i vomited reading the article

I think thread title should be changed it reeks of baiting.

You should put Article:WiiU stuff and stuff instead.

Well the Saturn was like $400 at launch (not sold at a loss) while the Dreamcast was only $200. Also, we can presume the price to game development went way up from Saturn to Dreamcast. Shenmue for example had one the biggest budgets of the time.

I guess their efforts to make the Dreamcast competitively priced and cutting edge just cost them too much money.

The title of the thread is exactly the same as the title of the mentioned article.

...but not different for a Sony or MS console, so why aren't THEY the new dreamcast? If Nintendo is "barely" making a profit, its still better than the huge losses that Sony took with the PS3 and the Vita hardware.

The problem with "gaming analysts" is that unless they're well over 30, they haven't seen the whole industry's history - the crash in the 80s, the rise of Nintendo, the birth of the PS1, the switch from cartridge to optical, etc. Many young game journalists will have a hard time trying to assess the industry's trends well, outside of referring to something edited to death on Wikipedia.

If Nintendo was going to be hurt, it was the end result of the N64, the PS1 took a lion's share of the market, and Nintendo responded with the GameCube, which still sold at a minor loss, with the new competitor, Microsoft, on the scene. People swore that the XBOX would be end of Nintendo. Then Nintendo changed gears and took a big risk with the Wii, and made out like a bandit. 

The Wii U might perform around GameCube levels, maybe somewhere between GC and Wii levels, but will never become an "also ran" like the Dreamcast was, mostly due to a solid IP based fanbase. Zelda, Mario and Metroid will have been around 30 years in 2017, which isn't far away now. Donkey Kong is even older than that. For all the milking in the world, there's still a solid fanbase for those IPs.

There are a number of similarities in the broad strokes. Sega didn't have anything close to a good relationship with large third party publishers by the time they released their console, and the launch itself only really exacerbated that disconnect. The same does hold true for Nintendo. After all third party games did abysmally on the Wii, and they had done so on the two preceding platforms. I think Nintendo offering a awful design choice. Pretty much mirrors the bad soft launch that Sega put forward. So as far as publisher/developer support both platforms are almost identical. Hell Electronic Arts snubbed the Dreamcast, and it looks to be doing the same with the Wii U.

As far as the designs are concerned. I think it balances out to be about the same thing as well. Actually when you think about it for a bit you realize that Sega at least tried to push the envelope, but overshot the mark. Nintendo on the other hand was pretty lazy, and altogether uninspired with their hardware. Can we be honest Nintendo just modestly improved the engine, and dumped a touch screen into their controller, and it wasn't even a good touch screen at that. Anyway it adds up to the same thing. They both made platforms that didn't serve the needs of the third party developers.

I want to toss something else into this debate both companies have shown a willingness to abandon platforms in the past. There has been a lot of talk in this thread about the 32x, and the Saturn in this thread. What there hasn't been near enough talk about is the devices that Nintendo itself has abandoned. Nintendo having its name on the box is no guarantee of support if they don't like the sales. It is kind of humorous how so many on these forums decide to ignore the Virtual Boy. Yes it was a Nintendo console, and yes Nintendo abandoned it right out of the gate.

When you get right down to it Nintendo has a worse habit then Sega in this regard. The company has a veritable laundry list of failed devices that Nintendo gave up on right at the starting line. Rob the Robot, Four Score, The Super Scope, The 64DD, the Power Pad, the Power Glove. Nintendo feels no compunction about dropping their support for devices.

As far as software is concerned it is also pretty close. Both Sega and Nintendo are rest on their laurels types. They both had a couple fantastically successful franchises, and they preceded to milk the ever loving shit out of them. Rather then treating them with the respect they deserved. Thankfully for Nintendo their Mascot was able to make the transition to 3D gaming with no problem, but the fat man is still getting tired and worn. Just about every one of his counterpart Mascots since his inception has succumbed to the public apathy about playing the same game over and over.

This you can't explain to Nintendo fans at all. It just doesn't seem to sink in, but the more Nintendo recycles the same old games over and over again. The greater the disinterest becomes. Public interest cannot be maintained if the product that is being sold doesn't reinvent itself. By the time the Dreamcast rolled around gamers were pretty disinterested in playing the same old thing all over again. This is happening with Nintendo. A handful of games that have been retread half a dozen or so times aren't going to stoke the fires of interest.

I am not saying there are parallels in all things, but most certainly in the broader trends. I think it is a coin toss as to whether Nintendo will actually keep going with the Wii U after this year. I have the feeling that they are already hard at work on a real replacement for their current console.

Stop badmouthing the Dreamcast.

Dreamcast is awesome, I still have one sitting in my closet, and Wii U is a different story because Nintendo actually has a load of money with the 3DS backing it up as well. SEGA went under with the DC because their management was shit.

No, no, and no.
Dreamcast followed on the heels of a last-place console in the Saturn.
Wii U is following a knockout success in the Wii.
Dreamcast didn't have Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Zelda.
Wii U will.

No, its not a dreamcast. Piracy nowadays means that you need to cut yourself out of online play, digital only releases and DLC. This wasnt a problem in the Dreamcast era.
Also, to pirate the DC you only needed a disc. Wii U, just like the playstation systems needs a dedicated chip to be installed. This means losing warranty aswell.

No, its not the same, but if it was in terms of game quality, it would be very welcome.