i think like they said on g4tech tv it wood have had a chance but it came out way before its time so i think they should come out with a dreamcast neo or dreamcast 2

I was about to tell you that this thread is about half a decade late, but you actually got me thinking.

Now that we' ve seen the generation of gaming that the Dreamcast birthed, would any strategy have saved the console for SEGA? What would have had to happen for the Dreamcast to stay alive?

Was pulling out early Sega' s best decision ever, or it' s worst?

I don' t even have an answer yet...need to collect my thoughts.

ny dude i think they really should come out with a new dreamcast i promise on everything i love win i become famous im going to rebirth sega

The Dreamcast DID come out later than the PS1. Much later.

If it came out later than it did then it probably would have had to compete with the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox on DAY 1, meaning that it would have stood even LESS of a chance,

This is something about the dreamcast, so i have to say something.

The dreamcast was, and still is a great machine, i did and still have more fun with my dreamcast then any other system.

But alas, the dreamcast had an uphill battle.

Sony had an unlimited supply of money, and bullshit.

Nintendo had it' s clinicaly insane fanbase.

And then microsoft wanted to jump in the ring.
There was just no way for sega to make money.

Now, was going out of the hardware buisness the right idea? No!

But making games for other platforms was a good idea.

If i were sega, i would continue making games for these inferior systems, and secretly plan my next console, make it powerful and make it cheap.

Then come back into the console buisness and have a stunned market ready to buy.

Like an urban legend, it will be on everyone' s mind, and only a lucky few will see it running.


...But i' ve said too much.

Sega did everything right with DC - it was a perfect system for me - it failed because PS brand is too big and they know how to hype things.It couldn' t have done better - some of it' s games are unrivalled today ,so it' s hard to believe that later timing would change that.

It wasn' t quite perfect for me. I was expecting a string of awesomely arcade perfect Model 3 ports, and that' s what SSM at the time had hinted at. But alas no Daytona 2, SpikeOut, Lost World, Scud Race, and only the TB version of VF3.

In this respect the Dreamcast let me down, but all the new games more than made it a system that I loved. Sega' s innovative period brought back a sense of magic resembling the MegaDrive era. Something I had missed since they went arcade crazy (still loved that also though).

The PS2 would eventually almost live up to the DC, as it had some of the most solid arcade games ever from Sega and Namco. But at the end of the day the DC failed because of Sega' s poor marketing attempts in the UK and due to Sony' s overpowering hype. Ultimately they didn' t have the kind of money Nintendo do to sustain two hardware defeats, if you can even call the DC one.

it failed because PS brand is too big and they know how to hype things.It couldn' t have done better - some of it' s games are unrivalled today ,so it' s hard to believe that later timing would change that.

it failed because there was no big support from 3rd parties developers and Arcade only would never ever make a console very successful, it' ll crash and hat' s what happened with the dreamcast, sony was not born with all the hyper and he huge fanbase they fucking build it since PSone and continued through PS2...

oh you can say that if it wasn' t for the ujnlimited supply of money , sega would win and got these developers but that' s not he reality, whatever the means that made sony to the TOP (aka money), that' s what made the difference and thus sony is better than sega.

The dreamcast came out too late, had i a time machine and the blueprints for both the dreamcast, and what both nintendo, that other guys..I would have shown up on day one of the saturn inception.

I would also assume that because i have the time machine, i would be a very wealthy man, and would fund it for my own profit.


The dreamcast was everything right in the industry, and was the last great console before the industry started thinging about one-upping the market.

The last true gaming platform.

I hate the Dreamcast controller...
The analog stick was slippery and the d-pad is the worst ever, tied with Sony' s d-pad.
The L/R triggers felt wrong. Nice that they were the first to have analog triggers though.
The round shape forced you to hold the controller really weird.
No second analog stick.
No built in rumble.
Big startbutton that felt like it needed a buddy, like a selectbutton or similar.

I think the Dual Shock 2 was one of the reasons why the PS2 was more appealing than the Dreamcast.
Sega going from black to white was a mistake. They should' ve made a black console.
The lack of DVD-playback with the Dreamcast probably made some people prefer the PS2.
You could place the PS2 vertically. I know it sounds stupid but I thought that was ultra cool.

meh, i think that if Sega had waited a little, as opposed to getting the DC out early, they could have at least thinned out the market, and maybe prevented sony from getting a total stranglehold on the market. Because if you think about it, even if there was that ten percent of difference in sony' s market control, that could seriously shake them, and maybe slap them out of this cocky stupor they' ve been in for the last six years.

Some... never mind

I ....

How can people put all the blame on Sony for the Dreamcast failing/dying???? lol..
I know two other companies that helped cement the death of the Dreamcast and their names are Microsoft and Nintendo..

The PlayStation brand, as big as it is, is still ONE brand. Sega has proven that they can compete with a juggernaut when they beat Nintendo at their own game during the 16-bit era. Had the PlayStation 2 been the ONLY competitor on the market then Sega could have definitely hung around and tried to compete. But the PS2 wasn' t the only one, and the market became overcrowded with consoles. Something had to give, and given that Sega wasn' t able to build a considerable hardware lead before the competition arrived due to the Dreamcast failing in Japan and Europe (its only true success was in the U.S.) they had no other real choice but to bow out gracefully.

The last true gaming platform.

Amen :)

Wii could change this since DS brought that feeling to me lately...

Abasoufiane - PS2 sold well because PSX was a great system - PS2 started to be good 3 years from launch so what you say is bullshit that might only explain how Saturn lost to Sony but not DC.With DC people had bad feelings for SEGA after Saturn plus they had enormous Hype for PS2 served on daily basis.

The PlayStation brand, as big as it is, is still ONE brand

Maybe , but PS2 is a good lesson on how big it is.Even Sony Execs said lately that they can launch PS3 with no games and it will sell out in a week.They are completely right.

let' s do just a quick ps2 vs dreamcast

ps2 controler vs Dc controler 1 - 0
ps2 3rd party support vs DC 3rd party support 1- 0
Ps2 features vs DC features 1 - 0
ps2 power vs DC power 1 - 0
# of AAA ps2 titles vs # of AAA dc titles 1 - 0

NO GOOD SOCCER GAME in DC !!! ( virtua striker [:' (] )
extremly few RPG' s
Extremly FEW FPS (none?)
Sega abandoned dreamcast in its middle life
a lot of big franchises from the 32 bit era and 16 bit era are absent.

after sega died i gave my DC for PSone to play all the great titles i missed!!

if you still think that dreamcast is the best console ever, congratulation you are the new generation sega fanboy, pass the torch !!

Abasoufiane - PS2 sold well because PSX was a great system - PS2 started to be good 3 years from launch

ps2 sold well because psone was a great system ... aaaaaaaaannnd what ?? what kind of sily argument is that ?? xbox360 is doing fine in the us because the first xbox did fine over there , doesn' t mean that xbox360 doesn' t deserve its success , people bough PS2 because they were so sure their favorite franchises will run on it simple !!!

PS2 started to be good after its first year (the first ps2 year was truly scary and sometimes ridiculous) but very games started to come out, ico, jax and dexter, devil may cry, gran turismo 3 .... saying 3 years is a joke gangsta and oyu just bought a ps2 (maximum a year ago) as far as i remember right ??

I agree with some things you said but not everything.

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane
ps2 3rd party support vs DC 3rd party support 1- 0

The PS2 didn' t have much better 3rd party support in its early days so that can' t explain why the PS3 was more popular than the DC that fast.

Ps2 features vs DC features 1 - 0

The PS2 had its DVD-player but that' s all.
The Dreamcast had the first unified online service, visual memory cards, four controller slots, 60hz option and more.

ps2 power vs DC power 1 - 0

The PS2 was more powerful but the titles that were released for both platforms always looked better on the DC. DoA2 is a perfect example of that.

# of AAA ps2 titles vs # of AAA dc titles 1 - 0

Since the Dreamcast was forsaken pretty quickly it never had a chance to get a big AAA library.
The PS2 had a pretty slow start but since it has been around for ages it' s not strange that it now has a big AAA library.

NO GOOD SOCCER GAME in DC !!! ( virtua striker [:' (] )

Ok... like I give a damn.

extremly few RPG' s

Not quite true but Shenmue walks over every RPG anyway!

Extremly FEW FPS (none?)

Oh and I suppose PS2 has? Dreamcast had a perfect version of Quake 3 Arena, a game that' s better than any FPS on PS2. And the wave of good console FPS games came late in the PS2 generation.

Sega abandoned dreamcast in its middle life

Sony would' ve to if they' d had the same results. It was a wise bussiness decision.

a lot of big franchises from the 32 bit era and 16 bit era are absent.

Most of Segas franchises were there. 3rd party companies were bought by Sony. The money choose the PS2, not the quality.

if you still think that dreamcast is the best console ever, congratulation you are the new generation sega fanboy, pass the torch !!

Despite some flaws and mistakes from Sega' s side its very easy to understand why the DC is concidered the best console ever by some people. Those mistakes never affected the great games and the cool ideas that came with the system.

people bough PS2 because they were so sure their favorite franchises will run on it simple !!!

Exactly, the PS2 wasn' t a good machine but people bought it anyway because they knew Sony had companies like Square on their side.

PS2 started to be good after its first year (the first ps2 year was truly scary and sometimes ridiculous) but very games started to come out, ico, jax and dexter, devil may cry, gran turismo 3 .... saying 3 years is a joke gangsta and oyu just bought a ps2 (maximum a year ago) as far as i remember right ??

Yeah but the DC was released before the PS2 so it had lots of great AAA titles and more coming when the PS2 was released. Still people chose the PS2.
Why? Because Sony had bought all the good 3rd party developers. The console itself wasn' t much.

Sony fans were waiting for the PS2 and Nintendo fans were waiting for the Gamecube.
The failed Saturn made non-fans feel insecure about Sega so even though the Dreamcast was good they still remembered the Saturn.
The Sega fans weren' t enough to save the DC.

If it weren' t for the bigger amount of titles on the PS2 I would' ve easily put the DC over the PS2 in my top 10 console list.

Original by: ginjirou

Original by: the other dude
extremly few RPG' s

Not quite true but Shenmue walks over every RPG anyway!

WHOA, duuude!

Well it' s true.

Original by: the other dude
ps2 controler vs Dc controler 1 - 0

I really like the Ps2 controller as well, but the DC controller is imo possibly the best ever (even if it lacks compatibility with FPS games). But if you feel otherwise, that' s OK with me.

Original by: the other dude
ps2 power vs DC power 1 - 0

Ps2 came later. That' s like comparing the power of Xbox with the power of the Ps2.

We all know that Gamespot is a big SONY gamesite,but lets be honest kikizo staff and members are clearly pro SEGA.
Their dream is that SEGA start making consoles again :P

My dream,is to see them as first party dev for Xbox360 :)

And btw Shenmue1&2 is clearly some of the best games ever done however i never liked Dreamcast,i fall in love with SONIC for DC and SHENMUE,and well grandia2,but nothing more.