Why Did the Dreamcast Fail?

[superyoda41]

It also has to be said that Sega banked too heavily on Seganet as the game changer.

Look, as a 16-year-old kid I was totally all in for the advent of internet gaming, but anyone at the time knew there were going to be limitations and issues.

Namely, most of the US was still on 56k modems and that is a real narrow pipeline to handle even Dreamcast visuals. It also meant that most households had to monopolize the phone line for gaming, which as a kid living through the era, was not an option. You had to basically have two phone lines.

Also, AOL was still the major player in internet service and there were a mountain of AOL-related access issues. I remember having to sign up for Freei.net to get the Dreamcast online.

The end point was SegaNet was what XboxLive would become, but it was too early and there were still a ton of technical limitations. If you are selling this as your main feature over a DVD player, you were bound to run into issues.

[Violent By Design]

The Sega CD sold at least 7 million units and several of its games sold millions of units. It was not a commercial failure at all.

While for such an expensive add-on it did have pretty high % market penetration of the Mega Drive userbase, you can hardly call 7 million a big enough install base for it to be worth developing for, plus while the games might have sold averagely well (or very well for the small install base), how many critically acclaimed exclusive games did it have?

Though I totally agree it's unfair to compare it to the 32X.

If you're just talking critical acclaim, it had quite a few. Snatcher remake, Lunar 1+2, Sonic CD. Considering how it was ditched for the 32x so quickly, it had it's fair share of quality.

[BoringSupreez]

The Sega CD sold at least 7 million units and several of its games sold millions of units. It was not a commercial failure at all.

While for such an expensive add-on it did have pretty high % market penetration of the Mega Drive userbase, you can hardly call 7 million a big enough install base for it to be worth developing for, plus while the games might have sold averagely well (or very well for the small install base), how many critically acclaimed exclusive games did it have?

Though I totally agree it's unfair to compare it to the 32X.

If you're just talking critical acclaim, it had quite a few. Snatcher remake, Lunar 1+2, Sonic CD. Considering how it was ditched for the 32x so quickly, it had it's fair share of quality.

Most like to rag on the SCD and call it a failure because it only sold 7 million, but they fail to research the games that were available for it or consider that while 7 million may be bad for a stand-alone console, it's pretty decent for an add-on. If it weren't for that fact that prices on SCDs usually run twice as high as those for Genesis systems, I'd recommend every Genesis owner try to buy one.

[Mad_Hatter]

By no means is this the reason the Dreamcast failed, but what was really annoying for me was the controller cord coming from the bottom and not the top like most controllers. It would get in the way a lot. And when I was a kid, lot of them would break and I would have to move the wire and tape it down to a working position.

[Erik_Twice]

Also, thsoe awful FMV games? Critically aclaimed as fuck. Sewer Shark got 10/10 GOTY Awards on practically every publication.

[CRTGAMER]

By no means is this the reason the Dreamcast failed, but what was really annoying for me was the controller cord coming from the bottom and not the top like most controllers. It would get in the way a lot. And when I was a kid, lot of them would break and I would have to move the wire and tape it down to a working position.

There is a clip built in underneath to move the cable to the top. A good point though, Sega should have made the cable exit from under the VMU slots.

[theclaw]

Sega's market strategy was doomed from the start. Regardless of past history.

Launch delay outside Japan gave Sony a free ticket to build hype, and its games sorely lacked in global mass market appeal. They should've been trying to get games like Final Fantasy or FIFA. Heck even a competent DQ7 port could've been a Japanese system seller, everyone knows how rabid they can be for such games.

[Mad_Hatter]

By no means is this the reason the Dreamcast failed, but what was really annoying for me was the controller cord coming from the bottom and not the top like most controllers. It would get in the way a lot. And when I was a kid, lot of them would break and I would have to move the wire and tape it down to a working position.

There is a clip built in underneath to move the cable to the top. A good point though, Sega should have made the cable exit from under the VMU slots.

Yea, while the clip is useful, it doesn't allow you to have the controller resting on your stomach or leg while playing.

They should have just has the VMU plug in from the bottom.

[ZeroAX]

Most like to rag on the SCD and call it a failure because it only sold 7 million, but they fail to research the games that were available for it or consider that while 7 million may be bad for a stand-alone console, it's pretty decent for an add-on. If it weren't for that fact that prices on SCDs usually run twice as high as those for Genesis systems, I'd recommend every Genesis owner try to buy one.

Either you want to admit it or not it didn't make sense at the time to develop for the Mega CD. Simply put why limit your market to 7 million when it can be 40 million?

Ok...I'll bite about the "failing to research the games of the platform". Here is a lazy solution. The wikipedia list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sega_CD_games

you list me all the EXCLUSIVE experiences the Sega CD had to offer. Which means no arcade ports, no ports of any kind, no games that there were better versions on other consoles/home computers (at the time obviously, I'm not going to take away Sonic CD, Mega CD's probably most well known game). And from those exclusive games, you tell me how many are actually good games. And don't show me scores, General_Norris already mentioned the stupidity of giving FMV games high scores.


And by the way as a retro collector I want a Mega CD too, I just think releasing it at the time was stupid.

[pierrot]

No offense, but I think BoringSupreez may have a point in saying that you have a case of contempt prior to investigation. The worth of the Sega CD's library has a lot to do with how open one is to the experiences it actually has to offer, and that includes having an open mind about some of the games it has that incorporate FMV. Plenty of people seem to enjoy Night Trap and Double Switch for their gameplay.

I'm not sure why you would take away the games that it has that are potentially better experienced on the Sega CD, despite having other ports on contemporary consoles. If it's better on the Sega CD, why wouldn't that be a reason to own the Sega CD version?

I could pick out a pretty sizable list of good to great games for the Sega CD, but I don't think it would be a good use of my time, as there are plenty of resources for investigating the Sega CD library on one's own, and in a way that he could focus on his specific tastes.

Maybe the add-on wasn't the best use of Sega's resources at the time, but the fact remains that it was not a failure, and is still potentially worth owning; and more worth owning than some other console's CD attachments.