Why I think the Dreamcast Died

Ah, the dreamcast, SEGA’s last hardware attempt. An amazing system for its time, with a broad outlook for the future, and what seems so bright at launch, was quickly darkened post launch. Why did it fail? What could SEGA have done to change the course? I’m not sure, but I can only speculate.

1) No Saturn: I hate the Saturn, despite the fact that I have never owned one, I have read about it a lot, and I rarely hear about good games on the platform. I can’t think of enough to make the purchase worthwhile, and that sentiment spread to the Dreamcast when it launched, people just did not trust SEGA anymore.

2) No DVD: When the PS2 came out, it had a DVD drive, and was the cheapest DVD player. This was a BIG nail in the old Dreamcast’s coffin. But, they were developing an add on drive. So, what should SEGA have done? On the release day of the PS2, release the add-on and have the DC and additional drive cost less than a PS2, and advertise that it was a slightly cheaper system, and you could get away with it. Also, have the drive come with a Broadband adaptor.

3) Dial-up was not as popular as they thought: Broadband came around faster than they thought, and didn’t release the adaptor as soon as they should have. It should have been out day 1, where the cutting edge people could get it, and plug in and get going. Just a little far behind there.

4) 2-D sonic: Pump out a 2-D sonic game using the Sonic 3 engine. It would be fast, cheap, and easy to pump one out every six months. 20$, some sonic, and more reasons to get the hardware.

5) Better Copy protection: CD-R’s were becoming popular. I know they most likely did not see it coming, but it did hurt. If they had the DVD drive out, they could have put games on the DVD’s, and that would have saved them. Have some games use both, and load super-fast.

6) Have the system come with a good game. The Genesis did it, and it did well, and have the system come with a VMU. People like getting the entire package in one purchase. One controller would have been fine.

If SEGA did all of this, would they have succeeded? Maybe, or maybe the PS2 was just so powerful that it would have steam rolled everything, kind of like it did. The PS2 is the most popular system to date, but I think the WII may be gaining.