Sega's Dreamcast kicked ass. It is the greatest system that ever failed. Anybody that had a dreamcast back in the day will tell you how awesome it was. It was ahead of it's time with it's online strategy, had a ton of great games and concept games (seaman?), fantastic multiplayer, it was just a kick ass system. And unfortunately it had every circumstance against it. Sega was flopping as a company, it had expended all of it's gamer loyalty on failed expansions and systems, and the hype was all on the PS2. It was a kick ass system....and it failed.

My parallel isn't in the specifics. The PS3 isn't ahead of it's time in online strategy, it's brand loyalty wasn't trashed in the previous generations, and Sony isn't going to go so broke that it can no longer afford to produce anymore PS3s. Rather I think the PS3 may be this gen's dreamcast in that it's a fantastic system that is a victim of the unfortunate circumstances around it, and will never achieve success like it's competition will...but it will be looked back on fondly by those that actually bought one. It's got a ton of great exclusive games, ones that are destined to be cult classics that someday sell for 300 dollars on Ebay (Like Valkyria Chronicles), it's got some major blockbusters that can only be found on it, and some very unique PSN games. When it's all said and done PS3 definitely isn't going to come out on top, but that's not going to stop the retroactive love. It hasn't stopped the Dreamcast. I'm going to go play some Bangai-o and Blue Stinger.

I feel as if I need to add a fine print at the bottom to ward off hyper sensitive people with flame throwers. The PS3 will sell more than the dreamcast, sony will not become a 3rd party, yes time will tell the gen's not over yet, yes I recognize the power of teh cell.

my answer would be. Sega was well into trouble before the dreamcast. I miss my dreamcast and my living sonic creature on my memory card.

No its not the modern dreamcast. Its doing better than the dreamcast. Why do people keep saying this. Its tracking better than the dreamcast when launch align, but its tracking on the as the gamecube only slightly lower.

Ignore the sales parallel as that isn't what he's trying to draw guys. Look at the games, the likelihood that it won't end up on top, and the idea that it's still a great system that will be loved by those who bought it regardless of where it ends up in the charts.

@vaga
interesting idea, I think many would disagree on the quality of the Dreamcast to the PS3, but I think that if the PS3 keeps going with some more great exclusives it could reach that level of fandom.

That could be a bunch of systems. Hell, the Turbografx-16 had a bunch of great games but still sold poorly, and now has several cult classics (which can be found on the Virtual Console). Same for Saturn, N64, Gamecube, etc.

What was the lifetime finishing total of the dreamcast, just out of curiosity?

Nothing will ever compare to the Dreamcast....I might be saying this since I'm a die hard sega fan who will most likely die from either sega being closed or me bleeding to death when sharpening my my 3 foot sonic statue's spikes...

I had a nice explination, where I jotted down 3 major points of what Sony expected from the PS3, but it was deleted Alas.

Instead I'll just say that I agree with Sean Malstroms perspective in that:

PS2 -> PSP -> PS3

PSP is a portable PS2 testing ground for the PS3.

Thus making market relation similar between Wii and PS3 and DS is to PSP.

Man, I loved my Dreamcast at the time. Really, I expected the Xbox 360 to be this gen's Dreamcast. Who knew?

If I were to make a comparison, I'd say the PS3 was this gen's N64. A hugely powerful system that followed two generations of success, but a couple of corporate decisions are keeping it from being the break-away hit that it should be.

I thought the PS3 would have been an exact copy of the N64 until it ended up in 3rd place instead of 2nd.