The Tragic Failure of the Sega Dreamcast

the video game industry has seen a number of unique and interesting consoles throughout the decades some were groundbreaking pieces of Technology like Nintendo's NES and DS both of which proved highly Innovative and saw unprecedented success others were abject failures like the Atari jaguar or Nintendo's Virtual Boy both of which tried to innovate and impress in certain areas but were marred by unimpressive Hardware or competition too stiff to beat of course there exist consoles somewhere in the middle those that tried something unique couldn't push the needle but perhaps didn't deserve the lack of success they ultimately received of the many consoles throughout gaming history none better fit this archetype than the Sega Dreamcast the Dreamcast is an odd and unique console and in more ways than one it was the product of a Sega floundering in the console space yet in a creative Golden Age it was birthed in an era of constant Innovation and interminable competition it was the worst selling console of the sixth generation but is now the one most longingly remembered let's let take a look at why the story of the Dreamcast is in many ways the story of Sega and the precarious position the company held by the late '90s Sega initially held a comfortable if not enviable position at the start of the decade their Sega Genesis or Mega Drive if you're not in the US was a highly popular console worldwide and worthy competitor with Nintendo sness its early release compared to the SNES its more mature titles and arcade ports coupled with its incisive effective advertising made Sega a successful and worthy rival to Nintendo the Goodwill and support Sega had so cultivated would be short-lived however squandered almost entirely by sega's suboptimal management firstly you'd see a round of peripherals introduced for the Genesis the Sega CD in 1991 and the 32x in 1994 console peripherals by their very nature are a questionable product your pool of potential customers is limited not by the size of a market but by your install base naturally limiting the potential and success of any such peripheral in terms of the peripherals themselves neither could be considered a success a CD add-on wouldn't add too much to the games at hand as they didn't radically improve the hardware neither peripheral received an extensive library of games and none which could be considered some killer app to the art and supporters of Sega the Genesis peripherals were unimpressive at best made all the worse by sega's limited support for them post launch where still was sega's launch of their next Standalone Home console the Le than Stellar Sega Saturn the Saturn was launched in Japan in November of 1994 and then worldwide the following summer ahead of the 1995 launch of the original PlayStation this not only occupied the same launch window as the 32x splitting interest in sales between both but the Western release was actually a surprise early launch Western industry analysts expected a fall if not holiday release for the Sega Saturn but this early launch left many vendors in the dark without the Saturn in stock and angry in resp response a number of retailers who weren't given access to the Saturn refused to carry it in the future and even removed their Genesis stock in protest a shaky launch both for consumers and vendors aside the siren as a console would get a mixed reception in terms of positives the sir would be a repository of largely faithful arcade ports a major selling point especially for the Japanese Market 3D Graphics were a strong suit to the Saturn being the first console to emphasize and achieve more convincing 3D yet ironically on an engine builts primarily 2D Graphics outside of that the Saturn would host a number of cult classics like Panzer draon Saga Shinigami tense a devil Summoner and nights into dream but his Library would otherwise be lacking sega's now mascot Sonic would make no major appearance on the Saturn and the cancellation of the hotly anticipated Sonic XTR would be seen as a major blow to the console third party support for the Saturn would be minimal as well the Dual CPU architecture was seen as a challenge for many developers plus the PlayStation was a much more appealing console to develop for the Saturn would effectively be dead by 1998 Japanese interest in the console had begun to wne Western interest was moraband and with rumors of a new Sega console on its way there was little reason to get a Saturn in summary by the time the Dreamcast was on the horizon Sega was in an unenviable spot Nintendo was as competitive as ever Sony's new PlayStation was going gang busters and sega's public perception had practically inverted from the start of the decade furthermore sega's Financial fortunes had reversed as well from 1993 their profit saw a constant decline until they were dramatically in the red by 1998 there was a pressing need for a change for Sega to reclaim their once revered position if not claw back some market share from Sony and Nintendo Sega of course had a tool to face this challenge that being the Dreamcast development for the Sega Dreamcast began in 1997 spurred on by the sputtering Saturn development of the console was split between two competing teams sega's head console designer Hideki sat would lead a Japanese team and newly hired IBM engineer tatsuo Yamamoto would lead an American team competition and disconnection between sega's eastern and western halves had always been an issue in development of their last ditch console would not be spared such a fate fittingly the Japanese team opted for Japanese hardware and internals and the American team American the Japanese team ultimately won out in part due to good relations between Sega and one of the dreamcast's ship manufacturers NEC unfortunately due to this parallel development early information surrounding the Dreamcast specifically for developers and Publishers was muddy and unclear this didn't exactly Inspire confidence in third parties and the then respectable EA would completely pull out a development for the Dreamcast in spite of this Sega did everything it could to win over support ensuring developers the console would be marketly easier to develop on than the Saturn and actually communicating with vendors to ensure a successful launch the Dreamcast would be released first for Japan on November 27th 1998 at an industry standard price of 29,800 Yen while the initial response to the Dreamcast was positive the launch itself was suboptimal the Dreamcast had four games on launch with only one title a port of virtue Fighter 3 actually selling well for reference Sega had made a name for itself with quality console ports of Arcade Hits starting with the Genesis and arguably the Master System virtue of Fighter 3 being a Smash Hit in Japanese arcades sold almost oneto one with the Dreamcast in Japan whilst the other three titles were left gather dust in the coming weeks Sega would release Sonic Adventure Sonic's first Adventure in full 3d and a welcome worthy entry after his absence on the Saturn Sonic Adventure sold well and had a positive reception but was somewhat marred by its many glitches and its Failure to Launch with the Dreamcast both the consequence of a difficult development process in terms of the console itself the Dreamcast fell short of sales expectations in Japan Sega had hoped to sell a million units by the end of the holiday season but wouldn't crack 900k in this time period reasons for this include the continued popularity of the PlayStation along with rumors of a Playstation 2 on the horizon furthermore there were supply issues with the Dreamcast itself NEC the company Sega was buddy buddy with had issues manufacturing chips for the Dreamcast reducing sega's stock and hampering the early potential of the console while the the Japanese launch didn't quite meet expectations Sega still had confidence in the Dreamcast and believe it would perform better in America and the West the Dreamcast would launch in the US on September 9th 1999 at a reduced price of $1.99 while now sold at a loss Sega wanted the console in as many households as possible both to recoup losses through game sales and retake ground in the American video game Market in the lead of to the launch Sega collaborated with Hollywood Video a movie in game rental service to let customers rent and experience the Dreamcast before its formal launch the launch itself went off better than Japan's the Dreamcast had many more games on release sufficient stock to meet demand and storefronts actually selling sega's console there was one hiccup however that being an issue with the game discs a printing error at sega's American Plant led to defectively burnt and unusable discs a definite snag on an otherwise solid launch in terms of numbers day one sales of the Dreamcast were around A4 of a million and by 2000 over 1 and half million dream casts had been sold unfortunately the modest success of the Dreamcast would be rather shortlived the console space was unusually crowded in this time span both in existing and upcoming consoles Sony's Playstation was still going strong and they had announced the PlayStation 2 in March of 1999 Nintendo's N64 in spite of its lackluster sales remained popular and they had revealed their GameCube in May of 1999 then there was the Wild Card of Microsoft who announced their entry into gaming with the Xbox in March of 2000 gaming wasn't and arguably still isn't the cheapest of hobbies only so many people can and will purchase multiple consoles with so many options either currently available or soon to release competition was extremely stiff for the Dreamcast and ultimately too much sales for the Dreamcast had begun to fall worldwide by 2000 Sega tried to Spur sales and support through Mass advertising a further price cut to $49 and discounts on the Dreamcast for purchasing internet access with it this couldn't push the needle however Gamers were either uninterested in the Dreamcast or more interested in the many upcoming consoles in addition there remained the less than Stellar reputation Sega had cultivated through the 9s Gamers weren't as trusting of the company and its outputs in spite of sega's best efforts to reverse course furthermore leadership changes at Sega cast doubt on the Dreamcast future either way show Ichiro iri mairi president of Sega throughout the dreamcast's short lifespan would be replaced with isawa Okawa in May of 2000 Okawa was chairman of sega's board and it wanted Sega to exit the hardware market after the Genesis this new anti-h hardware leader didn't Inspire confidence in sega's future support for the Dreamcast casting a shadow on the console upon his Ascension and at the worst possible time in total by the end of 2000 the Dreamcast had sold 6.5 million units worldwide and 3 million in America far below their target of 5 million by this time the PS2 had been released was obscenely popular even in spite of shortages and brutally eating into the Dreamcast on top of that you'd have Nintendo's GameCube in the coming months and the Xbox by 2002 the writing was on the wall at this point and on January 31st 2001 Sega announced they were ceasing production of the Dreamcast starting in April the Dreamcast was alive for Less Than 3 years barely a year and a half in the west before its tragic end Sega would slash prices on the console as low as 50 bucks just to liquidate their stock and move on to be a software only company never to enter the Home console Market again so the Dreamcast was a flop that isn't really up for debate at this point however while much went wrong with the Dreamcast it's often remembered for what it did right the Dreamcast itself boasted a number of unique and interesting features both for its time and in general perhaps the most important and obvious aspect of the Dreamcast was its Graphics considered a sixth generation console the graphics audio and performance of the Dreamcast were a significant Cut Above its fifth gen forbears and is obvious at a glance well Sega competitors at the time were planning or working on their own six gen consoles the Dreamcast was first to actually implement the technology a commendable feat another noteworthy component of the Dreamcast Hardware was his integration of a modem a means of accessing the rapidly expanding worldwide web while online multiplayer was still in its infancy at this time the inclusion of a modem with a console ensured IND and all Dreamcast owners could engage in this new form of play though internet access through Sega would still have to be purchased in line with this the Dreamcast would be the first console to offer downloadable content through its online features DLC doesn't have the greatest rap in the modern era but back then this was a rather groundbreaking addition and said DLCs were actually available for free these DLCs would be stored on one of the dreamcast's other unique features the vmu the vmu or virtual memory unit is a unique device it serves not just as data storage but as an auxiliary screen for the controller and a mobile game device the vmu opened up numerous possibilities for games providing additional in-game information for single player games a personal screen during multiplayer titles a mobile mini game downloaded from Onis games and many more furthermore the integration of data storage in essentially a mobile handheld made transferring data between consoles friends and even arcades much easier there was never anything like the vmu before and even after the Dreamcast and it was arguably one of its most Innovative and interesting features just as the hardware of the Dreamcast Was A Cut Above So too was its software Sega was well known for the quality of its games in this time period and the Dreamcast would be home to a number of memorable and Innovative titles in a variety of genres this period of variety was spurred on in part by a broad restructuring of sega's game development team nine semi-autonomous Studios were created that could work on their own games with broad creative control while still existing and Publishing under the Sega umbrella noteworthy titles on the Dreamcast include Jet Set Radio or jet grind radio in the US though it underperformed in Japan and the West jsr is considered one of the most original visually impressive and just plain fun titles on the Dreamcast plus it introduced and popularized its now iconic cell-shaded aesthetic you'd also have shenmu with its immersive life Sim design in a persistent open world while a financial failure due to its obscene production and advertising costs it would be remembered as a truly Innovative and novel title especially for the time finally you'd have Sonic Adventure perhaps the most hotly anticipated title on the Dreamcast after several years plus a console generation between a proper Sonic title Sonic Adventure proved to be an excellent translation of 2D Sonic and friends into the third dimension correspondingly Sonic Adventure was the highest selling game in the Dreamcast with a whopping 2 and a half million units sold the list of interesting and Innovative titles in the Dreamcast is substantial and the games discussed here are in no way exhaustive outside of these noteworthy and major titles the Dreamcast was known for its many popular sports games even without the draw of EA furthermore the Dreamcast would be home to a number of highquality arcade ports your crazy taxis your virtue of Fighters along with a substantial number of SCH smups interestingly all in all the Dreamcast was arguably the most Innovative console for its time pioneering the advanced graphics and online functionalities that would become common place by Next Generation furthermore its library was incredibly strong and of comparable pedigree to that of the other six gen consoles now while the Dreamcast had many novel impressive and valuable aspects to it there were numerous factors both internal and external that led to the console's ultimate failure first and foremost while the Dreamcast was the first six gen console in the market it was also the first 6G console on the market the PS2 GameCube and Xbox would all boast faster and better Hardware compared to the Dreamcast making whatever technological Edge it held in the beginning ever duller with each passing year looking specifically at the competition the PS2 was able to play DVDs in addition to games and was backwards compatible with the incredibly popular PS1 providing two unbelievable value ads for the time the Dreamcast not only wasn't backwards compatible but the Saturn had such a low install base that it would have made such a feature much less valuable than that of the PS2 for the PS1 furthermore given the popularity of DVDs around the turn of the century the PlayStation 2's DVD player and the Dreamcast lack thereof made sega's console significantly less appealing than Sony's in terms of the actual discs used for the Dreamcast Sega opted for the proprietary GD ROM rather than the increasingly popular yet still expensive DVD format while a disadvantage in and of itself for holding less data than DVDs GDs would have another issue in that they were extremely easy to pirate on the Dreamcast the Dreamcast didn't just play games and accept GDs but could accept mil CDs as well essentially music CDs with added menus and functionalities while the mil CD format was underutilized and unpopular it had basically zero protections on the Dreamcast meaning you could burn a trim down game onto a CD and boot it through this alternate format while the Dreamcast did have a decent attach rate aka the number of games sold per console it was at best comparable to their competitors rates and definitely lower due to pirated copies looking specifically at game Publishers on the Dreamcast third party support for the console dropped Like a Rock once later six gen consoles hit the market this really only left Sega to publish games in the Dreamcast and while they were cranking out quality titles the diminishing support for the console was only to its detriment peripherals add-ons and accessories for the Dreamcast were commonplace as well and often an additional expense for certain games a set of maracas for s De Amigo a fishing rod for Sega Pro Bass Fishing a keyboard for various online titles and chat rooms while these added additional depth to certain games they were often fairly niche in their application being expensive num noties that would ultimately take up space another mislan issue surrounding the Dreamcast was its controller a source of some critique a lack of a second joystick when that would soon become the norm was a sore spot and the grips were at an odd parallel Angle an annoyance to some while a suboptimal controller wasn't a dealbreaker or anything it was yet another shortcoming on a console repete with them set issues which became ever more glaring with each passing year and new console on the market culminated in the dreamcast's ultimate failure and cancel ation the tale of the Dreamcast is indeed tragic it was an ambitious piece of Hardware from a company desperate for it to succeed but one that just couldn't hack it however from the Dreamcast death sprung forth life consoles were the weakest link in sega's product line since the Genesis peripheral era a losing Endeavor no matter how you slice it the mere existence of the Dreamcast is the only home for sega's many quality titles was ultimately to their great disadvantage looking at console sales of the sixth generation the Dreamcast made up less than 5% of the console Market a pitifully low number you could only sell your games to so many Dreamcast owners and with ever increasing game development costs it was a challenge for games to just break even in line with this Sega saw no reversal in their financial fortunes during the Dreamcast short lifespan High console development and advertising costs coupled with a consistent failure to meet hardware and software targets made the Dreamcast more liability than asset while the dissolvement selling off or bankruptcy of Sega wasn't likely Circa 2001 the continued support of a failing console would have made such a grim outcome much more likely to that end the death of the Dreamcast in many ways Unchained Sega not just from a weight dragging the company down but in allowing the developer to spread their games far farther and wider after 2001 while still publishing select games for the Dreamcast Sega permitted themselves to collaborate with former Rivals and publish on any console they wanted in doing so Sega was able to give their games a wider audience a better chance of success and the ability to entertain countless Millions more a prime example of this is Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure 2 battle games that are unquestionably perfect I don't want to hear it I will delete your comment if you're mean to them the earlier Dreamcast version sold around half a million copies whereas the GameCube Port sold over triple that all because Sega published it on a more successful and less dead console this new thirdparty Sega could effectively double down and focus on their actual games they're more appealing products since the Genesis this is what actually allowed Sega to truly succeed and recover from their late '90s slump and Sega would re aieve profitability by 2003 in short the cancellation of the Dreamcast gave Sega a new direction for the company and in turn a new lease on life they realized that times had changed and that they in turn needed to adjust their approach to survive as a company and continue making great games while it's sad Sega ultimately pulled the plug on the Dreamcast they did so not out of spite or shame but realizing it would be the best thing for both parties it's now 2023 the Dreamcast has been officially discontinued for over two decades its mainstream relevancy has been dead for just about as long in spite of this the Dreamcast continues to hold a place in many gamers hearts and there's a n Mythos Sur the console around what could have been the Dreamcast was the culmination of its era a swan song from Sega and of '90s gaming culture the games the Dreamcast is remembered for were colorful variegated in their genres and meant to be clean simple fun the console itself pushed boundaries it implemented changes and improvements that future consoles would all follow and still impressed in spite of its shortcomings the Dreamcast was a product naturally designed to make money for Sega but perhaps more importantly to entertain those who bought and supported it contrast this with the modern gaming Paradigm Hardware is only improved but software is increasingly hit or miss the occasional quality title is surrounded by a quagmire of creative bankruptcy and glorified Skinner boxes all meant to drain your wallet rather than actually entertain to that end the Dreamcast is looked back on ever more sweetly and with ever more Nostalgia it was a simple console with a simple objective to be fun and unique wanted more than achieved for those who played on it it's for this reason many consider the Dreamcast one of the best consoles ever it's for this reason you still see Homebrew private servers for Dreamcast games decades after their official shutdown and it's for this this reason the Dreamcast can't really be considered a failure it may have flopped compared to the rest of the sixth generation it may have been behind the times and many crucial areas and it may have put Sega further in the hole but in spite of all this the Dreamcast gave those who stuck with it a unique inimitable and truly enjoyable experience the goal of any sort of gaming the tale of the Dreamcast is indeed tragic but rather than ruminates on its untimely death and what it wasn't I think it's best to think of its brilliant life and what it was hey thanks for reaching the end and I hope you enjoyed this vid before finishing off do please like the vid and leave a comment if you enjoyed it or disagreed even mildly with its content it lets me know it's popular helps me all the algorithm and keeps me making vids like this back on the topic the Dreamcast is a console I and many of my friends have a sort of reverence towards I never owned one myself only played some of its GameCube ports but there was always some Mystique to the Dreamcast to me hopefully I was able to present it history along with that of seas at the time in an informative if not interesting manner if you enjoyed this vid feel free to check out a featurelength documentary I did on the history of Nintendo I go into a similar depth on a much larger topic there with all that being said thanks again for reaching the end and until next time take care

Channel: Ciggy Snake

Views: 4,253

Keywords: Dreamcast, Sega Dreamcast, Sega, Ciggy Snake

Id: 8bSc5nxhy_A

Length: 23min 21sec (1401 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023