Part of Dreamcast's failure?

[Jon]

I encountered this glitch back on the Dreamcast that may have contributed to their bad ending (well not so much but...)

Okay I rented this one game that came with a free online trial..I signed up using my NetZero account, which is free, and such...

Well my trial expired.........BUT.....I was NEVER charged ONCE for using the internet and used it for over a year to play games online and surf the web...

Am I evil? Heh...I don't know how or why but it just was...I don't remember if I used my real information or not, but I do know that I got something that shouldn't have been free, for free right?


I mean Dreamcast's internet access wasn't free was it? I played NBA 2k1 online a lot, and just would run backwards with the ball and screw around and piss people off...LOL

[Jacob Grabinski]

The Dreamcast had the best sports game line up, that I personaly have seen.

Not sure whether what you encountered was a glitch or not, but the major downfall was it had to compete with the Sony giant Ps2... Unlike Microsoft and Nintendo, Sega was struggling already, and the huge success of the Playstation ensured a hefty battle that Sega eventually lost. Sadly :( I loved the dreamcast.

[noobman]

The Dreamcast was too far ahead of it's time... they had a lot of innovative ideas, but the console gaming world wasn't ready for it.

The big one was online gaming. Say what you want, gaming with 56k is no fun. It's slow and laggy. Connecting alone takes forever, not to mention downloading content. Also, they overexpanded the network platform. There was so much to do, but the darn thing was so slow that nobody really wanted to subscribe. It was like dialup Xbox live... too much too soon.

Another huge, before the time feature was hi-def output. The system tried to use the ability for HD output on a monitor as a huge selling point. It looked hella-cool, but it wasn't something people wanted at the time.

Because of it's release time, they couldn't get DVD support in the machine without bumping up the costs. Instead they used GB-ROM, which was pretty much a variation of a CD which could support close to a gig of storage. Everyone said that eventually the medium wouldn't provide adequate storage space for games. Square Enix and EA, arguably the two biggest developers in Japan and the US respectively, didn't support the console at all. That hurt the list of games.


You could also call it bad timing. It got itself sandwiched between the previous generation of gaming devices (n64, ps1) and the next gen of gaming (ps2, gcn, xbox). It really didn't fit in anywhere. It sort of alienated developers as well... anybody making a multi-platform game had to either develop for the older generation which would underutilize the system's power, or they could develop for the next generation platforms and tone down the graphics, also risking framerate problems.

I acutally liked the console a lot, but I guess nobody else did.

[AKBlade13]

Agreed.

I loved the Dreamcast. If it only would have waited for one more year after the PS2...I garantee you Sony would have been gone.

AKBlade13

[TheTaxidermist]

Nah, I had both systems and frankly, I loved the PS2 a lot more than dreamcast. Most of the games for Dreamcast that were great could be obtained for the PS2 as well. Not to mention I hated the memory card system for the Dreamcast which would drive me nuts when it wouldn't recognize the card or the battery would die on it, causing me to lose all of my information. And the batteries for the things cost like 15 bucks so forget that.

[Quasar]

Agreed.

I loved the Dreamcast. If it only would have waited for one more year after the PS2...I garantee you Sony would have been gone.AKBlade13The behind the scene story of why Dreamcast failed was partially due to many developers feeling that Sega had left them in the cold with their two later versions of the Genesis--32X and Genesis CD. Developers sunk money into these projects and Sega dropped both of them, costing game companies lots of money. Companies also lost money on Sega's Game Gear portable and Nomad handheld game machine. With so many failiures in a row, companies had low confidence with the Dreamcast. Sega also had a terrible reputation with developers in not providing the essential information even to make games. There was a lot of bad blood between Sega and game industry people at the time. So even if the Dreamcast had one more year left, there wouldn't have been much of a game library for it. But the final blow was EA's decision not to develop for it. They picked the PS2 and Xbox instead because they had no faith in the Dreamcast. Since EA was out, other companies decided to drop Sega too.

[AKBlade13]

Thanks for the info. Now I understand why you're a senior writer. Also, I understand why the Dreamcast couldn't work.

AKBlade13

[Jesse!]

Yea, many poeple relate to the Dreamcast's failure when contrasting the potential failure of current or next gen consoles. The truth is that Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft all have wonderful relationships with game developers. If that was the Dreamcast's main problem that lead the console to the grave, then you really can't compare current console producers with Sega or the Dreamcast.

For example, many people are talking about the PS3's high price leading it to failure becuase that's why the Dreamcast failed. Completely the wrong idea. That's not why Dreamcast died or what lead it to failure.

I dunno though... I get sick of people discussing which console is going to win /loose the console 'war'... the fan boys especially.

[Quasar]

Thanks for the info. Also, I understand why the Dreamcast couldn't work.AKBlade13 Its too bad Sega couldn't make it. They had such a great success with their Genesis machine. I spent lots of time on that console and was hoping that the Dreamcast could be a winner too. But Sega made too many enemies and that's really too bad. I've still got my Genesis and Dreamcast somewhere in the house. I should dust them off and give them some game time. :thumbup:

[Quasar]

For example, many people are talking about the PS3's high price leading it to failure becuase that's why the Dreamcast failed. Completely the wrong idea. That's not why Dreamcast died or what lead it to failure.

I dunno though... I get sick of people discussing which console is going to win /loose the console 'war'... the fan boys especially.I guess it's like sports. People have their favorite teams and like to cheer for them. I used to work at a place where everyone was a PC gamer. I was the only console guy there and was always getting the "consoles suck" line. I didn'r really all care that much because I figured, all things being equal, games are fun no matter which machine you use. But people being people, I guess there's always going to be talk about which machine is better.