Why Did the Dreamcast Fail?

[ZeroAX]

Please look through my initial post where I quote General_Norris. We were talking about the commercial success of the add on. I disagreed with it being called that. Because A) it didn't really sell that much, B) It didn't make business sense to make games for it (unless the cost of CDs vs the cost of cartridges is taken into question, though this wasn't Nintendo so it was probably not as bad ), and C) The Mega CD just didn't have that many memorable exclusive games, which means it was just not popular enough to get STRONG support (for a counter example, the Japanese success of the Saturn is probably why it got so many great Japan centered games).


But then maybe I misread his reply (I just read it again and noticed that might be the case xD) thinking he was accusing me of just wanting to give a bad opinion of the Mega CD, so if that wasn't the case I apologize for thinking it was a personal attack and for the aggresive parts of my post which I edited out.

[Violent By Design]

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.

To be fair, they had the first 3D Sonic game which was an extremely big deal. I think you could consider Phantasy Star Online to be a killer ip as well.


I think they tried duplicating what they did with Genesis. They went first party heavy and produced great sports titles in hopes of keeping up, but there was a lot more competition now than vs SNES and they had already expended alot of their resources.

Sega had Capcom on board but fighting games had died out in popularity by that time, and Resident Evil Code Veronica didn't really push any units. Was really just unfortunate timing for Sega.

I also think they were banking on Shenmue big time. Shenmue was a gigantic waste of money from a business perspective, but they had the right idea. Grand Theft Auto 3 ended up being the game that basically made gaming legitimately mainstream, and while they are totally different games mechanically, they have similar selling points fundamentally (their scope, sandbox, graphics, "you can do anything" etc).

[marurun]

One thing we're missing is that initially the Dreamcast sold very well in the US. Sega Japan's failure in the JPN market cause premature death in the US market for the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast really had a shot in the US, and actually had really good launch titles for the US market. But the US market alone wasn't adequate to carry Sega Japan given the beating the DC was taking in Japan.

I think Sega's US strategy was competent and capable, and the system was doing fine until the ground underneath it was cut away by Sega Japan. The Dreamcast was a failure because Sega couldn't sell the system in Japan. It's that simple. Had the system done better in Japan Sega might have had less trouble getting certain US and EU partners like EA. It certainly would have led to better support for the system, and thus a greater ability to maintain a positive US market position.

Sony FUD hurt, but it wasn't fatal in the US. Sega's problems were all related to Sega Japan. Everything goes back to the home office.

[Cronozilla]

They sold it at a loss and software sales didn't make up for any of it. The entire endeavor just cost Sega money.

I wonder if they had sold it for $250, like they wanted, if Sega would have "died" when they did. It likely wouldn't have had the ridiculous mandate on the unit numbers if they did.