Why sega dreamcast failed

Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion. Sega Dreamcast: Why it failed In the latest episode of Adventures in Tech, we tell the story of Sega's Dreamcast, and examine why it failed. Luke Westaway. With its lack of identity in the wake of SEGA's poor decisions, the Dreamcast didn't have a fighting chance against the competition, which is sad given that it wasn't a bad console.

As mentioned earlier, the Dreamcast had some fantastic games. The problem is, a lot of the Dreamcast's games offered shallow experiences in a time when gamers were looking for more in their games.

These titles offered more to gamers than the Dreamcast's set of games, delivering engaging narratives and distinct gameplay. Despite their good graphics and performance, the Dreamcast's games were still of the arcade era, which was slowly giving way to more in-depth gaming experiences.

Sony announced the PS2 before the Dreamcast even launched in North America and hype for it built immediately. It was simply better in every way, with much greater hardware, more in-depth games, and the ability to function as a DVD player—an outstanding feature that sold the PS2 to non-gamers.

People were excited to see what Sony's follow-up would be to the PS1. And, given a choice between buying a Dreamcast now or waiting next year to get a PS2, gamers were happy to wait. And it showed—the PS2 is still the best-selling console of all time, with over million units sold. So, a year after the Dreamcast's launch, the console was already well behind the competition. The PS2 led the sixth console generation, despite the Dreamcast having a head start, and people saw it as the console to buy and to beat.

Thinking of its various mishaps, what could SEGA have done differently to ensure the Dreamcast's success? As stated before, Sega really pushed gaming into a new era, even though consumers weren't yet ready for it. On top of the machine's revolutionary internet connection, the Dreamcast also had a boatload of unique and innovative peripherals. One of the most-discussed was the Dreamcast's microphone, which could be used for online games like Alien Front Online and for games like Seaman , an ahead-of-its-time pet sim.

Another revolutionary device was the VMU Video Memory Unit which served as Dreamcast's memory card, but it could also be used to play minigames and could be connected together for file-sharing and multiplayer gaming. It's yet another example of how the Dreamcast was both weird and wonderful. The biggest reason why the Dreamcast failed was, unfortunately, because of Sega itself. At the time, Half of Sega wanted to fight in the console wars, while the other half of the company wanted to move away and just develop video games.

Sega of Japan hated Sega of America and vice versa , and the two got to a point where they couldn't agree on anything. Sega was also interested in catering to the Japanese market even though Sega's biggest market was North America. Sega ended up alienating its biggest audience, and, when the PS2 and Xbox were released, gamers flocked to the new consoles in record numbers, forcing Sega to discontinue the Dreamcast just a few years after its launch.

He holds a deep passion for film, travel, and adventure. He fully believes that 'The Faculty' is the greatest movie ever made. By Keith Langston Published Apr 14, When Sega Released the Dreamcast, it was intended to boost the company from their slump. Alas, the Dreamcast that was launched by Sega also became a failure because of wrong timing, previous performance and other simply better consoles on the market.

If you would like to know more about why the Sega Dreamcast failed, you will want to keep reading this article. You can also check out this video if you do not like to read and you want to know more about exactly what killed the Dreamcast. Sega improved over the expensive hardware of its Sega Saturn and designed the Dreamcast with reduced cost. Sega launched the Dreamcast with large marketing and campaigns, but the interest of people towards Sega had already declined.

Sony was the new up and comer and would launch its next console, the PlayStation 2, which had great hype. Because of this hype, sales did not meet the expectations of Sega and they cut down the prices. Even with the cheaper prices, the company continues to face financial losses. Finally, on November 31, , Sega discontinued the Dreamcast, and let it be the end of its 18 year long game console business.

The Dreamcast was created with many features like internet modem and online gaming. These impressive features gave the Dreamcast strong online capabilities, which made it ahead of its time. Even though Sega released a broadband adapter, unfortunately, the internet was not at its peak time yet.

The Internet was still in its developing stage, which meant that the amazing feature of the Dreamcast was rendered obsolete. The feature excited many customers, but was unable to persuade them to buy the console.