Tim Allen - "In order to clear up any potential confusion about where my bias lies with this following article, please allow me a moment to make one thing perfectly plain:
The Sega Dreamcast is my favorite console of all time.
Sure, there have been consoles with perhaps more robust lineups or longer lifespans. Sure, the thing was on western shelves for under two full years. But I don’t care. The Dreamcast struck a deep chord with my already Sega-enamored heart, and to this day it still stands out in my mind (and the minds of many others) as a wonderful platform that never had the chance to reach its full potential."
Sega's hardware went further leaps and bounds than most people would have expected. Even in today's market.
"In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if SegaNet inspired Microsoft to do something with its Xbox Live network, which has easily grown into something on its own over the years."
It did—down to having to pay for a subscription and... Horse Armor DLC!!! 😱🤯💀. In fact, people that worked on SegaNet went on to work on Live before it was released.
SegaNet was the Demon's Souls to Live's Dark Souls—while the Sega Channel was King's Field.
SEGA paid Microsoft to supply Windows for the Dreamcast, at the time, Microsoft was developing the Xbox, unknown to SEGA.
Same. Plus the fact that Sega designed them with only a left analog stick baffles me, considering that dual analog design was already standardized by Sony on the PS1. There were certain games literally unplayable because of this design choice (Virtual On). I really liked the Dreamcast as a console, but that controller was bad.
Yeah, it was basically an updated Saturn 3D controller. Madly, that controller was better than the Dreamcast controller. I never liked the shoulder buttons on the Dreamcast controller, but did the job.
It was an amazing piece of tech.. the vast majority of the games were arcade and it’s what hurt it.
I loved those games but the PS2 was just on another level, especially with Square, Rockstar and Konami exclusives and obviously GT3.
By the time the Dreamcast was canned in Japan in 2001, it'd only been out less than 2 years in Europe and the US. Turning back the clock, it should've been packaged without the dial up modem to keep the cost down, I don't think the broadband modem was released in Europe. At the last minute, SEGA canned the DVD format, although that might've bumped up the price.. With this, sticking to black casing as with previous consoles and lastly, a better controller would've bagged more sales. Dreamcast probably wouldn't have hit PS2 numbers, but when it died, it was the biggest shock in gaming history. SEGA have never really recovered.
From the still stunning visuals and wonderful arcade gameplay, to the way it set the groundwork for so many technical innovations in the generations to come, the Dreamcast captured the spirit of the new millennium in a still utterly enduring way.
A trailblazer for online gaming, some players are still holding a candle for Dreamcast.
such a shame, its my fav console by far. it was way better than ps1, problem was ps2 was due to come out, a year or so later, and many just waited for that, especially after the flop that was the Saturn,. (even though it way okay, it didn't sell well,).
ps1 did sell well, a lot of those fans waited for ps2. thus, the downfall of Dreamcast,,
Every console is responsible for its own destiny, You don't go around pointing fingers at him or her or anybody, cowards do that and that ain't you! you're better than that!
Not true,
The Dreamcast falling apart was because Sega couldn't make up the pay for the increasing debt from the Sega Master System, Game Gear, 32x, Sega CD, and Sega Saturn. The Dreamcast and Genesis were profitable. But the profits weren't outpacing the debt plus interest.
It had nothing to do with anyone waiting for the PS2
You're forgetting the most important part of the story. Sega was losing so much money so fast due to their past failures, they couldn't sustain the business. Even if the PS2 did help the demise of the system, the true blame is Sega themselves
Exactly
Even Bernie Stolar R.I.P (former Sega exect) admitted in an interview past debt was what hurt the Dreamcast.
Everyone says "Sony killed Sega" when that's not even remotely true. Not just that, but most of their debt came from fighting Nintendo, not Sony
This. The only truly successful home platform Sega made was the Genesis. Every thing else flopped to varying degrees. The real culprits were Sega of Japan and Sega of America which went to war against each other for some odd reason.
I bought a DreamPi to play both Dreamcast and Saturn online! So far I'm only played with two people online with Saturn, and I need to spend more time with the Dreamcast community in order to play with them. I miss ChuChu Rocket online, good times!
P2P there's even Sega genisis games that still connect online based on this.
Hosted servers wasn't really something I saw regularly on non oc platforms until the 360 era.
The Dreamcast was easily my favorite console of all time, home of many good fighting games
I miss you, baby.
Happy birthday DC.
I shall plug you in and play some games MSR in honor of your birthday.