Why Dreamcast failed

**Psycho Fox** · 03-18-2002, 10:49 PM

Well this has been talked about alot in game forms so why not hear.

For starters while the lack of force feed back built into the controller it didn't hurt it also didn't help any. If the controller did have it built in then you could have 800 blocks in the second bay plus the VMU (which would give you another 200) and still have the controller vibrate

The the slim line up of good 3rd party game really hurt the system yes Sega games are great and there are some third party games for the DC that are pretty cool but most are just average or worse.

But a even bigger problem is the GD drive. It is the only thing in the DC that is not off the shelf. Yes when the DC was in development DVD drives where unreliable and it is still expensive by the time the DC launched DVDs where much more reliable then the GD drive. Since the GD drive was new Sega had manufacturing problems with it at first. Some of the GD drives that were in the launch batch overheaded or messed up as they aged (I had to replace my GD drive). Then pressing of GD discs became a problem I had to exchange Sonic half a dozen times plus I had to exchange countless third party games. Conidering the number of discs printed I say the defect rate was way to high and might be a reason why most 3rd parties didn't do much for the DC. Considering most DCs that fail are due to the GD drive I think maybe Sega should have tried a different media.

Anyway that is just my opinon.

**Koggit** · 03-19-2002, 12:53 AM

Do you have the foggiest idea how many people pirated Dreamcast games? There was no soft-ware protection, all you needed was a program to burn the disks in the correct format (Which you could get in any DC chat on mIRC). I blame the piraters.

**The Penguin** · 03-19-2002, 08:45 AM

My theory has always been because Sega came out with things first. You had the Genesis before the Super Nintendo, Saturn before the PS1 (I think) and N64, The Dreamcast before PS2, X-Box and Gamecube. My view is Nintendo and the others looked at what Sega did and said "Ok this is what Sega did, how can we make ours better?"

**Borg4of3** · 03-19-2002, 09:28 AM

Penguin's point is one factor Nintendo always acknowledges when it comes time to release information or their products, and I agree that it was a major concern with the reason Sega's Dreamcast failed. Although it was getting a good track record, not only did people choose to wait for the other systems, but the other systems tended to be much more powerful as well.

I still wonder why it failed tho. Its games are still good, the hardware is still good, it was starting to be quite good for internet play, etc. Oh, one thing I know I personally disliked: The controller. The trigger idea instead of L and R was an alright idea, as was a VMU. Rumble ability doesn't factor much for me, but the overall size and shape of the controller was horrid, IMO. Why the X-Box 'updated' it is beyond me.

**Psycho Fox** · 03-19-2002, 09:51 AM

Originally posted by Koggit
Do you have the foggiest idea how many people pirated Dreamcast games? There was no soft-ware protection, all you needed was a program to burn the disks in the correct format (Which you could get in any DC chat on mIRC). I blame the piraters.

That's becouse the GD drive is really a regular 650 meg CD reader that is made by Sony which is then modified by Sega to read 2 times that thus it can read 650 discs easy since that was what the drive was ment to read before Sega's engineers played with it. They removed 650 support on the last batch but you can easy put 650 support back in. Oh the CD controler is made by OAK and is also only ment for 650 but Sega hacked it so it thinks it is 650 but is really a gig.

**kiddiesunshine** · 03-19-2002, 01:15 PM

i blame scum like me who bought dc backups.

**BLACKHEART** · 03-19-2002, 01:28 PM

I know this guy who sells burned games for the DC. He also sells disks with old NES and SNES games on them to play in the DC. I'm not sure about GEN games. They probably have disks for all the systems.

**DarkAngel** · 03-19-2002, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by The Penguin
My view is Nintendo and the others looked at what Sega did and said "Ok this is what Sega did, how can we make ours better?"

I would say it was a case of too little too late. Sega's Saturn got squashed during the 32-bit/64-bit years, and when they finally responded with a new system (Dreamcast), everybody was already looking ahead to the Playstation 2 and the Nintendo's Dolphin (which would eventually become the Gamecube).

**ccffan01** · 03-19-2002, 04:25 PM

Bah i bought a dreamcast, plus it broke.

**James** · 03-19-2002, 04:43 PM

Sega's biggest mistake was the Saturn, that paved the way for it's haste production of the Dreamcast and that was much to do with it's doom than anything.

PR. Sega was behind the times in everyway and it's arrogance shone like a well polished shiney bottom.

Sega's first mistake with the Saturn was that they still believed that their market position was undominantable. They didn't forsee Sony's new market strategy.

While Sony was handing out their brand new consoles games to the media for free - Sega was handing them out - and demanding them back. While Sega's relations were frosty and aloof, Sony was warm and welcoming - willing to answer any media questions.

The media backed Sony far more than Sega in the end and that helped push Sony foward and Sega back into a very awkward market niche.

This media appreciation has never wained - Sony has kept up the marketing plan and Sega has struggled since. When it came to the Dreamcast the only ace it had was time, in the hope it would fall foul of the might of the Sony Market Machine.

By doing so - and as many have said - they rushed out a console which then suffered like the Saturn from a rushed release. The same market support gave the same results - perhaps not as fast a death, but it was enough to convince Sega that software support was a far more lucrative deal..

**atf487** · 03-19-2002, 04:43 PM

Well, if any body's DC is working, go to (snip)

It hsa emu's and stuff........I go there regularly, and im NOT A MEMBER or their staff.......

**Psycho Fox** · 03-19-2002, 09:26 PM

Originally posted by ccffan01
Bah i bought a dreamcast, plus it broke.

I know how you feel but you can just get it fixed it will only costs money.

Originally posted by SJJ
Sega's biggest mistake was the Saturn, that paved the way for it's haste production of the Dreamcast and that was much to do with it's doom than anything.

Well Sega thought the Saturn would be up against Commodore's CD32, Atari's Jaguar and 3DO's 3DO thus they made it to be more powerful then them they never thought that Sony would create a system that would make all of them just a stop gap for the next gen of consoles. Plus Sega didn't start blundering with the Saturn no they had practice with the 32X which is the stupidest add on in the history of time and took devlopment away from the Sega CD that could have been an ok stop gap.

As for the Dreamcast except for the GD it is pretty powerfull yes it is all of the shelf parts since it saved devlopment time and money but it is still a good little box. Far better then the mess the Saturn was.

**ccffan01** · 03-20-2002, 09:44 AM

Originally posted by Psycho Fox
I know how you feel but you can just get it fixed it will only costs money.

Well actually at this point its cheaper to buy a new one.

**The Mad Hatter** · 03-20-2002, 08:14 PM

Sorry, can't allow any emulation speak here.

I think the Dreamcast was a great system for its time. The only problem was the fact that the PlayStation was the reigning king at the moment, and everyone expected the PS2 to be the second coming. So, pennies were saved.

Not to mention the fact that Sega's advertising campaign was crap... show a picture or two from the game once in a while, fer *bleep*s sake!

**Psycho Fox** · 03-20-2002, 08:59 PM

Originally posted by The Mad Hatter
Not to mention the fact that Sega's advertising campaign was crap... show a picture or two from the game once in a while, fer *bleep*s sake!

I know they should have showen NFL 2K and latter 2K1 and 2K2 not to mention the NBA series on TV like mad it would have gotten the casual gamers interested.

**BourgeoisBuffoon** · 03-22-2002, 12:55 PM

The "breaking" reasons are much more important than one thinks. I hear of numerous reports of DC's breaking, VMUs, disks, controllers...plenty of them. Sega really needed to help make stronger systems, really. ^^;;

Although I also admit that Sega's arrogance really sucked. On 9/9/99 their president was fired for breaking up a Sony golf tournament with DC promotions...

**atf487** · 03-22-2002, 05:26 PM

Oh. Sorry about the emulation thing.. And usually I read the rules...I feel like a newbie

**The Mad Hatter** · 03-22-2002, 06:31 PM

That reminds me of a gripe I had with the VMUs... I thought they were a great idea, but they burned through the average watch battery in two months! Now that's not cool.

**Psycho Fox** · 03-22-2002, 10:02 PM

Originally posted by The Mad Hatter
That reminds me of a gripe I had with the VMUs... I thought they were a great idea, but they burned through the average watch battery in two months! Now that's not cool.

Sega always had a problem with power consumption if Nintendo made the VMU they'd probably last half a year on one battery.

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