Why Did the Dreamcast Fail?

[Pulsar_t]

http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/7/4599588 ... looks-back

Looking back, Takezaki sees the Dreamcast as an incredibly revolutionary system, but one that was probably destined to be Sega's last no matter how sales turned out.

[Sano]

Great question. I am curious as to the answer to this myself. Does anyone have any major or even minimal insight as to what went wrong?

Edit: Oh, haha, just noticed the link you posted at the top of your post...

[bryan_65]

Microsoft. They even stole Sega's President. Sega brought them in with Windows CE for the Dreamcast. This could be a long story.

[dsheinem]

shitty games

[ZeroAX]

3 reasons. Mega CD, 32X, Saturn.

[Mad_Hatter]

3 reasons. Mega CD, 32X, Saturn.

This is what I think as well. They lost too much of the market and suppliers, and dvelopers, because of those 3 reasons. And wasted a lot of their own money.

The efforts of the 32x and CD should have all been focused on the next console (Saturn).

Dreamcast was awesome.

[Erik_Twice]

The Sega CD was profitable, it sold more around 7-8 million units and several of its games broke the million units sold, which is amazing for their budget and era.

[ZeroAX]

The Sega CD was profitable, it sold more around 7-8 million units and several of its games broke the million units sold, which is amazing for their budget and era.

Profitable yes. But then again the gamecube was profitable too, not a lot of people call it a success. For you and me the Mega CD might have been worth it, but I don't think most mainstream gamers who spent so much money on one thought it was worth it. I mean it had some dawmn good exclusives, but nothing to justify the price point imo :/

[Lazer]

shitty games

[BoringSupreez]

3 reasons. Mega CD, 32X, Saturn.

Many people point at the SCD, 32X, and Saturn as the reason why Dreamcast failed. I really doubt that though. Look at how well Nintendo pulled themselves out of the ditch they fell into with the Gamecube when the Wii came out! I think the DC's failure should be much more heavily attributed to the PS2. That thing was a monster in its day. It severely stunted the performaces of the oXbox and GCN, I see no reason why it couldn't have been the killer of the DC.

Think about it: the DC started strong, then faltered as time went on. If Sega's past was the killer, the DC wouldn't have started strong. It might have picked up steam later as people realized the DC was different than Sega's previous mistakes, but what happened was exactly the opposite. Dreamcast bolted out the gate on launch day, then sales began to dry up as the PS2 approached.