By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming - Sega Dreamcast turns 18 today (Western Release was 9/9/99).

Random_Matt on 10 September 2017
VGPolyglot said:
Random_Matt said:
Sega killed themselves.
The Saturn was actually doing ok relatively.

I think the Saturn and Dreamcast ended up with fairly similar sales.

There doesn't seem to be an official number, but apparantly 7-10m in Japan alone.



Around the Network
VGPolyglot on 10 September 2017
Random_Matt said:
VGPolyglot said:

I think the Saturn and Dreamcast ended up with fairly similar sales.

There doesn't seem to be an official number, but apparantly 7-10m in Japan alone.

 



COKTOE on 10 September 2017

I don't have the time to read all the responses to see if this has already been pointed out, but regarding the 3 years of availability mentioned in the op: In NA, EU, and AUS, the Dreamcast was only on the market for roughly 18 months before it was officially canceled. Yeah, it still sold for a little while after, but such a climate is hardly conducive to buoying sales.



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."

Random_Matt on 10 September 2017
VGPolyglot said:
Random_Matt said:

There doesn't seem to be an official number, but apparantly 7-10m in Japan alone.

 

Everyone outside Japan hates Sega. Also read it was complicated hardware wise.



Puppyroach on 10 September 2017
Random_Matt said:
VGPolyglot said:

 

Everyone outside Japan hates Sega. Also read it was complicated hardware wise.

Well, the Megadrive/Genesis had it's biggest success in the US and Europe and in Europe, the Master System was rivaling NES for a long time 🙂.



Around the Network
Turkish on 10 September 2017

The failure of the Saturn led the PS1 to become the 1st 100M seller console, and PS2 become the beast it was. Had Saturn not fail and take market share from PS1, there would be less hype for the PS2, the DC wouldn't have to be rushed, come out with better specs and possibly a dvd drive. Remember it is a 1998 console, DC was going up against the PS1.

A lot of the big 3rd party PS1 titles would've been on Saturn as well like FF7 and MGS, had Sega been as forward thinking with the Saturn as they were in the arcades. Namco's arcade systems would be based on Saturn hardware instead of PS1 considering how big they were on the Megadrive.

But then they wised up regarding arcade stuff with the DC, just when arcades were losing popularity, and the 3rd parties that made the PS1 big went on to make the PS2 big.



Random_Matt on 10 September 2017

Damn, what a mess.



Cerebralbore101 on 10 September 2017

I updated the OP with a list of DC games and their Metacritic Scores.



AlfredoTurkey on 10 September 2017
AngryLittleAlchemist said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

So, I've never owned a Dreamcast but I've played a lot of games that originated on the system. I'm always looking at the history of game releases, and the Dreamcast just had an amazing two years of releases. It reminds me a lot of the Switch in so many ways. Like the Switch it was a successor to a failed console, it had a very good library, it was made by a small Japanese company, and it sold extremely well (nearly 10 million units in three years, while the GameCube struggled to reach 20 million in 5 years). Sega just ran out of money with the Dreamcast. 

How is that "extremely well"? That means it would be by far the worst selling console out of the Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2. Still, admittadely, that would go to show just how close Sega was to Nintendo, but that just shows how weak Nintendo was that gen.

I think this is a pretty good video on why Sega as a company were great developers but also why it took a while for them to pick up after Genesis.

Either way, it's really sad that Sega isn't in the console industry anymore. They have such a huge catalog of interesting IP. I wonder if, with the combination of Sega and Nintendo during the 7th gen, we might have a more single player oriented game market to this day?

The Dreamcast broke the launch record when it came out so it did sell very well right out of the gates. The problem was maintaining those sales which we all know now, it didn't. Nothing could defeat the hype that was the PS2. It was like a black whole... consuming all in it's path.



AlfredoTurkey on 10 September 2017
shikamaru317 said:
Random_Matt said:
Sega killed themselves.
The Saturn was actually doing ok relatively.

Saturn only did well in Japan, it was a flop in North America and Europe, due to several factors including the high price, poor marketing decisions, and the lack of mainline games in several popular Sega IP's from the previous generation including Sonic, Streets of Rage, and Phantasy Star. The Dreamcast was an attempt to win back North America and Europe, and it actually worked for a time, but in the process they managed to alienate their Japan fanbase who had bought Saturn.

Random_Matt said:

Everyone outside Japan hates Sega. Also read it was complicated hardware wise.

That's not really true. Genesis/Mega Drive sold more in North America and in Europe separately than it did in Japan, and Dreamcast sold more in North America than it did in Japan. 

Yep. The Genesis beat the SNES in the US until 1994 and actually had more marketshare than Nintendo. Anyone who says that Sega wasn't popular in the US needs a history lesson.