But there was already a fly in the ointment, and the fly was called Sony. In March , realising that SEGA was about to leapfrog a hardware generation and get its next-gen machine on the shelves first, Sony had publicly unveiled PlayStation 2 - then still a year away from release. The prospect of the successor to the world-conquering PlayStation was enough to cut the already wobbly legs off the Dreamcast in Japan, with most gamers opting to wait for the sure-to-be-awesome PS2, with its mysterious "emotion engine" and games that would literally emerge from the screen and fellate you senseless.
Even in the west, as the PlayStation 2 drew closer the Dreamcast lost momentum. It was at this point that the legacy of SEGA's worthless Megadrive expansions and the fumbled Saturn came back to haunt the company. In what would become a grim self-fulfilling prophecy, many punters were understandably quicker to put their cash towards the established and widely loved PlayStation brand rather than risk ending up with another SEGA system with few games and no long-term future.
In the face of such competition, the Dreamcast's technical features proved of little value. SEGA, arguably about five years ahead of its time, had gambled on the importance of online play but console gamers in were a lot less interested in networked games than their PC counterparts. With the PlayStation 2 doubling as a DVD player, a desirable technology that had just tipped over into mass-market must-have status, the ability to play Chu Chu Rocket over the internet wasn't likely to turn the tide in Dreamcast's favour.
As the PS2 sold more and more on its epic ten-year journey to become the world's best-selling games console, Dreamcast sales dried up. In March , a mere two years after the Dreamcast's impressive US launch, SEGA announced that not only was it discontinuing production on the console, but it was withdrawing from the hardware side of the industry altogether. The words "end of an era" don't even begin to cover it.
If you want a snapshot of how fast the Dreamcast died then consider the fact that in June , only a few months after becoming a software-only publisher, SEGA released Crazy Taxi for the PS2. It seemed that the last embers of SEGA's hardware empire had finally sputtered out. The story doesn't quite end there though. Despite being pronounced dead, the Dreamcast lived on in Japan - the nation so underwhelmed by it at launch - long past its official expiration date.
Shops still sold the console until as recently as , and new software is still being produced today by the indie community - albeit sporadically. For reasons that may never be fully understood, the Japanese shoot-'em-up fraternity decided that the Dreamcast was the place to be, giving the system a stay of execution with cult favourites like Ikaruga hitting in and Triggerheart Exelica in It's not exactly a new lease of life, but it's certainly a testament to the appeal of the sleek white brick.
At least SEGA the console maker went out on a high - in critical terms if not commercial. It was petite, stylish and many of the ideas it pioneered have since become standard features for the current console generation. For Japanese gamers, the Dreamcast was the first console to have its own digital camera, and the first to feature a karaoke game with microphone peripherals.
So much of what the Dreamcast offered forms the core of the console wars today, and yet at the time nobody seemed bothered. The Dreamcast was arguably the right console at the wrong time, but who struck the killer blow?
Probably not Sony, although it's hard to begrudge Dreamcast fans their lingering resentment that a technologically inferior console with a fairly dire line-up of early titles was able to so easily steamroller their beloved box just on the basis of brand loyalty. Sony certainly did its best to spoil the Dreamcast launch with its carefully timed PS2 announcement, and can therefore perhaps take a hefty chunk of the blame for the console's limp performance in Japan, but to say that Sony killed the Dreamcast would be a gross overstatement.
Ditto for Electronic Arts. Its lack of support for the system was merely a symptom of the real problem rather than the cause. The Dreamcast simply came too late in SEGA's hardware decline to reverse a long-running downward trend. For all its technological innovations and excellent games, SEGA's misadventures during the s had left both gamers and publishers wary of any new platform bearing its name.
Confidence in any new SEGA console was low, and with the PlayStation brand in the ascendancy such trepidation was enough to ensure that the Dreamcast would always struggle to maintain its early momentum in the face of stiff competition.
Had the console been built slightly cheaper, they likely could have gotten away with selling it at such a low price early on. Deciding to opt for expensive components proved fruitless however, as Sony? One of the more impressive features of the Dreamcast was its online capabilities. The first console to include a built-in modem for internet support and online play, the Sega Dreamcast was truly ahead of its time.
Sega even released a Broadband adapter for the console post-release the build-in modem was 56K but unfortunately, Broadband internet had not expanded to the level Sega had anticipated, with many areas in still not even offering broadband access. Factor in the millions of consumers who had not yet made the choice to move to broadband and one of Sega?
The Dreamcast? Ironically, only a few short years later, internet access would come to be a must-have feature in consoles. Sega had the right idea, but the Dreamcast simply launched too early. Sony launched its dual stick controller in , so Sega had no excuses not to include a second analog stick two years after the fact. The lack of a second stick made first-person shooters inferior on the console and made adventure games more difficult to play due to the lack of a proper rotating camera.
When comparing the controllers side-by-side, the Dreamcast was simply missing an essential component. Supporting a console with first party games is beneficial as they are more profitable, but in order for a console to make real headway in terms of sales, providing more games is the simplest way to attract customers. When multiple competing consoles offer the same popular game but that game is missing from Sega?
For the Dreamcast, Sega did acquire plenty of third party support; the problem was that the biggest developers of the time shunned the Dreamcast.
Claiming the console was difficult to develop games for, many companies decided it wasn? A major reason for the Dreamcast flopping in Japan was the controller? Japanese consumers preferred a smaller controller, with the PlayStation? The Japanese public would also shun the original Xbox controller however, Microsoft quickly launched a remodeled version titled the?
Controller S? In North America, the controller? Hardly even breaking into the territory, Sega was forced to rely on the North American market, which led to devastating financial losses and the eventual decision to discontinue the Dreamcast entirely.
After incurring massive financial losses with the Saturn, Sega? When EA announced that they would not develop for the Dreamcast due to the failure of the Saturn, this caused Sega to make their own sports titles. Later installments would include online play. Due to a lack of third party support, Sega focused on their first party titles. Sega would continue to release their 2K sports line and would add online play to the 2K1 installments.
Sega ported many of their popular arcade games over to the Dreamcast like Crazy Taxi and House of the Dead. Along with their arcade games came their original, innovative titles for the platform. One of them was Samba de Amigo , a rhythm game where you use a controller shaped like Maracas to move your arms around to meet a certain position.
Space Channel 5 was another rhythm game where you go around space killing aliens while dancing to pop music. Chu Chu Rocket was a puzzle game where you lead a group of mice away from cats. Although the Dreamcast didn't have a high amount of third party support, the people who did develop for the system released top-notched games. The biggest company to do this was Capcom. Capcom was well known for its fighters released for the Dreamcast. They would make definitive home ports of their popular arcade fighters Marvel vs.
Capcom 1 and 2 along with releasing brand new fighters exclusive for the console Power Stone. The biggest game released for the Dreamcast was Shenmue. It was in development since the Sega Saturn and was made by Yu Suzuki.
The game added some new elements like free-roaming gameplay and time-based gameplay. It was hyped to be the killer app for the Dreamcast that would ruin the PS2. When the game was first released in , it came with mixed reviews. Some game reviewers loved the game, giving it 9's and 10's. They consider it a gaming achievement with its deep story and innovative gameplay.
Others completely hated the game, giving it low scores. They complained about the slow gameplay and cheesy voice acting. Due to the mixed reviews, the game sold poorly. A sequel was released in Japan for the Dreamcast in , but it never came to the US. In , Sega made a deal with Microsoft to release the sequel for the Xbox in The Dreamcast was the first console to have fully functioning online play.
Although online play wasn't available until fall of , players could surf and browse the web through the console from day one. Some games even offered a rudimentary form of downloadable content. In Sonic Adventure, for instance players could download holiday themes for levels. Even though the Dreamcast was discontinued prematurely, the legacy of the console lives on. Due to the Dreamcast failing, Sega had to drop from the console race and begin to make games for other consoles.
Most of those games, early on, were ports of Dreamcast games. The two Sonic Adventure games were ported over to the Nintendo GameCube, which was shocking at the time due to Sega and Nintendo's strong rivalry during the 90s. Sony, the people whom many claimed to cause Sega to leave the hardware business, got Virtua Fighter 4 for the PS2.
Peter Moore, Sega of America's president at the time, left Sega to join Microsoft and help with their new console, the Xbox. Due to him being a part of Sega, he got Sega to make games on the Xbox. Sega continues to make games for current-gen platforms and handhelds and will continue to make games on next-gen platforms such as the Wii U , the Xbox One , and the PlayStation 4.
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Development The company wanted to create a truly next-generation console, with features ahead of its time and far superior hardware to that of the popular PlayStation as well as the Nintendo Hardware Back in , the Dreamcast was an advanced console for its time, surpassing the capabilities of all other consoles available at the time of its release and being the first bit console to be released.
Games The Dreamcast was well known for its vast assortment of games, specifically during the launch of the console. Online The Dreamcast was the first console to have fully functioning online play.
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