Why Dreamcast died faster than Saturn?

[Velshin]

Hey everyone, today we gonna talk about one of my all time favorite console the Dreamcast...(I still have it).

To this day I still get annoyed whenever I think about how fast the console died even though it had super duper strong start and supports.

Sega obviously learned their lesson from their past experience with Genesis and Saturn. But why Dreamcast considered as a failure?The failure was massive to the point it forces the company to leave the console productions forever...


I mean it had super awesome games (I know in order for the console to be successful it should have more than just great games). Like Resident Evil Code Veronica, Soul Calibur, Shenmu, Crazy Taxi, and a lot of amazing games. And it was the very first Console that has online feature and use online games (I really had a blast with Phantasy Star Online).

Was the main reason it failed because players simply don't trust Sega anymore? specially after the failing attempt to compete with Super Nintendo when adding add on like Sega CD (which was super expensive back in the day and the upgrade was not that massive yeah it made Genesis use CDs instead of cartridge for its games but still). Or was it something else?


I mean it fixed so many of Saturn problems and yet its longevity was even less (only 2 years that is all). It was released in 1998 and died at 2000 with the release of PS2.

[Jtbrig7390]

Was the main reason it failed because players simply don't trust Sega.

Its not Mystery why it died.

It died because....

1) Barely any marketing.
2) Delayed US release.
3) Came out right after the Saturn and that pissed off the fan base it had.
4) The Saturn had a $400 price tag and dropped a year before the Dreamcast. So everyone who wanted to upgrade to the Dreamcast had to spend $200 more the fallowing year.
5) The PS2 was coming out the fallowing year and Sony already had a big install base due to the PS1. The system could do a lot more than the Dreamcast could.
6) It was ungodly easy to pirate games on and likely to this day is the most easy system to pirate games on.

They also burned a lot of bridges with developers. The Dreamcast was a good system but for Sega it was too little too late. After the flop of the Saturn the Dreamcast was doomed to fail. They couldn't wait longer to release it and it getting delayed in the US made things worse.

In short Sega made literally every bad choice they could with the system.

[Velshin]

Its not Mystery why it died.

It died because....

1) Barely any marketing.
2) elayed US release.
3) Came out right after the Saturn and that pissed off the fan base it had.
4) The Saturn had a $400 price tag and dropped a year before the Dreamcast. So everyone who wanted to upgrade to the Dreamcast had to spend $200 more the fallowing year.
5) The PS2 was coming out at a cheaper price and Sony already had a big install bad due to the PS1.

They also burned a lot of bridges with developers. The Dreamcast was a good system but for Sega it was too little too late. After the flop of the Saturn the Dreamcast was doomed to fail. They couldn't wait longer to release it and it getting delayed in the US made things worse.

I see! yeah about the bolded part I guess players just lost interest and trust from Sega overall or something like that?

My main question is not about why it died I know it was destined to die but my question why it died this fast? It barely lasted like what 2 years or something? if I remember correctly

[Jtbrig7390]

I see! yeah about the bolded part I guess players just lost interest and trust from Sega overall or something like that?

My main question is not about why it died I know it was destined to die but my question why it died this fast? It barely lasted like what 2 years or something? if I remember correctly

It died fast cause of the rest of the stuff I listed. Like I said they made literally every bad choice they could with the system.

[dope_danny]

Simple:
Step 1: buy dreamcast
Step 2: burn every iso to a disc, doesnt even require boot disc
Step 3: buy no games
Step 4: Wha Happun?!?

Look under any Dreamcast and if the sticker has a 1 in a circle thats a launch period Dreamcast which had no copyright protection. At all. Shockingly this meant sales were dogshit and then the follow up one two punch of the PS2 having better looking games and being an affordable home dvd player was all Sega needed to flop.

Now the Saturn, that was the real convoluted mess right down to the board inside it.

[GhostShaman]

Its not Mystery why it died.

It died because....

1) Barely any marketing.
2) Delayed US release.
3) Came out right after the Saturn and that pissed off the fan base it had.
4) The Saturn had a $400 price tag and dropped a year before the Dreamcast. So everyone who wanted to upgrade to the Dreamcast had to spend $200 more the fallowing year.
5) The PS2 was coming out the fallowing year and Sony already had a big install base due to the PS1. The system could do a lot more than the Dreamcast could.
6) It was ungodly easy to pirate games on and likely to this day is the most easy system to pirate games on.

They also burned a lot of bridges with developers. The Dreamcast was a good system but for Sega it was too little too late. After the flop of the Saturn the Dreamcast was doomed to fail. They couldn't wait longer to release it and it getting delayed in the US made things worse.

In short Sega made literally every bad choice they could with the system.

This list is probably the most accurate I have seen on the topic. I would just add (and this was covered in they burned a lot of devs) that the console did not have a lot of titles tied to it, you could only play the same games so many times before it got old. Even though the US got delayed releases, the console still needed more polish. The modem was slow, and even though innovative at the time, playing games online was a nightmare. The VMUs were again another innovative idea, but the battery life on those things outside of the dreamcast were awful. I did remember playing NFL2k(i think) and seeing the plays on my vmu instead of on screen. Was a really good idea.

I loved the dreamcast, and hated seeing it fail.

[Zuben]

My take: Saturn could ride somewhat on Genesis/Mega Drive's fame, Playstation was a newcomer and Xbox didn't exist yet. The situation was worlds apart to what Dreamcast had to face: Playstation was now a highly appreciated brand and Microsoft, the PC brand, getting into the console business was huge news as well. Dreamcast came first and introduced decent new titles, but couldn't offer enough to sway peoples' anticipation for the other upcoming consoles. I remember adding to my Christmas wishlist a notion that my parents wouldn't get me a Dreamcast, because I was set to wait for PS2.

Nintendo also took a beating in the sixth generation, which is probably why their console philosophy changed so drastically after Gamecube.

[Daedius]

Say way you will it was an awesome system. The graphics of Ecco the Dolphin were jaw dropping for its time.

[Velshin]

Say way you will it was an awesome system. The graphics of Ecco the Dolphin were jaw dropping for its time.

Yeah my jaw dropped so hard when they released it....I was a fan to that series and to see it again coming in Dreamcast it was like a dream come true (no pun intended)

[jellmoo]

If you put a retarded monkey in a room with a Dreamcast with no games, a tv, a computer and a blank cd, left to go make a sandwich, by the time you came back to the room that retarded monkey would be playing Jet Set Radio. That's how easy it was to pirate games for the Dreamcast.

Also, I'm remembering that episode of South Park where the kids want to have enough money to buy a Sega Dreamcast. Holy fuck balls has that show been around a long time.

[Vash The Stampede]

Simple, piracy killed the Dreamcast. It wasn't that Sega wasn't selling a bunch of Dreamcasts but because to pirate on the Dreamcast was stupid easy. Unlike other consoles, Sega tried and failed to stop piracy and had no other option but to cancel the console because no game developer wanted to make games for a console that Sega couldn't stop the piracy. Sega did try with newer consoles but pirates simply burned disks a little differently to circumvent it. Unlike the Switch where the early models are still hackable, but so far newer ones aren't. Also the Dreamcast didn't need to be altered in anyway to play backup copies of games. Every console that had piracy at least needed a modification done for someone to play a backup.

Remember the Dreamcast was still selling well after it was cancelled by Sega, which suggests there was still plenty of demand. The other issue was Sony, and many people forget that Sony was the brand to get. Sony's name was so big back then that people would kill for a PS2. Sony was the Nike shoes of the 90's. Nobody came close to the PS2's dominance, not Dreamcast, not GameCube, and certainly not Xbox. Especially with the DVD drive, which was big in the early 2000's, which the Dreamcast and GameCube omitted from their consoles. I think the Xbox needed special software and hardware that you had to pay for in order to play DVD's, while the PS2 didn't. So when the PS2 was released here in the States, it destroyed any chance the Dreamcast had.

[Skizzit]

Why it died is a multitude of reasons mostly already posted above by others but why it died so fast is simple, the PS2 was released and obliterated any and all competition. There is a reason it is the best selling console of all time. That, combined with the fact that Sega was already in a dire position due to the failure of the Saturn (that died in a similar way due to the release of the Nintendo 64) so when the Dreamcast didn't catch on either, Sega replaced their president with someone who already thought that they should get out of the hardware business and start just making software for other consoles and he wasn't the only high ranking person in the company to think so either. So it was not long after he took over that they discontinued the Dreamcast and started making games for the PS2 and GBA and such.

[minteK917]

Sega was also already on the backfoot before Dreamcast released. Dreamcast had no chance either as a family system, i think one of biggest downside was no DVD player. The ps2 was announced with full DVD support, for only $100 more then the Dreamcast, that might sound weird now, but $300 for a real dvd player/console combo back then was ridiculously good value considering the price of the DVD players. The switch from VHS to DVD was in full motion, launching without this added value at that time was very bad timing.

I remember many of my friends easily winning their parents over to buy them PS2 simply because as they updated out of VHS, why not buy them the PS2 and omit the DVD player that cost $200 on its own when the PS2 does both lol.

I think this move and success of it is also why PS3 started bad, Sony figured they could do the same thing again, except the switch from DVD to blueray is abysmal in comparison to VHS to DVD and the PS3 even with a blue ray was not as close a bargain.

[Vash The Stampede]

I think this move and success of it is also why PS3 started bad, Sony figured they could do the same thing again, except the switch from DVD to blueray is abysmal in comparison to VHS to DVD and the PS3 even with a blue ray was not as close a bargain.

The PS3 started badly because it was $500-$600 while the Xbox 360 was $300-$400. Plus the Xbox 360 was out a year before the PS3 was released. Blu-Ray might have made it too expensive but Sony was the co-creator of the Blu-Ray technology and was responsible for why a Blu-Ray player was like $1k at that time. They're also responsible for why Netflix was created and destroyed that Blue-Ray market to begin with. Most likely it was the PS2 hardware that was included with the PS3, as that made it very expensive. Kinda like how Microsoft screwed up with the Xbox One including the Kinect for $100 more than the PS4, while also having worse graphics performance than the PS4. Sony could have lowered prices of the PS3 but the PS3 was already the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market at that time and Sony didn't want to go lower. Sony worked against themselves during the PS3.

[minteK917]

The PS3 started badly because it was $500-$600 while the Xbox 360 was $300-$400. Plus the Xbox 360 was out a year before the PS3 was released. Blu-Ray might have made it too expensive but Sony was the co-creator of the Blu-Ray technology and was responsible for why a Blu-Ray player was like $1k at that time. They're also responsible for why Netflix was created and destroyed that Blue-Ray market to begin with. Most likely it was the PS2 hardware that was included with the PS3, as that made it very expensive. Kinda like how Microsoft screwed up with the Xbox One including the Kinect for $100 more than the PS4, while also having worse graphics performance than the PS4. Sony could have lowered prices of the PS3 but the PS3 was already the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market at that time and Sony didn't want to go lower. Sony worked against themselves during the PS3.

Thats my point they probably thought they could redo the PS2 dvd thing sell higher to the competition with the added value. Problem is blue ray was never gona be some deal breaker worlds a changing thing. DvD still lives now, its not a big leap like when we replaced VHS. Most people didnt go out of their way to upgrade from DVD. However VHS people were quick to just switch that shit away asap.

[Skizzit]

The PS3 started badly because it was $500-$600 while the Xbox 360 was $300-$400. Plus the Xbox 360 was out a year before the PS3 was released. Blu-Ray might have made it too expensive but Sony was the co-creator of the Blu-Ray technology and was responsible for why a Blu-Ray player was like $1k at that time. They're also responsible for why Netflix was created and destroyed that Blue-Ray market to begin with. Most likely it was the PS2 hardware that was included with the PS3, as that made it very expensive. Kinda like how Microsoft screwed up with the Xbox One including the Kinect for $100 more than the PS4, while also having worse graphics performance than the PS4. Sony could have lowered prices of the PS3 but the PS3 was already the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market at that time and Sony didn't want to go lower. Sony worked against themselves during the PS3.

Part of it was also that unlike with DVD, people were not sure which direction the industry would head, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. HDTVs were also still pretty new so the majority of the people didn't see any rush to upgrade from DVD just yet anyways. But yeah, Sony banked on the built in Blu-Ray player being a big selling point like the DVD player was for the PS2 and it didn't pay off.

[Beazy]

Prob died because by the time the console was out for about 6 hours, I already had a boot loader disk and all the launch games burnt to CD.

[Vash The Stampede]

Part of it was also that unlike with DVD, people were not sure which direction the industry would head, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. HDTVs were also still pretty new so the majority of the people didn't see any rush to upgrade from DVD just yet anyways. But yeah, Sony banked on the built in Blu-Ray player being a big selling point like the DVD player was for the PS2 and it didn't pay off.

It probably did sell a lot of PS3's, but not for playing games. Games are the main source of revenue for Sony, not the console. Though the PS3 was like a last minute hardware slap job as I'm sure Sony didn't intend for the PS3 to have an Nvidia GPU, hence why the console was released one year after the 360.

[Ayirasi]

Probably something that culminated after rapid releases of failed Genesis peripherals (Sega CD and 32X), lackluster attempts at handhelds that went through batteries like a fat kid goes through cake, and the Saturn not doing well. Shame, really. The Dreamcast should have done much better. Solid games and internet out of the box. Controller was ass, but yeah. Shame.

[Blackmist]

The PS2 killed it stone cold dead. It never stood a chance.

And in this business, two unpopular consoles in a row = you're out. Bad timing really, making two "in between" generation consoles that were quickly outpaced by the competition.