Fall of the Dreamcast

Mean Gentlemen focus on why the Dreamcast was so good and what caused Sega to drop out of the console war.

[christheredhead]

The Dreamcast is still my favorite console of all time. Its always my go to choice when I want to replay some older games.

I usually play Shenmue and Power Stone 2 a couple of times throughout the week or month though.

[soundslike]

Mars Matrix and Maken X for me. Maken X has better FPS melee than even Skyrim.

[badz149]

EA was the biggest publisher at the time

[jamesensor]

Back where I live we used to be good fans of Sega, but when they started to rush so many consoles and addons, ditching the 3rd party development of the previous ones, was a huge back stab for us as customers. Buying consoles and gadgets one after the other was costly, one has to admit it, pretty much fast paced for our tastes... After that I moved from saturn to psx because it simply was there, long lasting, churning out one title after the other..

For those who would like a more thorough reading, check Eidolon's Inn for a complete history lesson on Sega's endevours (SegaBase section).

[NYC_Gamer]

Dreamcast died because of Sega bad business choices and lack of any real 3rd party support

[Godmars290]

By the time Sega Genesis got the add ons meant to extend its life, the Dreamcast was doomed.

[DivineAssault]

i liked my dreamcast but it was mostly my personal home arcade.. no other systems were able to do perfect arcade ports & ps1 games were inferior at the time but ps2 dropped with capabilities sega couldnt compete with.. The new wii u reminds me of it.. Current games will look & play better but 3rd party might abandon it for ps4/xb8.. Dont matter tho cuz UNLIKE ANY other company, Nintendos 1st party games are strong enough to carry the system on their own.. I loved sega but they were ahead of their time.. remember the dreamcast memory card with the screen? Wii U is doing it right now that tech is caught up

[lodossrage]

Because I know where this kind of thing usually goes, no it's not the PS2 that was to blame for the Dreamcast downfall.

Sega themselves caused that because of the four consecutive failures that bled them into debt (Game Gear, Sega CD, Sega 32x, Sega Saturn)

The Dreamcast was actually their first profitable system since the Genesis, the problem is the profit wasn't enough to offset the debt the previous four failed systems have built up.

[ShaunCameron]

Shenmue 2? Wasn't that the most expensive game ever made of the day? As many rave reviews as it gotten, it didn't sell enough to recoup the costs. And to top it off it really ate into whatever revenue the Dreamcast generated.

[Godmars290]

If Sega had gone with VCD, they still might have a console.

[Titanz]

Piracy killed the Dreamcast, it's as simple as that.

[smashcrashbash]

If you actually look up the Dreamcast it was more then just piracy that did it in. It was a combination of bad timing, bad decisions and the inability to compete properly against the PS2

[atticus14]

I loved the Dreamcast for many games but PSO, Quake 3, and Armada in particular, but since those days are over with I wish sega would commit theirselves back into heavy software development. They still turn out some gems with rough edges at times but I think there is a lot of money to be made by porting old DC and Saturn games with a few enhancements - mostly getting rid of grainy textures and add AA and you'd have a modern game again thats upper indie level quality.

I would love to re-buy remastered games in several series but especially Panzer Dragoon. Not only would they be good games but i think it could be a pretty easy cash for years to come, even by now theres a lot of people who have never played these games and would probably buy them for 5 or less on a steam sale or something; then you build the franchise name back up and release a completely new one.

I also think they are making a large mistake by not release a lot of their games on PC, as right now smaller games and unique IPs are doing pretty well via word of mouth and will still continue to sell for years to come on the random flash sales.

[MissAubrey]

Dreamcast didnt fall humanity did.

[Sainox16]

Dreamcast was the bomb!....till I got a ps2 lol