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.
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!