with it for 5+ years, so the only people standing in line were fans or people with money to burn.
Its a shame too because it ended up with some really amazing titles (got one as a hand-me-down from an older sibling) that nintendo now keeps trying to kill.
Yep. It’s such a nice piece of hardware. And the games hold up to this day. Glad it’s appreciated now.
