black dreamcast model

Dreamcast: The Forgotten Console

The Sega Dreamcast is a video game system that was revolutionary in many ways. It was the first console to ever offer online play, and it was also the first 128 bit system. Sega had a headstart in the sixth generation of video games by releasing it in the US in 1999, 15 months before the PS2 and almost 2 years before the Xbox or Gamecube. The question is, why did the Dreamcast fail? A black dreamcast model was even released.

A book could probably be written on that question alone. But one thing I would say is that the advertising of Sega at the time was a bit vague. Most people knew that the Dreamcast was coming out on 9/9/99, but very few people knew what it was. Commercials at the time didn't show the fantastic graphics of either Soul Caliber or Sonic Adventure, and this to was a mistake. My biggest argument about the Dreamcast is that the reason why the system failed was because Sega failed to advertise it properly.

The president of Sega at the time had not idea what the fans wanted. Many classic games such as Shining Force, Streets of Rage, and Nights were never produced for the system. A team in Japan who was in the development process of creating Streets of Rage begged the US Sega CEO to allow them to release it, but he would not. A CEO who didn't understand the needs of the fans is anothe reason for the failure of the Dreamcast.

Another thing that bothered me about the Dreamcast was its inability to play DVDs. This is a feature that almost all the consoles of the sixth generation have, and Sega failed to deliver it. Had they done so, they would have been able to more effectively compete with the likes of Sony and Microsoft. In all due respect, I love the Sega Dreamcast. I play it more than my Xbox, and I'm one of the few people I know who actually own one.

Unlike the Xbox, the Dreamcast manages to play just about every game I put in it. There are no disc scratch errors, or any of that nonsense. The dreamcast always work. This tells me that the hardware is excellent. The reason why the system failed is because of the company behind it. They just didn't do what it took to get the job done. The good news is, the console is still doing very well in Japan, and games continue to be released for it.