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Forums - Sales - What if the Dreamcast never failed?

a.l.e.x59 on 30 May 2007
If the Dreamcast never failed, would it have sold more units than the Gamecube, and Xbox?

The Dreamcast has sold 10.6 million units.
The Playstation 2 has sold 115.36 million units.
The Xbox has sold 24 million units.
The Gamecube has sold 21.49 million units.

It is clear that the Dreamcast may have had no chance with the Playstation 2, but did it have a chance against the Gamecube and Xbox?

The Dreamcast only lived for about 4-5 months outside of Japan, and has sold almost half as much as the Xbox, which lived for more than 4 years, and the Gamecube, which lived for more than 5 years, the Dreamcast has done better. Therefore, if you extend the life of the Dreamcast to 4 years, it would have outsold the Xbox, and 5 years, it would have outsold the Gamecube. However, that is only if the Dreamcast could have sold as much as it did before it failed. After the Playstation 2, the Dreamcast sales have slowed down. But, if Sega never stopped the production of the Dreamcast, would it have had a chance to take down the Gamecube, and Xbox?


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Dolla Dolla on 30 May 2007

The biggest problem with the Dreamcast was simply that Sega was out of money and couldn't support the machine like it deserved. Also, EA didn't support the Dreamcast AT ALL, which was another nail in that coffin. Then, it was the easiest pirated system on the face of the planet. No modifications, just burn and play. So, I'm unsure of how it would've done if it stayed in the race. I think the system would've been made completely different. No EA support is telling though.



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HappySqurriel on 30 May 2007

This isn't all that easy to answer because the Dreamcast failed for a wide variety of reasons and depending on which reasons are eliminated would influence how it impacted the generation.

Regardless, the assumptions that you could make would have multiple impacts across all platforms and would be centered around stronger sales for the Dreamcast; early on these strong sales would come at the expense to the PS2 which would lower the lead that it had on the XBox and Gamecube, at this point things become difficult to predict because the lower lead of the PS2 would likely limit the number of exclusive games while (at the same time) there is also more competition from an aging Dreamcast.



windowview on 30 May 2007

I don't think EA would have made much of a difference because Sega's own 2K series always received high reviews. It is a shame that the Dreamcast didn't make it though, it is my favorite of last gen. In fact I just picked Virtual On again yesterday, and started playing it and loving it just as much as I did the first time I played it.



tk1989 on 30 May 2007

the fact was that it did fail, end of story :P



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BenKenobi88 on 30 May 2007

What if, what if, what if.



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fishamaphone on 30 May 2007

What if God was one of us? Oh, there you are BenKenobi. Nevermind.



johnsobas on 30 May 2007

Sega had their golden opportunity in the 32 bit generation when Nintendo fell from glory and Sony was the new guy that didn't start out well. They could have been in Sony's position at at the end of that generation but they blew it.



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ckmlb on 30 May 2007

What if we got next gen sequels to Jet Set Radio and Panzer Dragoon? now that is a good question...



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nintendo_fanboy on 30 May 2007
HappySqurriel said:

This isn't all that easy to answer because the Dreamcast failed for a wide variety of reasons and depending on which reasons are eliminated would influence how it impacted the generation.

Regardless, the assumptions that you could make would have multiple impacts across all platforms and would be centered around stronger sales for the Dreamcast; early on these strong sales would come at the expense to the PS2 which would lower the lead that it had on the XBox and Gamecube, at this point things become difficult to predict because the lower lead of the PS2 would likely limit the number of exclusive games while (at the same time) there is also more competition from an aging Dreamcast.


This is an interesting thought HappySquirrel. I could really imagine that a better Dreamcast performance could have helped the Gamecube. As you said, if there were two consoles competing, the exclusives would have been split between them and that would have meant that the Cube's exclusives would have been more important. I don't say that it could have outsold the ps2, but maybe it could have reached N64 levels.



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