It is undeniable that the dreamcast was a solid machine that had good games and a sleek look, but was ultimately overshadowed by the goliath that is the PS2.
What do you guys think, how could the Dreamcast kept surviving? Should SEGA thought reeling back the Saturn?
It certainly was praised, but didn’t get the chance it needed, personally I considered it to be a part of the prior gen (N64, PS1)
Let me know your thoughts!
I have always thought the Dreamcast could have survived once I learned the history of its downfall in detail. SEGA simply had no confidence in it and killed it hella quick and it was just a monumentally stupid idea. It was, and still is, a great machine with a fantastic library that could have been even bigger if they didn’t just kill it on arrival.
Seconded.
Dreamcast was solid. Decent games. Sega just had their collective heads up their assess. No one had confidence in their consoles. Genesis was a surprise smash hit…then Sega just spewed out consoles; 32x, Sega CD, mega drive, Saturn… Probably more. In that same time span Nintendo released…N64.
No one wants to buy a console that is outdated in a year or two. That game library is tiny and none of your friends have it.
Build a winner, milk it. Release another winner right as the previous one is winding down. Nintendo has mastered that formula.
Nintendo had the SNES, N64, N64 DD, GameBoy Pocket, Colour, Advance, etc.
Every other generation; they’ve not been consistent in their success. The N64 did quite well, the GameCube was okay, the Wii did great, the Wii U did not, the Switch has done very well, I reckon the next won’t.
I didn’t count handhelds. Seems like a different-ish market. Interestingly, I thought the game gear was way better than original game boy… Except it absolutely ate batteries.
I’ve never heard of the N64 DD. The 90’s had so many weird consoles.
The Virtual Boy too, I forgot about that.
The game cube ended up being a bit of a curse for nintendo though, or at least they seem to view it as such.
They kinda screwed up the timing with it. Launched when everyone and their mother already had a PS2 and got left in the dust. Was also difficult to get one due to limited supply. People tended to buy one console and stick with it for 5+ years, so the only people standing in line were fans or people with money to burn.
Its a shame too because it ended up with some really amazing titles (got one as a hand-me-down from an older sibling) that nintendo now keeps trying to kill.
Yep. It’s such a nice piece of hardware. And the games hold up to this day. Glad it’s appreciated now.
Isn’t the mega drive just the genesis, I understand counting the add ons for the genesis, but the mega drive?
The Saturn was the equivalent of like 750USD in today’a money. Wild.
I feel like that’s what kept me away from it. When I was younger I probably would have been happy with the smaller library but I never had the opportunity to try it and get tempted to buy one
Sounds pretty similar to what happened to the PSVita. Sony tought that there was no reason to support a portable console anymore. Pretty funny, now that we have seen the absolute boom of the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck.