Sega burnt through their store of good-will before the Dreamcast was released, much like Sony did to get the PS3 underway along with the container loads of cash, but Sega was worse to the point where the fuel light was on. It was always going to be a losing battle because Sega was finished before they even got to start. Its not that the PS2 was so strong at that point, it was more that Sega was so weak. Its good will which gives a company like Nintendo or Microsoft (now) or Sony a place at the table, you need the confidence of the third party developers and the confidence of consumers and getting it is a massive chicken/egg problem where you have to get both the chicken and the egg at the same time. Nintendo could have launched the Dreamcast against the PS2 (goodwill), Microsoft could have done the same (money) but Sega themselves didn't have enough of either.
Tease.
