240°

Why the Wii U Is Destined to Become the Next Sega Dreamcast

Explosion.com's Dave Walsh examines the parallels between Sega's ill-fated Dreamcast console and Nintendo's Wii U. Both systems launched to a lot of fanfare but quickly fell off of the radar, what does this mean for Nintendo?

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Jackhass4008d ago

Well, I liked the Dreamcast, so I won't complain if the Wii U goes down that path.

MariaHelFutura4008d ago

The Dreamcast had amazing software, the Wii U doesn't (yet anyway).

kirbyu4008d ago

"The Dreamcast had amazing software"

No it didn't.

MariaHelFutura4008d ago

O, Yes it did. Wii U owners (not psychos) would love to have a game like Powerstone or Skies Of Arcadia versus getting 1-2 year old multiplatform ports.

cervantes994008d ago

Ahh - the Dreamcast had amazing software. That was a great system.

darkequitus4008d ago (Edited 4008d ago )

Ikaruga, Banai-o, Chu chu rocket, MSR, Shenmue II

imXify4008d ago

@kirbyu
Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.

MasterCornholio4007d ago (Edited 4007d ago )

I still have very fond memories of phatasy star online on the Dreamcast.

@KirbyU

Nintendo fan in denial how typical. Look the Dreamcast had some amazing games something that your precious Nintendoy system doesn't have at the moment. Which is why it could go down as one of the worst platforms in history if Nintendo doesn't start cranking out quality games for it. Nintendo fans keep saying that good games take time to make. But how much time is acceptable?

The Wii U will be called the delay U if Nintendo doesn't up their production.

Motorola RAZR i

Marceles4007d ago (Edited 4007d ago )

Lol @kirbyu, Dreamcast's first party titles is probably the most underrated of any gen. The problem with Dreamcast was most third party games were put on PS2, but in terms of their first party games they were pretty amazing at the time, and still hold up.

Dreamcast was the system mostly for sports and arcade perfect games, but it had some great unexpected surprises on it since everyone had their sights set on PS2.

Personally I think Dreamcast couldn't have done any better from their reputation with past consoles which is why not every developer was solld on it, but made a great effort. Unlike the WiiU where Nintendo always had a great reputation, but their handheld business is strongly overtaking the home console side at the moment.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 4007d ago
chadboban4008d ago (Edited 4008d ago )

Who the hell writes this crap? It wasn't one failed console that killed Sega as a console maker, it was a string of them. the Saturn, Sega Nomad, the 32X, the Sega CD and The Gamegear didn't do well at all compared to their competitors.

Now I love my Dreamcast (the thing still works to this day as a matter of fact), but comparing it to the Wii U let alone saying that the Wii U will be Nintendo's downfall as a console maker is just plain ridiculous not to mention too damn early to tell. Nintendo hasn't had a failed console since the Virtual Boy (for the uninformed, despite selling less than their competitors both the Gamecube and N64 were profitable systems).

TruthbeTold4008d ago

Agreed. Plain ridiculous.

Silly fanboys who want Nintendo to make their games 3rd party for their favorite console, or just disappear actually believe this crap, write articles, agree with each other, and come to a tiny circle jerk consensus that it's the truth.

Only on the internet...

MEsoJD4008d ago

The Dreamcast had games I wanted to play.

nerdkiller4007d ago

i wish nintendo would do the rumored console from a few years ago, nintendo revolution

Myst4007d ago

That had a better name than Wii as well :(.

joab7774007d ago

Is this a crazy idea? Scrap the wiiU and start again. They blew a golden opportunity to get the jump so I don't know if it would even be possible. I just don't know why u wouldn't creat anext gen console with a ton of software lined up. With a year jump they coukda seriously put the hurtin on MS and Sony.

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PopRocks3594008d ago (Edited 4008d ago )

"The Wii U could be the end of Nintendo has a home console maker, much like the Dreamcast was the end of Sega’s run."

Sega lost a bunch of money on previous hardware endeavors. Nintendo has not and as long as they can keep making profits on consoles, I don't see them dropping out of that race, no matter how much 'intermanet germalists' seem to desire it.

I don't see why this author has written this article about the console with such certainty. The Wii U hasn't even been out a year yet. Hell, it doesn't even have its big name titles out yet (probably its largest drawback in the market right now).

dvewlsh4008d ago

The Dreamcast had the plug pulled after two years. Nintendo has lost money two years in a row now with things not looking better.

Obviously nothing is certain, but there are some interesting parallels.

PopRocks3594008d ago

The first loss they took was around half a billion in dollars. The loss they recently took was less than half of that! I know, a loss is a loss, but how is taking a much smaller loss not better than before?

I see very few parallels between the Wii U and the Dreamcast. Rampant piracy is not hurting the Wii U and Nintendo has not seen a string of hardware failures that caused them to lose more than they took in. The Wii U is having a bad first year. I don't see any reason why Nintendo can't change the pace to make the following years better like they did with the 3DS.

Utalkin2me4008d ago (Edited 4008d ago )

@Poprocks
"The Wii U is having a bad first year. I don't see any reason why Nintendo can't change the pace to make the following years better like they did with the 3DS"

Well the 3ds didn't really have as strong of competition. Unlike WiiU, it will be going up against a strong MS and Sony console.

lilbroRx4008d ago

What are you talking about? They just posted profit and the value of their stocks has recently increased.

Also, you are excluding many relevant details and other aspects like the ones PopRocks pointed out.

Realplaya4008d ago

@ Utalkin2me Are you insane the 3ds had the vita to contend with, the ipad , ipod,iphone galxy note, Sg3, Note, Note 10.1 smart shield. Damn do I need to continue?

smoothdude4008d ago

I love the fact that the system is under powered as it means that you can emulate it on a computer. The dolphin emulator enhances the Wii experience, and as such I play my favorite Nintendo games on the computer.

That being said, I do believe that piracy is a problem for Nintendo. Their games are easy to find on torrent sites :)

Utalkin2me4007d ago (Edited 4007d ago )

@Realplaya

Really your comparing phones and ipads to a portable console strictly for gaming? It is totally 2 different markets guy. That would be like like comparing Pc gaming and console gaming, totally 2 different markets. Need i say more?

@lilbroRx
Maybe you missed the part where i quoted him and made a reply....jesus you guys.

jcnba284007d ago

You think Nintendo are in trouble financially? They have billions in the bank from the DS and Wii sales. Nintendo are the richest gaming division in the world. Sony are the ones we need to be worried about.

Adamated4007d ago

@Utalkin2me - It's all about how narrowly you define their market. For me personally, I returned my DSi for an ipod touch and never regretted that decision.

You make a valid point though, that you can't ambiguously compare these categories of phones and portable consoles. However, let's not be ignorant to think that these devices do not play a huge factor in the sales of portable consoles.

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Qrphe4008d ago

No, Gamecube if anything

LOL_WUT4008d ago

Which is pretty much up their with the Dreamcast in my humble opinion ;)

Qrphe4008d ago

The DC was the end of SEGA as a console maker, neither the GC nor N64 killed Nintendo and neither will the Wii U.

lilbroRx4008d ago (Edited 4008d ago )

Your humble opinion is that whatever the worse scenario for Nintendo is in any situation, you want it to be true. ;)

Most of us are looking at this rationally, however.

All circumstances point to sales ramping up when games being to release on the Wii U. Nothing more is needed. Just a steady stream of good games and good games alone will fix 90%+ of the problems with the Wii U's marketshare.

Realplaya4008d ago

@ LOL_WUT you are the worse when it comes to posting a comment you flip flop on views consistently SMDH. Dude pick a side either be a troll or be a fanboy.

Utalkin2me4007d ago

@Realplaya

Man you just have problems of understanding when to keep that mouth shut.

LoveOfTheGame4007d ago (Edited 4007d ago )

IDK why people hate on the Gamecube so much, I thought it was a great little console. It wasn't on par with the PS2 or Xbox really but the games were fun as hell. It had the best mario kart and super smash bros, along with a great game in super mario strikers. Friends + Gamecube + Alcohol = some of the funnest all nighters you will ever have.

Edit: Just wanted to add I miss college.

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Garethvk4008d ago

We hardly even play ours. I have used it more to browse the web and such when I am downstairs while the phone is charging than we have for gaming in recent weeks.

DigitalRaptor4008d ago

That's not surprising since it's suffering from a drought of games. It will be fine in a couple of years, but for now it's quite a disappointment.

Garethvk4008d ago

I am hoping that we see something worth the effort at E3 and PAX.

Avernus4008d ago

WiiWho? :P

I kid I kid. I wouldn't want Nintendo to fail. Tbh, if I had the money I'll buy the WiiU for the first party games. But I'm no millionaire, so only 1 console at a time for me.

I liked the Dreamcast, but sadly it wasn't a success :(

WiiU sales doesn't look promising so far, but calling an early doomsday for it might be too much. WiiU failing isn't good news for anyone, and if you actually want it to fail then wow.

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80°

Nintendo's Massacre Of The 3DS And Wii U Is Finally Complete, Regrettably

Hanzala from eXputer: "The cruel hammer of Nintendo has fallen. Farewell, 3DS and Wii U, you surely brightened my life and many others; you won't be forgotten."

280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple1016d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref5d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde5d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander19725d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville5d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff21835d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos4d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

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isarai6d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref5d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan5d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis0074d ago (Edited 4d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander19725d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

5d ago Replies(3)
Einhander19725d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

5d ago
5d ago
Zeref5d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde5d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander19725d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander19725d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier5d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto5d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff21835d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto4d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

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Hofstaderman5d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts5d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts4d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

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80°

SEGA announces Fearless: Year of Shadow

SEGA has announced Fearless: Year of Shadow, a campaign that celebrates Sonic the Hedgehog and his brooding acquaintance, Shadow.

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