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Forums - Gaming - Why did the dreamcast fail?

Jonbob0008 said:
I'd like to point out a factor that hasn't been pointed out. Another reason the Dreamcast failed was because the library of games for both the Playstation and N64 were so strong. People playing on these systems were still having a great time despite the outdated hardware. They were perfectly willing to wait for either the PS2 and Gamecube (less so) to come out before investing in a new system.
Yeah, suprised no one metioned this before, especially as many people have basically said "why did it die with so many good games", but that doesn't mean there were equally good games on the other consoles. Plus, I'm sure the EA support for other consoles helped, because they do make some good games =P

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they put out too many consoles too quick sega saturn ,,32x dreacast ,,sega cd. genesis.. they didnt even have faith in their console staying in the market for more than 3 years... when i buy a console i want it to last for at least 5-7 years.. i got that with the playstation 2 and i'll probably get it with the ps3...



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Tispower said:
Jonbob0008 said:
I'd like to point out a factor that hasn't been pointed out. Another reason the Dreamcast failed was because the library of games for both the Playstation and N64 were so strong. People playing on these systems were still having a great time despite the outdated hardware. They were perfectly willing to wait for either the PS2 and Gamecube (less so) to come out before investing in a new system.
Yeah, suprised no one metioned this before, especially as many people have basically said "why did it die with so many good games", but that doesn't mean there were equally good games on the other consoles. Plus, I'm sure the EA support for other consoles helped, because they do make some good games =P

Although that is true and have had effect, but i think no one mentioned that because Saturn and PSX were that time old enough fo generation change. Dreamcast sold well at the start, but then stopped selling. Besides, by that logic, no one would ever buy switch to next generation. Who would be so stupid to buy Wii, 360 or PS3, since PS2, Xbox and Gamecube has so big library of good games.

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Nintendo games sell only on Nintendo system.

according to wikipedia after the Saturn EA refused to make games for future Sega consoles because of how badly Sega treated 3rd parties.

seriously, given the short life span and all the things that were stacked against Sega it actually did pretty well.



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Takashii said:
HappySqurriel said:

It wasn't "Too Close" to the Sega Saturn because the Saturn was released in 1994 and the Dreamcast was released in 1999; Sega released at the standard 5 year mark.

The Dreamcast failed because the Sega Saturn was such a massive disaster that Sega's reputation was destroyed in the general gaming public. With the Saturn, Sega released an amazingly expensive console that was difficult to develop for because they had a belief that their fans would pay for anything regardless of whether it had games for it or not; they even had a surprise launch to ensure that they had no games.

The Saturn sold at a similar rate to the Playstation (which is a similar rate to how the PS3 is selling) and as soon as the Playstation started to take the lead third parties abandoned the Saturn in favour of the Playstation because of the abuse they faced from Sega; by the time the N64 launched in 1996 the Saturn was essentially dead and all upcomming projects had been transfered to the Playstation.

For 2 1/2 years the Saturn sat on the market with a constant game drought that made the N64's worst droughts seem like a mild thirst. Gamers who spent $500 on the Saturn swore never to buy another Sega product again and most stuck with that promise ...

 


What I put in bold and underlined from HappySqurriel is why Sega failed miserably.


 What I put in bold and underlined form Takashii is a total failure to read the post I made pointing out the fact that the Saturn actually sold for $400 not $500 in the United States. 



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bdbdbd said:
Tispower said:
Jonbob0008 said:
I'd like to point out a factor that hasn't been pointed out. Another reason the Dreamcast failed was because the library of games for both the Playstation and N64 were so strong. People playing on these systems were still having a great time despite the outdated hardware. They were perfectly willing to wait for either the PS2 and Gamecube (less so) to come out before investing in a new system.
Yeah, suprised no one metioned this before, especially as many people have basically said "why did it die with so many good games", but that doesn't mean there were equally good games on the other consoles. Plus, I'm sure the EA support for other consoles helped, because they do make some good games =P

 

Although that is true and have had effect, but i think no one mentioned that because Saturn and PSX were that time old enough fo generation change. Dreamcast sold well at the start, but then stopped selling. Besides, by that logic, no one would ever buy switch to next generation. Who would be so stupid to buy Wii, 360 or PS3, since PS2, Xbox and Gamecube has so big library of good games.

I said this was ANOTHER factor. On its own, it wouldn't have made much of a difference, but due to the fact that Sega had blundered so bad in its previous console launches, it made a lot of difference. Many gamers at the time were unsure at best at the prospects of the Dreamcast, and so they were not inclined to buy the new system. Sure it sold well at first(It didn't sell THAT great. It had less than 9 million consoles sold within its first two years), but for every one person that bought the Dreamcast, there were at least 5 or more that said "I'll wait for the PS2/Dolphin. At least that's a sure bet. It's not like I'm suffering with my current console."

 If the library of games for either the PSX or N64 had been weaker, the Dreamcast's sales would have been even stronger, perhaps even strong enough for Sega to turn a profit on their system. They may have then survived the initial onslaught that was PS2 and lived on long enough to have its own piece (however small) of the marketshare.

By your interpretation of my logic (which was incorret) we'd still be playing on the NES. I never said people wouldn't upgrade, I just said that with the strong library that PSX and N64 had, there wasn't enough incentive for most gamers to want to risk paying good money for a system that might not make it.

EDIT: You know what, I rescind my statement about the Dreamcast ever selling well. If you look at the sales info this site offers, you'll find that the Saturn had sold almost as well as the Dreamcast did in about the same amount of time, and everyone keeps saying how big a flop the Saturn was. Remember too that the Saturn had competition in both the PSX and N64, while Dreamcast's main competition wouldn't arrive for over a year after it launched. It is now my belief that the intial success of the Dreamcast was, is, and  always has been greatly exaggerated.



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in my country ,ps2 was overhyped .
i remember when a mag (not sure but i think it was "jeux video" ) said dreamcast games were low and Shenmu had lower graph than ps2 games



sorry my english is baaadd

Jonbob0008 said:
bdbdbd said:
Tispower said:
Jonbob0008 said:
>

I said this was ANOTHER factor. On its own, it wouldn't have made much of a difference, but due to the fact that Sega had blundered so bad in its previous console launches, it made a lot of difference. Many gamers at the time were unsure at best at the prospects of the Dreamcast, and so they were not inclined to buy the new system. Sure it sold well at first(It didn't sell THAT great. It had less than 9 million consoles sold within its first two years), but for every one person that bought the Dreamcast, there were at least 5 or more that said "I'll wait for the PS2/Dolphin. At least that's a sure bet. It's not like I'm suffering with my current console."

 If the library of games for either the PSX or N64 had been weaker, the Dreamcast's sales would have been even stronger, perhaps even strong enough for Sega to turn a profit on their system. They may have then survived the initial onslaught that was PS2 and lived on long enough to have its own piece (however small) of the marketshare.

By your interpretation of my logic (which was incorret) we'd still be playing on the NES. I never said people wouldn't upgrade, I just said that with the strong library that PSX and N64 had, there wasn't enough incentive for most gamers to want to risk paying good money for a system that might not make it.

EDIT: You know what, I rescind my statement about the Dreamcast ever selling well. If you look at the sales info this site offers, you'll find that the Saturn had sold almost as well as the Dreamcast did in about the same amount of time, and everyone keeps saying how big a flop the Saturn was. Remember too that the Saturn had competition in both the PSX and N64, while Dreamcast's main competition wouldn't arrive for over a year after it launched. It is now my belief that the intial success of the Dreamcast was, is, and  always has been greatly exaggerated.


I didn't mean your logic being faulty, it's just that sometimes the last generations effect seems to be overestimated. I assume that you compared Saturn and DC in "compare consoles", which, at least for Saturn and DC, contains only the japanese data. Saturn sold 2/3 of its overall in Japan and in Japan DC sold less than 50% of Saturns japanese sales. But, in the Americas and Europe, DC sold double the amount of Saturn, ending eventually (WW) selling 1M more than Saturn. Why Saturn is considered as so big flop? It sold less than 1/3 of Megadrives LTD. And the reason why Dreamcast isn't seen flop like Saturn depends on from whos view are you looking at it. To japanese it was bigger flop, but to everyone else, DC even succeeded in comparision to Saturn. At the start, Saturn had only PSX to compete with. In fact, Saturns launch was rushed 6 months early from what it was originally planned, just to get it out before the PSX. Being the first in the market haven't really been ever a key to success (not counting Megadrive), since only the early (next generations) adopters have been basically the only ones buying the first system. People usually wait for the 2nd one to see what the generation has to offer. One way you could say that next gen starts when there's 2 consoles in the market. On a sidenote, i hate quoting on this site.


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Vaan pannaan jalalla koreasti.

 

Nintendo games sell only on Nintendo system.

Isnt it funny how things have changed?

The sony hype basically killed the dreamcast, whereas this time round people are just sticking there fingers up at it



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