The man who launched the Dreamcast reflects on its 15 year anniversary

Former president of Sega of America and current Chief Operating Officer at Electronic Arts took a moment to remember his experience launching the Dreamcast 15 years ago today, on September 9, 1999.

[Death]

Awesome console. I still have mine and a couple NIB as backups just in case it dies. Arguably my favorite console of all time.

SEGA R.I.P. :(

[Yi-Long]

Great console, great games, TERRIBLE TERRIBLE MARKETING!

Such a shame. :( It deserved much better.

[darthv72]

Sega's misfortunes turned off lots of people until it was to late.

I think the system got more attention and respect since its demise. And still getting games as well.

[ardivt]

yeah the marketing was bad. but also the competition was just too strong.
I was one of the people who wanted to buy a dreamcast. but then the ps2 was announced and I waited for it. even though the ps2 library sucked in the beginning it was clear that this was the console to buy that generation.

[hay]

Peeter Moore.

I believe he's the man who set up Sega to Microsoft to provide a hefty opposition to Sony's growing market share(with every market there's a Game of Shares), as Sega was, quoting, "not strong enough".

Ze shame. Dreamcast was sooo good. DC2 could be so much better than what they came up with Xbox to fill in. Sega was always focued when gaming's concerned.

Ironically one of the biggest blows to DC was the lack of, extremely popular back then, EA support, for which Peeter Moore is working right now.

http://radiosarajevo.ba/img...

[Dmagic]

wasnt marketing it just couldn't compete with ps2 you would have to be the biggest idiot in the world to buy it over ps2.

[SockeyBoy]

It did deserve so much better :( my favorite console ever! I actually have 3 games on pre order for the DC; Pier Solar, Elysian Shadows and SLaVE.
If anyone is interested in joining an active DC group check out "Dreamcast Online" they still organize online gaming, very awesome!
Such a terrible shame it didn't get the attention it deserved back in the day.

[Magicite]

xbox was the one who should died back then. Imagine if now we would have Sega, Sony and Nintendo console trio, would be splendid!

[darthv72]

in many ways, the original xbox was the followup to the dreamcast. i believe that was MS intent was to carry on where Sega left off. And carry on it did with bad decision makers at the helm.

the (xbox) system, however, is quite a good system. Too many are fixated on who makes it rather than give it the proper chance it deserves.

[darthv72]

What amazes me the most about the DC was how quickly Sega brought it to market after releasing a system just 4 years prior.

the only other system with that quick of a turn around would be the Xbox 360 being released 4 years after the original xbox.

[Ballsack]

In the top three of best ever consoles for me

Ironic he now works for the company that aided in the demise of the dreamcast

Would love a dreamcast 2 ...still play my dreamcast.. Such a nostalgic feel and amazing library of games

[Death]

I had the opportunity to meet Peter when he was still with Microsoft. Most down to earth guy I have met in the industry.

I was just as surprised as anyone when he went to work for EA. I respect he did it to be closer to his family, but it still seems weird. I have him on my bucket list of people to have a beer with. :)

[Ballsack]

It is too weird... Ea basically made him jobless an left us with the sega we have today but yeh family comes first.

I would just love for sega to get back in the hardware business, dreamcast 2 would be a smash hit i reckon

[Magnes]

I still think back on all the hours of fun playing PSO on my DC. Tokyo Extreme racer was awesome too.

[darthv72]

Today not only marks the release of the Dreamcast in 9/9/99 but also the NA release of the PS1 9/9/95. Is it "destiny" to have such greatness released on the same day???

[VforVideogames]

And who cares about 'destiny' and ps?

[Th3o]

We don't remember consoles that didn't fail:P

We always root for the under dog! I did myself. I still have my original Dreamcast + my Sega Sports Dreamcast. I actually set it up at least once or twice a year and play all my favorite games none stop when I have the time.

Shenmue, Sonic Adventure, Grandia 2, Power Stone and ecco the dolphin

[teknx]

A console before it's time. If it came with a DVD player like PS2, it would have been a whole different race.

[KakashiHotake]

The Dreamcast was one fine console, just never really got an opportunity. If only this would have been the successor of the Genesis instead of the Saturn things could've been so much different. Who knows today we could be arguing which is better... PS4 or DC4.

[darthv72]

the saturn was an excelent 2d powerhouse but Sega didnt think it through in regards to the eventual 3d era that sony ran away with.

having a well balanced system (ps1) was where it really hurt sega. No doubt the saturn is great with near arcade perfect ports that even the ps1 struggled with but it just couldnt match the quality of 3d type games like sony.

some of its games still hold up well today (mainly the 2d ones) but its 3d games are really showing their age...and not in a good way.

[KakashiHotake]

Yeah it's pretty unfortunate for Sega, the Saturn actually wasn't bad. I still remember how good Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Marvel vs Capcom looked. But as soon as I got my PS1 for Christmas and played Crash, Tomb Raider, and a Resident Evil 2 demo the Saturn just didn't matter to me anymore.

[hay]

Actually DC had double the video memory of PS2, which made it "faster"(in a sense it could hold more data at the same time) than competetitor graphical wise. The slower CPU, and less RAM made it not so obvious advantage. GD-ROM was a choice made for efficiency as it used the CDROM hardware pretty much(which also says we COULD have 1.2GB CD discs!).
The GPU was vertex focused, so it was fast for the 3D.

Check out Ferrari Challenge. Despite having port on Xbox, and PS2, Dreamcast version is still superior. DoA2 was also a bit nicer on DC.

In the end DC would not hold much to the PS2 as the Sony machine had SIMD functionality, which used correctly could produce the God of War 2 we enjoyed so much, and twice as much RAM(and we know how much devs bitched at the PS3 split ram, not to mention having half of it).

DC with double the ram and 50% faster CPU would produce a fight to behold with PS2, since the Emotion Engine would probably even out with the video memory superiority of the DC.
It would be pure duel of speed we have never seen before.

Ze shame.

[DigitalRaptor]

Shame indeed. It could have been an even more wonderful generation of those 2 consoles duking it out for years, if Sega had been able to market it properly and been in a better situation to keep supporting ventures like Shenmue.

I had (and still have) both consoles. I adored both consoles. I still get a pit in my stomach whenever I think about what a Dreamcast generation could have led to, had it more time and success on the market.

[InTheLab]

Probably the most innovative console I've seen from the most underrated console maker in gaming history. Loved the DC and still have it.

And I'm still playing Berserk.

[CaptainYesterday]

Such an underrated system so many good games and it was so ahead of it's time, I think I'm gonna go play some Skies of Arcadia now.

[Software_Lover]

If only it came with a DVD drive, things would've turned out differently.