See also: Sega Dreamcast: had online multiplayer and industry redefining graphics, but hamstrung by an onboard 33.6kbps modem.
Flappy Bird: one of the most rudimentary games ever, but just seemed to take off and start it’s own snowballing success.
Google Glass: probably had the data mining and cash to weather a bad luck storm, but ultimately was a lower spec AR set that are being hawked today.
I suppose musical.ly rode the wave of popularity, hit the right time post-credit crunch, and rebranded itself in such a way that the pandemic was good for business…
…oh, and the liberal use and sharing of data, too.
That was not the issue tbh. Console online MP didn’t really become a thing outside of a handful of games (with small playerbases) until the 360/PS3/Wii era, with the one major exception being the Xbox with Xbox live. But the Xbox didn’t launch until 2 years after Dreamcast and Xbox live didn’t go up until almost 4 years after Dreamcast’s launch.
What killed Dreamcast was likely a few things.
Sega was in dire financial straits after the Saturn. Sony buried them hard and they were losing $100-$150 a unit by some estimates because Sony forced them to drop the price on their already expensive to manufacture console to compete with the PSX. You should check out the podcast Business Wars, they did a series on Nintendo vs PlayStation that actually covered this incredibly well. I have read a lot about the industry, but that was honestly one of my favorite ways of hearing that story. It’s very engaging.
The Dreamcast era was interesting. Sega restructured into basically several companies under the gaming banner - it was kind of cool. One company focused on experimental games, one company focused on porting arcade games (one of the console’s greatest strengths), things like that. Unfortunately, they did not trust in their own vision, and they pulled the plug on development/support very early. There are not a lot of games for the Dreamcast and they were only developing them for like half the time other consoles get support.
Price. We’ve seen it time and time again. Coupled with the awkward timing of the launch (2 years before Xbox, 1 year before PS2) and people were able to buy clearly superior consoles for the same price or cheaper. It needed to be $50 cheaper and come out in 1997. It was better than an N64/PSX but inferior to 6th gen competitors.
Oh yes, absolutely - all valid points and a good rundown.
My point was - in a short sentence, the online multiplayer is a subsystem we take for granted now, but was brought to market before the infrastructure really could support it.
I loved the dreamy too, it’s just a shame that Sega were in such terrible financial waves - probably because it spent a good chunk of cash on doomed add-ons to it’s 16bit series of consoles.
The Dreamcast failed because it released on 9/9/99, then 11 days later, the PS2 was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show. The PS2 looked like a better system on paper, so no one bought a Dreamcast.
I don’t know man, I agree with everything you say but I wouldn’t say the security element killed the system - the PS1 and DS had rampant piracy but still sold like hot cakes. I know people (anecdotal evidence alert) who bought a first gen Switch because it was so easy to flash and exercise the ability to boot “homebrew software”.
I’m pretty sure the CD trick only worked on the first (or first iterations) of DC hardware too - I forget whether they either patched out the ability to read CD’s aside from karaoke discs, or whether it was a change in CD drive or laser in manufacturing - but I didn’t see much piracy where I was.
In a case of “opposite side of the same coin” though, I remember a small surge of people buying a CD just for Bleem!, and the ability to play patched editions of PS1 games on a DC. I understand Metal Gear Solid played well on it.
Data mining, timing, and just sheer luck I guess.
See also: Sega Dreamcast: had online multiplayer and industry redefining graphics, but hamstrung by an onboard 33.6kbps modem.
Flappy Bird: one of the most rudimentary games ever, but just seemed to take off and start it’s own snowballing success.
Google Glass: probably had the data mining and cash to weather a bad luck storm, but ultimately was a lower spec AR set that are being hawked today.
I suppose musical.ly rode the wave of popularity, hit the right time post-credit crunch, and rebranded itself in such a way that the pandemic was good for business…
…oh, and the liberal use and sharing of data, too.
That was not the issue tbh. Console online MP didn’t really become a thing outside of a handful of games (with small playerbases) until the 360/PS3/Wii era, with the one major exception being the Xbox with Xbox live. But the Xbox didn’t launch until 2 years after Dreamcast and Xbox live didn’t go up until almost 4 years after Dreamcast’s launch.
What killed Dreamcast was likely a few things.
Sega was in dire financial straits after the Saturn. Sony buried them hard and they were losing $100-$150 a unit by some estimates because Sony forced them to drop the price on their already expensive to manufacture console to compete with the PSX. You should check out the podcast Business Wars, they did a series on Nintendo vs PlayStation that actually covered this incredibly well. I have read a lot about the industry, but that was honestly one of my favorite ways of hearing that story. It’s very engaging.
The Dreamcast era was interesting. Sega restructured into basically several companies under the gaming banner - it was kind of cool. One company focused on experimental games, one company focused on porting arcade games (one of the console’s greatest strengths), things like that. Unfortunately, they did not trust in their own vision, and they pulled the plug on development/support very early. There are not a lot of games for the Dreamcast and they were only developing them for like half the time other consoles get support.
Price. We’ve seen it time and time again. Coupled with the awkward timing of the launch (2 years before Xbox, 1 year before PS2) and people were able to buy clearly superior consoles for the same price or cheaper. It needed to be $50 cheaper and come out in 1997. It was better than an N64/PSX but inferior to 6th gen competitors.
Oh yes, absolutely - all valid points and a good rundown.
My point was - in a short sentence, the online multiplayer is a subsystem we take for granted now, but was brought to market before the infrastructure really could support it.
I loved the dreamy too, it’s just a shame that Sega were in such terrible financial waves - probably because it spent a good chunk of cash on doomed add-ons to it’s 16bit series of consoles.
Sorry for the total monologue there lol I just love this subject. And I love my dreamcast!
deleted by creator
The Dreamcast failed because it released on 9/9/99, then 11 days later, the PS2 was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show. The PS2 looked like a better system on paper, so no one bought a Dreamcast.
It was apparently selling well in the West, but Sega of Japan gonna Sega of Japan.
Was gonna say, knew quite a few people with a DreamCast, was surprised they kinda gave up on it
(EDIT: then again, literally everyone had a PS2…)
Yeah that was a huge part of it too. I’m not saying this was the only part. Just a big contributing factor.
I don’t know man, I agree with everything you say but I wouldn’t say the security element killed the system - the PS1 and DS had rampant piracy but still sold like hot cakes. I know people (anecdotal evidence alert) who bought a first gen Switch because it was so easy to flash and exercise the ability to boot “homebrew software”.
I’m pretty sure the CD trick only worked on the first (or first iterations) of DC hardware too - I forget whether they either patched out the ability to read CD’s aside from karaoke discs, or whether it was a change in CD drive or laser in manufacturing - but I didn’t see much piracy where I was.
In a case of “opposite side of the same coin” though, I remember a small surge of people buying a CD just for Bleem!, and the ability to play patched editions of PS1 games on a DC. I understand Metal Gear Solid played well on it.
Fun times.