Entertainment/Gaming Consoles

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Originally posted by dhamsaic

Also - how did the Dreamcast get so many great games and then fail? Sega's upper management must have <b>really</b> sucked. I know Saturn got creamed by the PlayStation - that's understandable. But <b>HOW THE HELL DID THE DREAMCAST FAIL?</b> Man, that still just amazes me. Shit, I still don't think the PS2 is a better console than Dreamcast, save for the controllers, where the PS2 easily whips the Dreamcast (in my opinion). Shit, even the VMUs are better than the damn memory cards. And you can put TWO in each controller! Damn. I still don't understand it. I love my Dreamcast. Jenni likes it to play Q*bert. Hehe.

Anyway, basically I'm just looking forward to beating GTA3 pretty thoroughly and then taking on some of these other games that I've got. What's going on in your gaming world?

The Dreamcast died because:

1) The first wave of games was okay, with two standouts (NFL2K and Soul Calibur). The next real system-seller (Crazy Taxi) didn't come out for five months. The first US game with network capabilities (originally promised at launch, but not delivered) was a month after that. By that time, the US PS2 launch was mere months away, and Sega quickly assumed its standard crisis-response position (i.e. roll onto their backs and put a big red X on their stomachs with a sign reading "STAB HERE").

The online advantage was theirs to use, and they badly fumbled the ball. Instead of having a sizeable online lineup in the Xmas 2000 season to point to (screaming "HERE's your reasons not to buy a PS2"), they had very little to support it, and Phantasy Star Online (their one and only answer to the FF series) came out months later, too little too late. Shenmue was too little, too late, and was met with roaring rounds of indifference.

2) Sega of USA management was, in fact, dimwitted. I can vouch for that, going back several years.

3) The DC is much more import-friendly than the PS2... but that's always an niche audience. The trick is to import the right games and bring them to the US masses, which is one reason the PS1 was so successful. Space Channel 5 is not my idea of a major game to push.

4) The DC was (and is) pirate-friendly. It's not too difficult for those with broadband connections to download game images off the Internet and burn them to CDs, and use them on unmodified DC consoles. Doing so with PS1 games required a modchip or dongle, and doing so with PS2 games is quite an adventure.

5) Honestly... there aren't that many DC games I've been excited about. I will rave about Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, the NFL2Ks (though I'm not much of a sports-game person), Fire Pro Wrestling D (best game for the system), and I haven't tried Skies of Arcadia or Record of Lodoss War yet... and after that, I'm at a loss as to big games that weren't also on PS1 or PS2. The Tony Hawk games are ubiquitous, Jet Grind Radio left me flat, VF3tb flopped in the face of 5,3837E+09 Tekken junkies, Seaman flopped, PSO did okay, and then what?

Once the PS2 got a huge foothold and the XBox launch started approaching, it had no chance and Sega pulled the plug.