There has never been a Nintendo console in history that could play CDs. That is purely embarassing!

Well, some people think that WII was the winner of this gen, i doubt it: this system seems that can raise in any moment.

There's no doubt that Wii will win this generation.

Dreamcast - Sega sold it at a loss and had the best graphics of the generation. PS3 - Sony sells it as a loss and has the best graphics of the generation. Is the loss leading best graphics combination a kiss of death?

The Dreamcast was doomed to failure. Sega just had terrible management. I've posted this before. The failure of the Dreamcast ultimately started before the release of the 32X. Sega had always been a niche hardware maker. The only success they had in the hardware arena was the Genesis. The Genesis was a success because of then Sega of America president Tom Kalinske. Sega of Japan and him got into a disagreement over the 32X. He didn't want to release it because he knew it would harm the Saturn's chances. What SoJ was thinking is beyond me. They failed in Japan despite their headstart over the Super Famicom. Kalinske had suceeded. He resigned because he didn't want to release the 32X and the fact that despite not knowing the US market, SoJ still had final say.

The whole irony of the situation is that SoJ hired Bernie Stolar as his replacement. Stolar completely botched the Sega Saturn in the US. The Saturn was Sega's most successful console in the Japanese market. Because Stolar failed so badly with the Saturn, SoJ had to speed up development of the Saturn's replacement. Retailers and Third Party developers in Japan weren't too happy with this. That is why the Dreamcast had no chance to succeed.

The Saturn debacle in the US, the early launch started it, handicapped the Dreamcast with US retailers and consumers. Some retailers that weren't a part of the Saturn early launch refused to carry Sega products. Consumers were hesitant buy the Dreamcast because the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn were all failures. In Japan the Dreamcast had little chance because retailers and consumers were unhappy with the Saturn's lifespan being cut short. You add the two billion dollar debt Sega had to the equation and you have a recipe for disaster.

There are many explanations as for the Dreamcast demise .First the failures of the Saturn ,32X and Sega CD .Second the piratery that was running rampant once the boot disk was available .Third the absence of DVD player .Fourth ,Sega was endebted . Once they dropped the price the consoles started to sell better than ever but it was too late .I have 3 Dreamcast for the record ,and most of the games that were released for that system .It was really great for the time .When the PS2 appeared many of us thought the Dreamcast was more powerful .THe textures and aliasing in some games was better on DC and the ports made to the PS2 (RE Code Veronica ,Ferrari F355 Challlenge ,Crazy taxi ,Ecco the Dolphin ,etc etc ) were always slightly better on the DC.In fact that was just because those were ports as with the time we have seen many games absolutely impossible for the DC on the PS2 .But the impression was there .Maybe against the PS2 the DC would have had a chance of delivering ,it could have reached the 20-22 million sold and be in a position like the Cube was .But ,with both MS and Nintendo entering the war its position was too weak and the competition overcrowed for Sega to fight . By the was ,Shenmue and Shenmue 2 are two of the better games of all time .

One more thing ,Dreamcast was evidently more than 4 months outside Japan .I bought it in 1999 and until end 2001 there were new games in the stores for it .

Incorrect. Dreamcast does not belong to the PS1 era. It belongs to the PS2 era. That means that the Dreamcast had the worst graphics of its generation. Xbox had the best graphics of that generation.

But, you are correct on the fact that the Playstation 3 has the best graphics of its generation.

Diomedes you made several excellent points. I agree that the DC storage medium was a problem. Not because it wasn't DVD but because it was so easy to pirate. Sega just had pathetic managment. Sega was one of and possibly the premiere video game developer in the world and yet their management was for the most part incapable of capitalizing on this. Back to the Dreamcast in particular, Diomedes was also dead on in terms of the Dreamcasts hardware capabilities. The sad thing is, that Sega's debt handicapped the Dreamcasts hardware capabilities. This what powered the Dreamcast: Hitachi SH-4 200mhz Power VR Generation 2 GPU (4 million polygons at 60fps with all effects) 16MB of Main RAM 8MB of VRAM 2MB of Sound RAM 12X GD-ROM Drive This is what SEGA originally intended for the Dreamcast to have: Hitachi SH-4 250mhz Dual Power VR Generation 2 GPUs (8 to 10 million polygons at 60ftp with all effects) 32MB of Main RAM 16MB of VRAM 2MB of Sound RAM 16X GD-ROM Drive

If the Dreamcast never failed, the XBox wouldn't exist.