Why did the dreamcast fail?

[Speeder]

The Dreamcast was a massive failure for sega, but why?.

They spent 100 million on advertising and made good advertisements, it was the first console of the 6th gen, and it was $100 dollars cheaper than the ps2. How did segas best console become a flop?

[sage2001]

Simple: they weren't reliable. First, they released the Sega CD and 32x as competitors to the PS1 and N64. Then, they tried to come back with the Saturn, which I believe financially failed.

By the Dreamcast, fans just couldn't put up with it. Sega was simply losing a game of catch-up. At least, that's how I view it.

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

needed cuter mascots
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1611157333

[tmwfte]

Dreams always die.

[Azza ☠]

"good advertisements" = using a silly slogan "It's thinking" and a complete failure at showing any benefits over a Playstation.

EA Sports didn't support it - Madden, NBA and Fifa series where popular at the tiime.

Bad timing for online broadband - They introduced a built-in 56K modem, with an optional broadband adapter... but broadband access and online support was very limited back then. They actually released it too early. Before people could really even make good usage of it.

The controller sucked. I think it's many reason was the shape/size bulk and the fact that it didn't have a 2nd analog stick.

It lacked DVD built-in support, which a Playstation could offer. DVD players being expensive back then, a PS could do both tasks playing movies too. It's a no brainer that's a better deal for parent's looking around in the market for some form of tv entertainment.

[Rubik748]

Because it was cast aside.

[Crystal Sharrd]

The Dreamcast was a great console, and my personal favorite, but a lot of things led to its failure. This site gives some.
https://m.goliath.com/gaming/10-reasons-why-the-sega-dreamcast-failed/amp/

[Speeder]

so what we can learn from this is that you should innovate, but don't innovate with technology from years ahead.

[sage2001]

You know, it was ahead of its time in some sense. It was one of the first few consoles to allow cross-platform play with PC with Quake 3, and it was one of the first consoles that had full keyboard and mouse support with some games.

I never really grew up with a Sega Dreamcast - I was more of a Sony or Xbox guy growing up, but it's still somewhat interesting to look at.

[Rich-UK]

The gamegear was superior to the gameboy.

[Dominic]

If I remember right a lot of people were pirating the Dreamcast games because it did not have much protection.

[crgzero]

"Bleem"cast

[RRW359]

This isn't the biggest reason, but there is a factor a lot of people ignore: GD-ROM's.
Not only did people like the conveniance of playing DVD movies on the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) Xbox, but if you ask most people why the GameCube didn't do as well as Nintendo wanted, they will most often say it's because its (1.5GB) miniDVD's couldn't store as much as a standard DVD (4.7-8.4GB depending on layering). GD-ROM's could only store 1.2GB, which was even worse than the GameCube.

[gugnihr]

Because Sonic Adventure sucks
Because the only good Golden axe game is Golden Axe 1, and even the official Genesis port was not as good as it should have been
Because all the best and most beloved Sega games were on the Genesis and they ditched everything for new IPs people did not care about
Because Shenmue sucks (now hate me I don't care it sucks)
Because Dreamcast was not the best Sega console it was the worst
Because the games sucked really badly
Because the controller sucked
Because people did not like to stare at a fish with an ugly face listening to its insults and watchin it having sex with other ugly creatures instead of playing games
Because Sega just never understood why the Genesis was so popular and succesful and why so many people loved it and its games

[talemore]

Escrito originalmente por RRW359:

This isn't the biggest reason, but there is a factor a lot of people ignore: GD-ROM's.
Not only did people like the conveniance of playing DVD movies on the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) Xbox, but if you ask most people why the GameCube didn't do as well as Nintendo wanted, they will most often say it's because its (1.5GB) miniDVD's couldn't store as much as a standard DVD (4.7-8.4GB depending on layering). GD-ROM's could only store 1.2GB, which was even worse than the GameCube.

Well I say your argument is hogwash and made up. Knowing and played a gamecube know that the main reason was the controller. The controller for gamecube was so bad that people prefered to buy an xbox over the gamecube even if the handcontroller for xbox was too big. The console was made to work with the format. It's not my job to program the game. Even if many embraces N64, it was the same story. The N64 had one of the worst controllers. Xbox had the ability to store games on the harddrive. Sony had the titles. Having a gamecube was limited to what games you could buy. The console was rated by media. It was a media races whose console was the best. Console master race was for real when it came to what console to buy. What some don't know is that people pirated games and used reprogram on playstations and xbox, the gamecube with its small CD made it unable for pirates to copy over games.

[sage2001]

Escrito originalmente por RRW359:

This isn't the biggest reason, but there is a factor a lot of people ignore: GD-ROM's.
Not only did people like the conveniance of playing DVD movies on the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) Xbox, but if you ask most people why the GameCube didn't do as well as Nintendo wanted, they will most often say it's because its (1.5GB) miniDVD's couldn't store as much as a standard DVD (4.7-8.4GB depending on layering). GD-ROM's could only store 1.2GB, which was even worse than the GameCube.

Not to mention the Dreamcast was open to piracy at launch. Why pay full price for a game when you could just download an ISO and burn it onto a CD ROM?