I actually don't think they were most successful than Sega. Sega's first consoles was crushed by the competition, so was the XBox. Sega's second console was a success, but didn't won the gen, so was the 360. The 720 vs. Dreamcast situation will show who wins this comparison.

It's pretty likely that 720 will beat Dreamcast on sales with ease. It could lose the gen, but at least it will make until the end of the gen.

Was it now? I'd say the original PS had the most fighters under its belt under one platform. PS2 had MVC2, Soul Calibur, Tekken, Capcom vs SNK,Battle Colusseum, KOF, DOA and much, much, more. The PS had all of those with Battle Arena Toshinden, Bushido Blade, Bloody Roar and various other fighting titles even before the PS2 ever came. 

By comparison the Dreamcast was weak in fighters. I grew up a fighting game fanatic. 

Still to this day outside of the arcade the Playstation brand is still the top fighting game console used in non-arcade style tournaments. 

Third party games didnt sell on sega because Nintendo conditioned Sega to rely on first party because it had third party under heavy lockdown. It wasnt until halfway through the Sega genesis lifespan that it finally got decent third party support being pitted against the Super SNES. People follow the third parties wherever they go and back then Nintendo had it all under an iron fist and didnt give third parties any breathing room. They were very strict and stringent becuase they knew third parties had nowhere to go. In the beginning Sega wasn't a financially viable prospect for them, hence why they created games like Joe Montana football and other celebrity backed games. 

What happened to Sega at the hands of Nintendo, is what Sony did to Nintendo. Difference is Sony doesn't restrict third party while on their platform (like they did rare) and soured their relationships. They let technology do the talking and devs see the  possibilities. Microsoft learned from Sony and thus they are their mirror image now outside of first party. Microsoft learned that third party wealth is the key to a healthy console lifespan.

i agree with j.allard and it was a step up level for internet in the lounge/bedroom which they could afford and they hit a nerve with halo and multi shooting in a big market,no doubt about it

of course if you can suck in the losses to establish oneself then anything is possible

Really, just money... how about more creativity, better developers and better hardware...

if Sega were so great, they would have money of their own. Sega sucks now, they sucked back then. Sega have made a business of regurgitating the same crap over and over for decades, just like Capcom, Squeenix and other weebo companies. Its about time they bit the dust and let companies like Microsoft, Ubisoft and Bathesda take over.  

I reckon I came across as a bit of a lunatic in my initial post, I'm not a total Sega hater, I like the Panzer and Jet Set radio franchise but this thread just seemed like another Xbox hate thread in disguise. 

I respect your opinion, in fact, you have made me change my initial view point, but idiots just replying ''money'' need to get their heads out of their arse. IMO of course. 

~Mod Edit~

This post has been moderated.

-Smeags

Hell yeah it was a fighting fans dream. Kicked off right from the start with SoulCalibur and never let up in that regard.

Sega in a nutshell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlulSyBI2aY

Microsoft in a nutshell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc

Sega made some huge mistakes with the 32x and Saturn that lost them consumer trust and lots of money, by the time they fixed those problems with the Dreamcast it was too late. When Microsoft released the Xbox they successfully brought online and PC oriented games like FPS and WRPG to consoles which was a pretty big deal. When PS3 came out it made some of the same mistakes Saturn made and Microsoft was able to capitalize on them. Plus Microsoft has an infinte amount of money where as Sega does not

Bam...DEAD ON! That and Nintendo never allowed them to hit the ground running with third party support. Kind of shot them at the knee caps before they could take a step. The rest Sega did to themselves from within.

I always thought Iit would have been cool if Dreamcast lasted a few years longer then Sega and Microsoft collaborated togethe to make Xbox in 02-03

The Saturn was more expensive because of the extra materials needed for the second core, it was disastrous :/

The Saturn also rendered games in cubes instead of triangles... which is insane and made porting very difficult between the Saturn and PS1/N64 which both used simpler and industry standard triangles.

The 32X, Sega CD and Saturn fiasco is almost a B movie plot it's so crazy how it happened, I don't know how Sega didn't see the brand confusion with so many simultaneous platforms all competing for the same marketshare.