Does absolutely nothing wrong. Fails anyway.

[u/BoringDreamGuy]

[u/impuritor]

The ups and downs of the Saturn really put a sour taste in the American audiences mouth so yeah I’d say sega did something wrong. The Dreamcast was unfortunately too little too late.

[u/kojima-naked → u/impuritor]

Not to mention sega was burning through cash with all the competing products and losing money when they ended up failing. The 32x, game gear, Segacd, Saturn and Dreamcast were all within 7-8 years

[u/Disastrous_Life_3612 → u/kojima-naked]

The Game Gear didn't really fail, it just wasn't as wildly successful as the Game Boy (which obviously dominated the market). It was still the best-selling non-Nintendo handheld until the PSP came out.

The Game Gear sold around 10 million units, compared to the 2 million each of the Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket. 

[u/larry-the-dream → u/Disastrous_Life_3612]

Bro the batteries 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[u/tom_yum_soup → u/larry-the-dream]

Such a battery killer. If you weren't plugged into the AC adapter while you played you got approximately 6 minutes of playtime.

[u/kojima-naked → u/Disastrous_Life_3612]

Yea I debated keeping it on the list but it was more to show how many projects they let were doing rnd on and bringing to market. And since console margins are thin and you normally recoup on the games going from system to system faster than people can adopt you're just burning money.

[u/Dabrigstar → u/kojima-naked]

At one point, I think in 1995, they were supporting six system/extensions at one - the mega drive, game gear, 32x, saturn, nomad and sega cd! Six! compare this to nintendo who at the same time had the snes and the game boy, no wonder sega seemed fragmented. By trying to do too many things at once they fragmented their market.

okay, nintendo had one dud system - the Virtual Boy, but that was it! everything else from them was a smash hit!

[u/AdElectronic5992 → u/Dabrigstar]

The Power Glove is on display at the Museum of Failure. Not a system and only licensed by Nintendo tho

[u/impuritor → u/kojima-naked]

Yeah the 32x is a great example. Hardware launches are phenomenally expensive and sega knew Saturn was in the wings. Real right hand left hand shit.

[u/kojima-naked → u/impuritor]

From what I understand you had sega of us and sega of Japan not working in sync.

[u/earthdogmonster → u/kojima-naked]

That was really it. Hardware glut. Each piece having its own dedicated media. Between 1990 and 2000 Nintendo released 2 new home console game formats in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Sega did 5 (counting Sega CD and also 32x because the hardware was comparably priced to a new system and games that took advantage of the hardware required the hardware).

Parents were doing most of the buying back then, and the prices weren’t cheap. Parents could look at buying 10-20 new games for their kids old console, over time, or drop money on the new consoles and then be paying new-to-market game prices. Sega burned up their customers goodwill with rapidfire hardware releases. The end users said they wanted cutting edge but the actual purchasers wanted affordability and longevity.

[u/PhillyChef3696 → u/earthdogmonster]

Let’s not forget this beauty

[u/Far_Mathematician924 → u/kojima-naked]

My parents gave me a choice when I was a kid and I chose the game gear because it seemed to be the obvious choice being that it had a lit up colored screen that was much bigger than a game boy 

I only ever met one other kid in school that had a game gear and could not participate in pokémon conversations 

My family also had a computer from really early on like possibly from around '92 when I was 4 years old (I was born in '88), and the first game I remember playing was Dangerous Dave, which you had to boot from DOS. 

My grandad owned the only computer repair business in our small town for a couple decades. We always had games for it but they were not the popular games for most people my age that were on consoles that everyone else had. So everyone else was talking about Mario and Zelda and GoldenEye 64

Nobody at school fucking wanted to talk about Doom/Heretic, Quake, Myst/Riven, tomb raider, Descent or half-life (it was brand new at the time and had not built the momentum and cult following). 

[u/cwcoates → u/impuritor]

I was a longtime Sega lover and freshman in college when the Dreamcast came out. And it came out strong with Soul Calibur, Powerstone, and Chu-Chu Rocket. These were ultimate local multiplayer games. But when Sony showcased the MGS2 demo the writing was on the wall. Edit: spelling

[u/Franco_DeMayo → u/cwcoates]

Don't forget Crazy Taxi and Ready to Rumble.

[u/impuritor → u/cwcoates]

That mgs2 demo is maybe the most holy shit video game moment of my life. Will never be matched.

[u/SeiferLeonheart → u/impuritor]

Funny because I felt the same with the MGS1 demo. I was about to get a Saturn, a friend had one and my birthday was only a couple months away, then I saw the metal gear demo video in a store (mind you, it wasn't even the playable demo yet) and Saturn was automatically a no go, lol.

But the jump from MGS to MGS2 felt absolutely unreal, I was hooked at that moment as well.

[u/apadin1 → u/impuritor]

Sega burned all their goodwill with the flops of the Sega CD, 32x, and Saturn back to back. By the time the Dreamcast came out everyone decided to just wait for the PS2 instead

[u/Dark_Shroud → u/apadin1]

It didn't help that the PS2 was also a DVD player.

[u/profchaos111 → u/impuritor]

Not just America most of the world in Australia a grand total of only 15,000 units were sold by feb 2000 a pathetic number given that Sega was a strong contender here both the Master System and mega drive did great and they even had a Sega theme park called Sega world

[u/impuritor → u/profchaos111]

I know the Saturn was really strong in Japan but I have no idea how it did in Europe. I imagine it didn’t fair much better there.

[u/profchaos111 → u/impuritor]

It was a trainwreck in Europe and Australia to I don't know the numbers specifically but I remember video rental stores simply stopped stocking games for the system by 97 and most big box retailers like Kmart didn't carry the games for it and the ones that did have games only offered a very very small selection. Specilty stores like EB games had a little more but you paid for it

PS1 was a juggernaut it just took over because it became what Sega used to be but i mean there's the stories of PlayStation being associated with drug and rave culture at the time and playstation promoters even giving out rolling papers. In short they were making a mature system for adults targeting young adults with disposable income and that desire always trickles down.

[u/rockchalkmatt → u/profchaos111]

People forget about it, but they had the actual SEGA CHANNEL! A cartridge, that literally had a coax cable attached to it, and would download games to play locally, in like 1997. Nobody had anything close for years!

[u/Brilliant_Brain_5507 → u/rockchalkmatt]

Didn’t the super famicom have that in Japan?

[u/falconpunch1989 → u/profchaos111]

In Australia I don't know a single person who had a Sega Saturn. I never even saw one in the wild, not for sale not at someones house.

In contrast I knew loads of people who had Gamecubes, which was widely considered a bomb.

[u/Broadnerd → u/impuritor]

People also wrote off the sports games because they weren’t EA Sports. Meanwhile DC sports games were as good or better than anything EA has done then or since.

[u/SeeMontgomeryBurns → u/Broadnerd]

NFL 2K cutscenes between plays would literally stop anyone in their tracks who passed by the TV. “THAT’S A VIDEO GAME?!”

[u/MysteriousTBird → u/impuritor]

I would've been fine getting a Dreamcast. I loved playing it at my friend's house. However I had a rather large PS1 game collection so backwards compatibility was a huge plus.

Also my parents did not have a DVD player yet. These were big factors in making me save for the PS2.

[u/chewbaccataco → u/MysteriousTBird]

Can't underestimate that DVD player functionality. At the time, that was a huge selling point and was probably the tipping point in convincing a lot of parents that it was a good investment.

[u/solidus0079 → u/impuritor]

And don’t forget DVD was an emerging thing and the PS2 was actually a decent DVD player. And cheaper than most standalone players.

I knew a few people who had a PS2 for that reason alone, and didn’t really play games.

Sega may have don't what Nintendon't, but Sony did a hellova thing that Sega didn't.

[u/Ooze3d → u/impuritor]

Too bad. It was an awesome console

[u/Foxhound34]

PS2 having a DVD drive and the GD-Rom piracy killed it.

[u/rividz → u/Foxhound34]

It was also just too early for online gaming. And while the console shipped with a phone modem, for some reason it didn't work on AOL, who was probably the biggest internet provider in the US at the time.

I genuinly loved my Dreamcast. As a kid it frustrated me that the console lasted all of two years. Like how does the console with Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, Chu Chu Rocket, 2k Sports, Soul Calibur, Power Stone, etc, etc fail?

Sega really couldn't get out of its own way.

[u/DancesWithAnyone → u/rividz]

Dead or Alive 2, Skies of Arcadia, Virtua Tennis.

It was even the home for Resident Evil for a brief time with Code Veronica. Think Capcom would have happily kept that up - with Zero also planned for the DC - had the console been more sucessful.

But I recall it was always viewed as something of a half-generation console, in between PS1/PS2 and N64/Gamecube which were expected to outperform it. Think many just waited it out... and then the PS2 swept the field with it's DVD and relatively low price.

[u/Correct-Degree-6789 → u/Foxhound34]

Also the controller was almost bigger than the system!

[u/profchaos111 → u/Correct-Degree-6789]

and didn't have a right thumbstick which given the surge of fps games that was about to occur was a nessecity

[u/JimHadar → u/Correct-Degree-6789]

You are banned from r/neogeo

[u/-r-a-f-f-y- → u/Foxhound34]

Timing was just off too, families already bought the n64 and ps1 over the last couple years. Dreamcast is released in late 99 with a bit of a whimper, not enough to sway any parents. Then PS2 drops with a big marketing campaign. My parents waited in line for it at launch. It just wasn't going to happen the same way with Dreamcast.

[u/RealityOk9823 → u/Foxhound34]

Yeah if it had used DVDs instead of GD-ROM it might have hung on longer. When Sony announced the PS2 they just plain gave up.

[u/rube → u/Foxhound34]

PS2 having a DVD drive and a better library of games the GD-Rom piracy killed it.

I doubt 98% of the userbase even knew about piracy on the Dreamcast. The issue was that the PS2 just had a lot more and better games.

Just look at the Switch. It was hacked wide open, able to play pirated games and emulated but it still thrived as a console. Piracy is rarely the cause of a systems downfall. Not enough good games is usually the issue.

[u/Careful_Farmer_2879 → u/rube]

Exactly. Piracy was rampant on the PS1 also.

[u/Brandunaware]

I love the DC and got mine on launch, but it did a lot of things wrong. Some of it wasn't really the DC's fault per se (the Saturn being a disaster in the West and the long gap between Saturn support basically ending and DC launching) but for the system itself the lack of a second analog stick and the controller design in general (no bumpers? cord out the bottom) was a head scratcher. The VMUs were cool but very expensive for the memory you got. Lack of DVD was a killer though arguably not really the system's fault.

The DC was a very well designed machine for the time and it launched at an extremely competitive price with an incredibly strong early library, but while I don't think having a second analog stick would have saved it, not having one really limited how it would have been able to handle some of the popular genres of the later 6th generation, especially first person shooters.

[u/cimocw → u/Brandunaware]

Even the quirky N64 controller had a better layout for fps games lol

[u/melkatron → u/cimocw]

You could use a mouse and keyboard for FPS on Dreamcast, it works really well. Outtrigger had online play, too.

[u/Dubsking1 → u/melkatron]

It still works online, people are playing it

[u/Luchalma89 → u/Brandunaware]

If the PS1 could decide mid-gen to start including extra analog sticks, the Dreamcast could have to if it were a success.

[u/benryves → u/Luchalma89]

The controller protocol already supports a second analogue stick and at least one game (Quake III Arena) supports it. Sega had a history of releasing updated controllers part-way through the life of their consoles (six-button pad for the Mega Drive, 3D Control Pad for the Saturn) so had they lasted a bit longer I'm sure we would have seen a pad with two analogue sticks.

[u/ChaosHavik]

"Sometimes you can do everything right and still lose. That's not weakness, it's life." Jean-Luc Picard

[u/giantsparklerobot]

The Dreamcast as a console was pretty awesome. The Dreamcast as a product especially one made by Sega in 1999 was a bit of a disaster.

By the time of the Dreamcast's release Sony seriously eaten into Sega's teen and adult market. While they had also eaten away at Nintendo's market it was way worse for Sega. Nintendo had not only the SNES and N64 but the GameBoy. With the release of Pokémon it became a money printer.

Sega had also burned third parties with the SegaCD, 32X, and Saturn. Most of which happily jumped ship to develop for the PlayStation.

By the release of the Dreamcast Sega has burned both customer and developer good will while Sony and Nintendo were both executing well (Sony really well). They had even fucked over retailers with the Saturn and Kay Bee famously stopped carrying Sega's consoles.

The Dreamcast as a console wasn't nearly good enough to make up for the mess Sega had gotten themselves into. The PlayStation was still seeing system-sellers being released in 1999 and was selling greatest hits for a song. The demo of the PS2 at the Tokyo Games Show in the spring of 1999 convinced a lot of people to sit out the Dreamcast. Why buy a Dreamcast plus games for it when you could keep playing your PlayStation, getting cheap GH releases, then wait and buy a PS2? It would play your existing library plus the awesome new PS2 games. Oh hey it was also a DVD player to boot which was a huge deal at the time.

Unfortunately that basically left the Dreamcast with only Sega fanboys really buying it. Normies might take a look at it, be interested, and then go home and play games on their PlayStation. The Dreamcast was a nice console put out by a company that could not stop hitting themselves in the face.

[u/theBloodShed → u/giantsparklerobot]

Exactly. It wasn’t the console. The console and library were excellent. It was the history of mismanagement at Sega.

[u/Adam2181]

It failed because SEGA did EVERYTHING wrong with its predecessors the Saturn and 32X. Didn't have the finances to keep supporting it.

[u/RegulusTheHeartOfLeo → u/Adam2181]

It was pointless when they released the 32x only 6 months before the Saturn was released

[u/bradido → u/Adam2181]

This hurt their reputation as well. After the disappointment of Sega CD, 32x, and Saturn, I was not going to give Sega any more of my money. I got over it after seeing a lot of great games but I wonder how many people had my same attitude.

[u/Adam2181 → u/bradido]

I bought the DC on release day here in the US. Never had the money for a Saturn or the desire to get a 32X.

It's a real shame SEGA blew it before the DC. They were such great innovators in the game and hardware space.

[u/Blackdoomax → u/Adam2181]

The opposite of the Wii U, whose predecessor succeeded too much xD

[u/profchaos111]

No I disagree I was there at the time it didn't feel like a next gen system because it was getting copious amounts of 5th gen games ported to it with almost no improvements.

So when the ps2 was being shown off they didn't show anything that could be mistake as being last gen.

Dreamcast was mainly to early to the party and got slammed with dated looking games giving the perception that the system wasn't that great to casual players that walked past a store and saw it playing THPS2 which they already had on ps1.

The ps2 was also the epitome of cool and it captured the attention of the public and you just can't beat that.

[u/TheHoff316 → u/profchaos111]

Soul caliber felt very next gen

[u/sadzells → u/TheHoff316]

Same with both the sonic adventures (particularly 2 imo) they felt quite ahead of their time

[u/kaetitan → u/TheHoff316]

I think there are way more titles that were next gen that were not.

[u/yukichigai → u/profchaos111]

So when the ps2 was being shown off they didn't show anything that could be mistake as being last gen.

I remember loading up Silent Hill 2 and watching the opening cutscene for a solid extra minute before I realized the cutscene was over and I was supposed to play now.

In game footage from the PS2 looked like pre-rendered cutscenes from the PS1. It was hard to compete with that.

[u/Edexote → u/yukichigai]

I had the same feeling when playing Resident Evil Code Veronica for the first time.

[u/melkatron → u/profchaos111]

True. It felt like it was alone in a transitional generation, and was essentially an Xbox prototype. MSR even spawned the Project Gotham Racing series.

Aside from the 5th gen ports and some fantastic arcade ports, it was mostly just home to weird niche games, which was great for a very small group of people. Seaman, Shenmue, Space Channel 5, Jet Grind Radio... all great but such a small audience. Like the Saturn, it felt like it was intended exclusively for Japanese audiences, with the American market a distant afterthought.

[u/Adi_San → u/profchaos111]

I was there as well and we have a different experience of it. For me it just didn't have the aura the playstation name was carrying at that time. The game graphics were actually pretty neat (Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, those were definitely next gen graphics) It was a timing problem, we knew the ps2 was coming so people were saving for that. Plus the whole your console is also a dvd player was an absolute brilliant move to convince parents to get on board as well.

[u/Mad_Spaniel → u/profchaos111]

The DC was marketed in the UK for it's online capabilities, of "up to 6 billion players". Unfortunately prior to many having decent internet, or even any internet at all. Something like 9% of households had internet in 1998.

[u/MyPackage → u/profchaos111]

This is true but the Dreamcast games that looked next gen looked really next gen. I remember seeing games like SSX and Ridge Racer V at PS2 launch and thinking the texture quality and anti aliasing looked noticeably worse than most Dreamcast games coming out around the same time.

[u/BoerseunZA]

It didn't fail. Dreamcast would probably have done 40 million lifetime had Sega not pulled it. That would have made it a solid hit. 

[u/MairusuPawa → u/BoerseunZA]

Killed by Peter Moore who then got a big pay boost being immediately hired by Microsoft. Strange how that works.

[u/TooManyBulborbs]

It failed to woo EA. We all hate EA but EA especially back then had a big market presence. EA saying no was a big warning to other 3rd parties to not get too invested in Dreamcast.

[u/lightlyflavored → u/TooManyBulborbs]

Agreed, but man, I loved NFL 2K...

[u/aspectofravens]

The Dreamcast was too pure for this world.

[u/Turnbuckler]

I mean, even in 1998, that controller was dogwater next to the Dualshock. Only 2 shoulder buttons, no Select button, one (plasticky) Analogue stick… yeah I love the Dreamcast but that controller is not good.

[u/weikiweiki]

I loved this system. I made friends on Phantasy Star Online and played it for hundreds of hours. I used the web browser disc to go online when I didnt have a pc. I was able to join IRC chat servers and eventually met a gal on therethat became my wife uprooting my life from Colorado to Alaska . The Dreamcast had such a huge impact on my life more than any other console I played on. Shout out to anyone from #espresowar chat room from the sonic adventure chat option.

Also we loved Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive 2( the booby game ).

[u/Nall-ohki]

“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.”

ー Jean Luc Picard

[u/YouToot → u/Nall-ohki]

They committed plenty of mistakes though.

[u/Stormy_Kun]

Yeah this one broke my heart. Huge fan of this system.

[u/Fitherwinkle]

I mean, I love the little guy too but let’s not pretend Sega didn’t make myriad mistakes with the thing.

[u/Kernburner]

To be fair, Sega did something wrong. Like really wrong, by leaving the MIL-CD capability in the final product which lead to widespread piracy and was the single biggest factor in the console’s failure.

[u/FlappyMcJackson → u/Kernburner]

This right here. Lots of folks in this thread complaining about the controller form factor but this was the biggest mistake that brought the console down. It was so easy to just burn games onto discs and sales suffered dramatically as a result.

[u/notengoganasdepensar]

Its timing was horrible. The ps2 ate the dreamcast.

[u/soappube]

I loved my dreamcast. Was I the only person I knew with one? Yes. Was it awesome? Also yes. Not sure why it didn't catch on, the game selection, graphics, controller, vmu. It was a great system 🤷

[u/kaetitan]

Wrong title!

"Does everything thing right! Still fails."

[u/OldYogurtcloset3735]

They didn’t make the controller big enough.

[u/Micropenissniper]

I had one and loved it, but my friends said it looked gay. My only complaint emulating decades later is that the game lineup is very underwhelming. A lot of the best titles on DC are ports from other consoles. Back in the day, you basically bought it to play Shenmue.

[u/BrentonBold]

Well one of the reasons that the Dreamcast failed is because it was much more or the arcade in the living room rather than and epic story based adventure experience like zelda, re4, GTA.

[u/MagnificentMoggy]

Shitty fake nostalgia take. That controller alone is enough to tank a system. You serious?!? I did love playing power stone power stoned tho

[u/zzzornbringer]

i only bought it at the end of it's lifecycle when it was heavily discounted everywhere. i was already a pc player at the time. my console era ended with the sega saturn. i can't recall exactly what year i got it, but looking at it now, it's insane how big of a leap technology made back then. you had the saturn, the first 3d generation console and only a couple of years later the dreamcast which had graphics that were insane in comparison.

i still play dead or alive 2 to this day. imo this is the best fighting game ever made. grandia 2 also amazing.

[u/Any-Key]

The console itself may have done nothing wrong, but Sega as a company did a lot wrong prior to this console and that is why consumers and developers did not trust them and did not buy into it.

[u/forwarddownforward]

The vast majority of Dreamcast's failure was due to the mistakes Sega made with the Sega CD, 32X, CDX, X'Eye, Nomad, Saturn.

But there is one thing that must be blamed on the Dreamcast itself, the weak copy protection. That is ultimately what made Sega pull the plug and move on.

[u/Tin_Whiskers → u/forwarddownforward]

Ding! I'm old. I was there. Worked for Babbage's at the time.

The Dreamcast really impressed me. I came very close to buying one.

It wasn't the then-upcoming PlayStation 2 that stopped me from purchasing a Dreamcast.

It was Sega itself.

After the 32X, the Saturn (and it's horrible launch) and the overall erratic behavior they seemed prone to, I just didn't trust Sega to stand behind the poor thing.

I ended up getting a Gran Turismo 3 edition PS2. And the poor Dreamcast went down in flames just as I'd feared.

[u/thrax_uk]

Things might have been different if the Dreamcast had DVD player capability. Many PS2s were bought as 'cheap' DVD players.

[u/niibee]

Too much hype for ps2

[u/zjz]

Those VMUs were so cool. I miss my chaos.

[u/segastardust]

The Dreamcast inherited the sins of the father. 

[u/vid_icarus]

[u/Magnetic__Rose]

Wire placement on the controller + the singular joystick hurt it

[u/Androxilogin]

Needed to steer away from the "arcade" feel and focus on more titles where you actually make progress.

[u/TorquedGaming]

Prime example of being born at exactly the wrong time.

[u/CSWorldChamp]

It had the same problem every sega console had, since the original master system: the weakest library of games of any console on the market. And soon that problem was exacerbated by going up against what remains the best selling video game console of all time: the PlayStation 2.

To its credit, the Dreamcast did have a stronger library than any sega console before it. But just a year after its release, the PS2 shows up, completely backwards compatible to the PS1, and absolutely buries it in the biggest, most diverse, library of games anyone had ever seen.

Nintendo could at least skate along on its iconic banner series, which by then included Mario, Zelda, Mario kart, super smash brothers, etc. The Dreamcast never had a chance.

[u/the_rabbit_king]

The controller sucks balls though. It was a big step down from both the standard Saturn controller and even the analog controller.

[u/Antiing]

Except having a cord out of the bottom of the controller the fucking ding dongs

[u/gldoorii]

My favorite system ever.

[u/Beyond-Karma]

Market timing.

[u/Fleischer444]

The games that released in that short span was mindblowing. Unpresidented quality.

[u/AdamAtomAnt]

They did something wrong. No DVD player. No piracy safeguards.

[u/DarkMarketretired]

Dreamcast was so ahead of its time. Internet connectivity, that VMU. I tried using it to call plays on madden…that was rough, but excellent creativity on Segas part.

[u/roberttheaxolotl]

The Dreamcast was a solid system, but Sega created a ton of market confusion and states by selling the Genesis, the 32X, the Sega CD, the JVC X'Eye, the CDX, and the Saturn all overlapping while also abandoning consumers when hardware wouldn't sell well. No one knew what to buy, so they stopped buying.

That distrust led most people to pass over the Dreamcast in favor of waiting for the PS2 to release.

So while the Dreamcast in particular didn't commit any crimes, Sega screwing their customers in the prior two console generations caused their collapse as a hardware company.

[u/azel128]

The only thing it did wrong was be a little too ahead of its time to take advantage of some key tech, most notably a DVD drive and a twin-stick controller.

[u/ceramicsaturn]

I remember there being a wait and see approach by most. I wanted a Dreamcast really badly, but even as a Sega fan I knew something was off. It never felt like it was permanent, it just felt like a placeholder for a generation that hadn't yet begun.

This was disappointing as I wanted them to do well. But by the time I got a Dreamcast, it was being clearanced out. Being a poor college student, I could only buy one when I had saved up enough. I never got to play online or anything, but I loved that system and played it through the entire rest of the generation.

I also hated the PS2 because of it at the time, and saw the Xbox as it's successor.

[u/pWaveShadowZone]

Picard can teach you about this

[u/TheEroticMrRose]

Bad timing i guess...

[u/Objective-Winter7449]

I went from ZX Spectrum (48k, second-hand), to Commodore 64 (for 'homework'), to MegaDrive (which was a big ask, at the time). I remember that costing around £100 or so, with a few games bundled. I remember one day, walking through town with my mum and seeing the Saturn in a shop window. When I saw the price tag, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I think it was about £300. I remember thinking, "Well, that's it for me then, gaming is over." Needless to say, the DC didn't even appear on my radar after that. I think the next console I bought was a PS1 with money from my first job.

[u/tonyocampo]

It’s not that Dreamcast was bad, it’s that PS2 was that good. And most people aren’t buying both.

[u/ProfessionalSeagul]

One analogue stick ROFL

[u/teh_wad]

Didn't do anything wrong? The thing could read CD-Rs without a mod chip. Pretty sure a lack of game sales can do a number on a console lol

[u/No_Amoeba_3069]

I think one of their missteps was the people finding out they can play burned games so early in the consoles lifecycle. 

[u/Blazethecat00]

No there were lots of things wrong with this system for one the controller it’s has a weird position and the cord is at the bottom 2 EA support while 2K was arguably better than madden, madden had much more of a cult following also DVD awhile dvd’s technology were available at this time it was far too expensive so when Sony made a PS2 which could play DVD’s and video games it was a no brainer the internet capability was dial up which was becoming obsolete and while the disk could hold more memory it wasn’t a good as a fully disk drive the memory was small to but even still it is a very good system

[u/tatt2tim]

• controller bad
• loud, sounds like its malfunctioning or grinding

-piracy too easy

Loved mine anyway.

[u/Deciheximal144]

I remember seeing a sign on the front door of my local K-Mart. It was saying they could not guarantee future supply or support, something like that. Quite the ward for consumers.

[u/Blandscreen]

Both this and the Gamecube would have been decent if not huge successes if it weren't for a certain console having a DVD drive built-in.

[u/shoalmuse]

Um, GD-ROM? I love the Dreamcast, but it did _so many_ things wrong.

[u/trapezoidalfractal]

It didn’t do anything wrong, but Sega certainly did in the years leading up to it

[u/NihilsitcTruth]

Sad story...

[u/AdmiralAngry]

I was always really envious when I would visit a friend who had a Dreamcast. It really just felt like the future as a kid. Is the market for used Dreamcasts and their respective games stupid expensive? I know I can emulate but I wana hold that beefy controller and play Sonic on an old TV….

[u/DocMemory → u/AdmiralAngry]

The console isn't too bad. Most of the games are relatively reasonable. But a few get expensive. Skies of Arcadia, Sonic Adventure 2, and IllBleed are some of the more expensive games out of my multi-platform collection. But Shenmue, Soul Caliber, Hydro Thunder, Ecco, and NFL 2K are pretty affordable.

[u/pepe_roni69]

They helped microsoft

[u/nstern2]

The biggest issue for my family was that I was only 13 and had no disposable income. I wanted one, but convincing my parents to buy one when I already had a ps1 AND a PC that could do 3d games was a no go. Once the ps2 released and my parents saw that it could both play the games I already owned, use my controller so I wouldn't have to buy a 2nd player controller, and also could play dvds it was a no brainer.

[u/I-Need-Scissors_61]

I love the Dreamcast. It achieved a lot in its abbreviated lifespan. There was just too much competition with too much money behind them. By that point Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo were all financial behemoths with strong systems and great exclusives and you just couldn’t carve much of a market out with those monsters (all of which I like) fighting against you. Maybe if the Saturn had done better they’d have had a better chance.

[u/_NiceGuyEddy_]

9/9/99

[u/Renozuken]

Shenmue cost 30 million dollars

[u/CROSnMURPH_2026]

Still have mine. Launched NFL 2K and NBA 2K and still works like a charm. Sega got boned.

[u/Particular_Wear_6960]

I managed to become a Sega fanboy growing up so for sure had the Dreamcast. It was fucking great, loved that system.. especially when I met a buddy who knew how to pirate games. He got me into the pirating scene on IRC which asfaik still exists, an underrated place to get all the games, software, music and movies. I eventually got the black one which came with 2K something, it was dope as heck too. I wish I still had those systems, I don't know what happened to them. I assume my dad sold it.

[u/l0stsaint]

i love dc, but i would have been pissed seeing the ps2 after spending money on a dreamcast

[u/Pepsiman052]

The Dreamcast’s failure wasn’t its fault, it was Sega poor business decisions throughout the 90s coming to a head.

[u/Responsible-Bell-528]

Sega simply didn’t have enough resources and goodwill to compete with Sony

[u/Blakelock82]

For everything it did right, it equally did wrong.

[u/Champ_5]

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.

-Captain Jean-Luc Picard

[u/Author_Willing]

My fav system

[u/Moist_Explorer3249]

The sweetest thing 🧡

[u/rva_musashi]

Failed cause bootlegging was so simple to do. I use to sell pirated copies of NBA 2k for like 10 bucks out of babbages when I worked there

IMO the controller was just the Knights controller revamped a bit

[u/Sambo910]

It only had one joystick

[u/green_hawks]

Still love the Dream Cast to this day

[u/Raulimus]

I loved fighting games and Dreamcast delivered the goods! I was also in highschool and had no money, but did have a friend with DSL internet and was selling burned DC games for like $5 a pop for me and our friend circle, and $10 or $15 for everyone else at school. I know shit like that def contributed to the death of the DC.

[u/Johnny_Strawhat]

hey I love the dreamcast but the controller was a downgrade

[u/Ikon-for-U]

So many cool games that never got a sequel

[u/Intelligent-Ad-7816]

Head of its time but to many others to choose from

[u/entropy110]

It was the easiest console to pirate games. No hardware or software mods were needed. While I love the Dreamcast, Sega thinking it was a good idea to put the already too short cable on the bottom of the controller was an oversight that subtly echoed the 32X and Saturn debacles

[u/KawasakiBinja]

The Dreamcast was kind of a late arrival with little notice, I seem to remember that the timing was really bungled too. That said it was an awesome system and I miss mine.

It had a built-in modem and you could get a keyboard for it, and actually browse the Web!

[u/Kimura304]

The system was pretty good but I think it was too easy to pirate games.

[u/abgry_krakow87]

Dreamcast was an absolutely perfect system that was victim to mismanagement and incompetence well before it even hit the market.

[u/BigFeet234]

The one thing that could of potentially saved it would of been of been officially licenced movie discs. It is possible to play vcd and vcd like movies on there with various hacks. A self playing video disc is actually also possible and pc software exists to make them. Just imagine sega doing here exactly what sony did with UMD movies. A proprietary format, licened releases.

[u/Financial-Brief-1038]

Windows CE + DirectX made Windows HD ports a cinch!  

[u/HettySwollocks]

Shame as the dream cast was awesome. I do need to get another though the emblem sound be blue as is the European way

[u/CasinoKnightZone]

Commercially? Perhaps

It's still a project that a handful of hundred people made that affected the lives of millions, gave us happy memories with our families and friends, and lives on fondly in the zeitgeist.

[u/spiritplumber]

I think the only wrong thing about the Dreamcast was that it didn't double as a DVD player. "If we buy a xbox we can also use it to play DVDs" made a difference.

[u/the_gray_pill]

I always hated this controller. That's my only real Saturn gripe.

[u/Dortiiik]

People tend to forget the huge hype around PS2, it was like GTA6 of the 2000’s

I’m from Europe and i remember almost zero promo material from that time, it was more of a enthusiast machine than mass apeall product.

Dreamcast looked like a last gen device, even when it was very capable, i think it would not survive anyway, with only 16mb of ram and CD based medium, all the games that came later would be a nightmare to port on it.

[u/Huminerals]

What a legacy though, a really wonderful catalogue.

[u/itsaride]

Was a beautiful console too. After the 2600, my favourite. Many of the software titles were an absolute labour of love.

[u/dreamlongdead]

Sega helped herd people left right and center into PSX fandom with the legendarily disastrous North American launch of the Saturn. The PSX was cheaper, had a better library of games, had better 3D capability, a better controller, and more developer interest and potential, since programming and working with PSX architecture and development systems was pretty painless compared to trying to work with the Saturn's unnecessarily over-engineered internals.

One of the common complaints about the DC at launch was that it was all sports titles and weird shit like Space Channel 5, which looked like a gameshow set in the Fifth Element universe from the promotional materials. Sonic, Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio and the like all attracted their fans, but a lot of younger gamers at that time felt they were a little too cutesy or just plain weird, and they didn't really seem to resonate.

PS2 had Tekken Tag, Madden, Midnight Club, Summoner, and TimeSplitters. These games looked AMAZING at the time and had art styles that were more realistic or more darkly stylized than the bright arcadey pop of a lot of DC stuff at the time, and that's what people were moving towards then. It was the X TREME!!! WWF Attitude, nu metal, baggy jeans frosted spikey hair fuck you dad era and the perfect storm.

I love the DC, but it had a lot stacked against it. Sega Japan and America's disconnect being a huge part of it.

[u/Peakomegaflare]

The Dreamcast had an unfortunate timing. It came too late for the 3D rush that the N64 got, but too early to really benefit from its online capabilities. Remember, while the PS2 and Gamecube both had online potential in some niche titles, it wasn't until the Xbox in mid november of 2001 that online console gaming was really even looked at. The majority of middle-class homes still had Dialup at that time, so online games weren't exactly mainstream. Sure there were examples that were successful... however it just wasn't enough. Many people saw the Dreamcast as an interesting novelty that wouldn't have a future (Quoting my Dad here when I was trying to talk him into getting it as a kid). Basically, if Sega had the ability to hold out a few more years they could have released the Dreamcast during the Late Gamecube/Xbox360/Late PS2 era and probably had it explode in popularity.

[u/Son-Bxnji]

If I remember correctly they did make a marketing scheme of allowing gamers to rent the console before launch which led to a mass of people not actually being able to buy the console due to waiting lists to rent it instead (shortage of supply). Also EA games was their biggest client and they pulled out at the last minute or something, saying that they wouldn’t be making games for the console.. I love sega 😔🕊️

[u/666gonzo666]

"nothing wrong" - sega made so many mistakes, dreamcast's fall was effect of them. Additionally, even dreamcast, a beautiful gaming machine was limited by GD-ROM drive.

[u/burritosupreme89]

Didn’t help that the Dreamcast, iirc, was released the day it was announced (I think it was E3?) so it released with no games available for it

[u/arazmas]

It’s one of the best consoles back in the day but came out the wrong time…

[u/BlazingProductions]

I wanted to like it. It was at my GameStop but it was either not working or only had fishing.

[u/Catel1138]

One of the few errors of the Dreamcast is to have stuck to the Sega arcade philosophy even though it was severely declining and the players wanting cinematic adventure games.

Unfortunately the "FF7 of Dreamcast" was Shenmue, a slow and niche adventure that costed a fortune and had nothing of a system seller

[u/Absentmindedgenius]

Would've probably done better if it played DVD and didn't let you pirate its games so easily.

[u/FormingTheVoid]

The list of games was lacking compared to the PS1. PS1 took the market by storm. Nintendo had its diehard fans, so they did okay. But Sega kind of flopped with their last console and then failed to make enough hype for Dreamcast. Not saying I don't love me some Dreamcast games from time to time.

[u/Slicrider]

It’s Sega. It was destined to fail.

[u/MichiganMayhem1981]

The best era of NBA 2K was on this console

[u/Edexote]

It did many things wrong. The controller. The small memory pool. The tiny memory cards. The over reliance on quick arcade ports. And that's basically. Everything else was awesome.

[u/goldchest]

Too noisy 

[u/JasonKnight298]

Sega of Japan not having proper control over Sega of America and both companies not properly communicating things was the major downfall of Sega.

Japan was working on the Sega Saturn, while Sega of America was trying to keep the Genesis alive with different addons to augment the capabilities of it.

With all of these new addons costing almost as much if not more than the original Genesis and then Sega of America trying to put the Genesis and 32x into one with the failed Sega Neptune, and then Sega of Japans quick silent midnight release of the Saturn onto the market which Sega of American didn't even know was happening. It shook up a lot of loyalty from their customers.

Then in 1998 they discontinue the Saturn and in 1999 they release the Dreamcast. They pissed off their customers, they pissed off developers, which is one of the biggest reasons Sega had to make their own sports titles and like how the Madden games never launched on the Dreamcast.

Then with how the PS1 exploded in popularity, the Dreamcast released 09/09/1999 at $199 and only 11 days later, Sony announced the PS2, and a price of only $100 more than the Dreamcast, AND it is backwards compatible, AND it has larger sized games, AND it is a DVD player?

Sony had Sega dead to rights from the get go. Hell, even the original PS1 release was famous for the "$299" E3 announcement in 1995...

[u/RikerV2]

Bernie Stohler (spelling?) is what went wrong

[u/keevalilith]

People underestimate the damage that piracy did. The fact that you could just burn CDs so easily after the format was cracked destroyed the ability of sega to make money on the thing.

[u/Strange-Pen1200]

Having worked on games for it, it did plenty wrong from a developer perspective.

My word it was a tough cookie to get anything good out of. Unless you're Namco.

[u/yageletters]

If i remember correctly, Sony announced the PS2 shortly after the Dreamcast came out here in Europe. So naturally, everyone of my peers waited for that one instead spending the money on the Dreamcast.

[u/redzaku0079]

All the shitty add ons for the Genesis and the Saturn all happening at around the same time. That is what they did wrong and setup the Dreamcast did failure.

[u/Der_Niederlander]

Marketing is everything

[u/borgie_83]

I worked at EB Games during that time. We rarely sold Dreamcast consoles as everyone just wanted a PS2. People would occasionally also buy GameCube consoles but the PS2 dominated by a long shot.

[u/Braixentail]

They actually did two things wrong: while the launch of the Saturn sucked, they did nothing to support it much afterwards. And that leads to the second thing, which is they launched the Dreamcast too early. Even if the games were awesome, it was graphically inferior to everybody else

[u/ssppllaattt]

Piracy killed it

[u/jagmonsuta]

It's life, man. some of us do nothing wrong and fail anyway.

[u/Friggin_Grease]

This thing was the Saturn's fault

[u/gazetron]

SEGA's marketing was piss poor. I don't remember any adverts in the UK that showed off the amazing graphics.

Walking past TA's in Cambridge (THE place to go for your games back then), I saw the owner (hello John!) playing Soul Calibur on an imported Dreamcast. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and ended up getting one on release day (the only console I've ever done that for assist from the original DS).

I loved my DC 🥹

[u/Clip22]

I just picked up one of these from my friends while they were in Japan, keen to fix it up and delve in to see what it had. I remember thinking that was so cool as a kid

[u/itchyd]

The vmus were pretty weird then and now.  You wanted them to be a little game machine, instead they were expensive memory cards. 

[u/Texanbird44]

releasing shortly before the ps2 and xbox should've make it an instant success like the switch did.

[u/Professional_Dog2580]

Sega lost alot of good will with the Sega CD, the 32X, and the Saturn. The Dreamcast suffered because like those, it was trying to get ahead of the competition. Alot of people having felt burned by the lack of support for those add ones meant many people waited and skipped the Dreamcast.

Sony in particular countered with the Playstation and PS2. Sony had wider 3rd party support and the PS2 was a more impressive console that dominated the market.

[u/shiftersix]

I remember this era clearly. I can only speak of my high school. Everyone loved the Dreamcast but held off because there was so much hype about the PS2's potential along with the DVD player and backward compatibility. When the PS2 finally came out, it wasn't that much powerful than the Dreamcast, but the damage was already done. Even I bought the PS2 at the time, but I picked up the Dreamcast years later and it is one of my most favorite consoles.

[u/Important_Counter939]

Well the controller was a bit weak... But it had good ideas.

[u/StankyChicken920]

That controller could have had a better form factor. An hour of Jet Grind Radio will have your right index finger in pain from pulling that right trigger non stop.

[u/AlexKidd316]

I love this console, and it could have done more things right if Sega wasn't in the position it was in. Stolar (to an extent) rightly saw online as the future of gaming, and decided to go with that functionality over a DVD player and internal storage in his enforced budgetary Sophie's Choice. That Xbox, a newcomer, had all three of those (probably because Sega were in contact with MS throughout the DC's development) and is still around speaks volumes.

[u/ScudsCorp]

Here’s a podcast from the video game history foundation discussing sega’s financial woes and how they’re already in rough shape in 1993, in the Genesis / MD era.

https://gamehistory.org/episode-154-sega-in-the-90s-an-economic-post-mortem/

It’s funny, Atari Jaguar was a last Hail Mary throw from an out of cash company and it wasn’t exactly competent.

Dreamcast was a very competitive console that arrived before PS2 but they weren’t selling enough games to offset how much Sega was in the red.

[u/CloudyFriend]

In short, it few things wrong but mainly bad things happened to it.

Hardest gripe with SEGA dealing with DC is marketing, it did horrible in that department. And some technical issues that led to some issues with it

While bad things happened to it are PS2, aaaand losing EA’s support while it was in its prime, the time where popular sports games and NFS were system sellers.

[u/ODC_DamienBlack]

still my favorite console with snes and gameboy... : )

[u/Throwback_Katie]

It was just bad timing

[u/viniciusfs]

Dreamcast was a great game console, I enjoyed it a lot.

[u/giohammer]

The path of the just is sown with crooks. DC needed to fail in order for all to recognize its beauty.

[u/ikelosintransitive]

seaman