The Sad Downfall of the Sega Dreamcast - What Went Wrong?

[@CulturedVultures]

Still feeling bummed out? Here's the saddest video game moments ever to cheer you up: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5DMdHyQpqegoc0 wait a minute

[@Cyberpunk001]

Back in the Dreamcast days, I worked for Toshiba in Plymouth UK, building rear projection televisions, which was how they made big screen Tv's before plasma and LCD Tv's were invented. I mention this because we also built the display cabinets for Sega Arcade machines. We had a Sega arcade machine set up with a Sega Rally demo running from a Naomi arcade console, which was very similar to the Dreamcast. This was just a demo unit on our production line, on display for the bosses and higher-ups. We weren't allowed to play it.

[@dumbstruckempire]

That's so cool!

[@CountDoucheula]

Yeah, but did you still play it though?

[@Cyberpunk001]

@@CountDoucheula sorry but no. We weren't allowed to.

[@peterrobson9920]

If memory serves me right the Dreamcast was the first console I bought with my own money..I absolutely adored it and lost months playing Shenmue and Resident evil code Veronica

[@timothylewis2527]

I always hated Sega. I was a Nintendo fan and they dared to talk badly about the source of my childhood joy. After repeatedly trying and failing to get my hands on a PS2, I broke down and bought a Dreamcast. It was the greatest thing, ever. After less than a month of bragging about how amazing it was, I saw a news report saying that Sega was leaving the console market, cutting the price of the console, and supporting it for one year. For the rest of 2001 (until around November, at least) nobody had more fun with a video game console than I did.

[@gc3k]

Two of the world's biggest and wealthiest tech corporations decided to make game consoles. And no other company has entered the console market since

[@CulturedVultures]

This is Gizmondo erasure sir

[@mjdf122]

Sega Dreamcast 2 2.2.22 It’s Still Thinking

[@cf105cp]

9.9.99 It sucked then 3.1.24 Still sucks now.

[@dejon18]

Syke

[@mshearn3198]

I have recently bought one and modded it. The console was great for casual/arcade games, but it was a console that while being ahead of the curve was also stuck in the past. Either way it's a solid console

[@albalog2449]

Agreed, I'm a casual gamer of 1st and 3rd person games, and I always felt the same about the Dreamcast as a day one owner for Christmas 1998 (Japanese console). In that case, it's the perfect fit for me. To me, it feels & performs like a gaming PC or an arcade machine from 1994 or 1995 with a Voodoo card for solid textures. As a kid, I had a high-end gaming PC from December 1996 and it had similar framerate to the DC (sometimes 5 fps higher), but it looked noticeably better if you put them side by side. Games like Half-Life 1, Kiss Psycho Circus, Quake 3, UT '99, etc. you could see the most difference. My PC came with 64mb ram and two 200mhz cpus (for 400mhz total), and the task manager took up about 32mb when playing games. Same amount of ram as a PS2 and a slightly more powerful cpu, which the PS2's was 300mhz. By the time the DC was out in "9-9-1999", I remember there were already PCs being hyped-up that were similar in power to the original Xbox (like Pentium 3's and early GeForce's). From December 1998 to mid 1999, I mostly played on my DC Blue Stinger, Elemental Gimmick Gear, and Sonic Adventure 1. This early Japanese release unfortunately gave Americans ample time to crack the GD-ROM security, and whole strategy guides of Blue Stinger (with spoilers & some screenshots) I remember well were written online in English by June 1999 (before "9-9-99"). The whole release date looking back was a mess/bad timing.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

You corrected your mistakes from last time you tackled the topic. Kudos. Most don't; it was a pleasant surprise to see the facts do matter here.

[@AlexMitchell-sj4sb]

Bought mine from Electronics Boutique when they briefly had a store in Debenhams for £150 with five games. Seemed a bargain at the time compared to £300 for a PS2 with no games. I bought it in late January 2001, just before they announced they were cancelling it. It was such a short lifespan but definitely burnt brightly in that time.

[@therealjaystone2344]

Fun fact: The first big three was Sony, Nintendo, and Sega from 1996 to 2001.

[@timothylewis2527]

Nintendo, Sony, and NEC.

[@therealjaystone2344]

@@timothylewis2527 NEC wasn’t much for their competition

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

The PC Engine beat Sega in Japan, and was crushing the Famicom. It's a mistake to underestimate it, just because they flushed that success down the toilet.

[@Brbos06]

Actually... The first "big three" were Atari, Magnavox and Mattel... The second "big three” was Atari, Nintendo, and NEC... The third were Atari, Nintendo and Sega... The fourth was Nintendo, Sega and NEC... The fifth was Nintendo, Sega and Sony... Then (and to this day) Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft...

[@TheBeggies95]

Your videos are so good man! Glad i found your channel

[@CulturedVultures]

Welcome! Look for new vids every Tuesday and Friday!

[@joshuamcdonell5490]

The Dreamcast is the best of the pre-HD consoles (the SNES is the best of the classic consoles). Still fish every month and definitely prefer Sega Half-Life over Sony Half-Life. And SoulCalibur, The Bell of the Ball. Beauty and Brains that controls like butter. RIP Dreamcast, may you be resurrected soon.

[@cf105cp]

Yeah Sony half life sucks. I mean far less loading time. Better graphics than even the PC version. Dual analog controls compared to Dreamcast 1 analog stick. Yep real shitty.

[@cf105cp]

Also Genesis is better than SNES

[@albalog2449]

I was a "day one" Dreamcast owner (Japan, Christmas 1998). So many people forget that the DC was designed to compete against the PS1 and N64, and spec wise, it was twice as powerful as an N64 DD with an expansion pak. I believe the DC should've came out sometime in 1997 instead of "9-9-99". I remember in 1997 the most low-end PCs had the same specs as the DC, and I honestly see no way how the DC could possibly compete against the Gamecube or original Xbox, which the original Xbox could (in theory) emulate the DC in a "Bleem" sort of fashion. By the "core 2000s", I can only see the DC compete against the PSP, which had similar specs. Had the machine came out in 1997 with a $300 to $400 price tag, having "day one" launch ports of PC Tomb Raiders, Quake 2, all Build engine games, Turok, Carmageddon, I genuinely believe Sega could've won the console war. By 1999, make it $200 dollars. Something like a lifespan from September 1997 to March 2004 would've been realistic for a console like the DC, with a Dreamcast 2 being released in late 2002/early 2003. I remember the "core 2000's" well and it was a miserable time for a late 90's kid like me with a DC (I was bullied by 2004/2005). Doesn't help that I still missed WCW, wanted KISS back in their original lineup, and still listening to Marilyn Manson. Everyone had a Gamecube and outright laughed at the DC, and all the adults were into the Xbox. And everyone listened to Nickelback, hehe.

[@alexandernorman5337]

Dreamcast was not possible in 1997. The hardware did not exist. It is a late, cutting edge 1998 console (that's actually when it was released in Japan, and Sega releasing it in the US *ten months later* was just another one of their many horrendous business decisions) and it could not have come earlier. First off RAM. 26MB of RAM (16MB for system RAM, 8MB for video RAM, and 2MB for audio RAM) would have cost around twice as much in late 1997. I think you are forgetting how much memory prices were decreasing each year as yields improved in that era. It wasn't feasible. Further, it would have only been 66MHz SDRAM because the 100MHz variety wasn't yet on the market. So the system (if launched in 1997) would have had considerably less RAM (or an enormous price tag) and with only 66% of the memory bandwidth. A sufficient CPU was also not available in 1997. If you only look at clock speed then it appears possible. But then you look further and see it is not. Yes, there were 200MHz processors in 1997. The intel pentium II for one (a CISC processor and so silicon is devoted to hardware instructions which will never be used and thus would never be picked) and the MIPS R5000 series also. Neither of these had vector/matrix unit like the later Hitachi SH-4. In order to perform a row by column multiply, dot product, or sum of squares operation as fast as the SH-4, you would need to overclock these to 800MHz or more. That wasn't possible. (And those operations are critical for your matrix perspective transformations, lighting calculations, and LOD determinations.) The SH-4 of 1998 was designed with input from SEGA to be optimized for the 3d math needed for consoles and arcade machines. The CPUs available in 1997 were not. There also wasn't a 3d graphics accelerator in the same caliber as the PowerVR CLX2 back in 1997. Power VR had a more primitive 3d accelerator at that time. It did not support the large textures that the later CLX2 did, it had a slower triangle setup engine, and there was no hardware tile accelerator with 1997's CX2 chipset. So the CPU would be taxed with managing the duties of assigning which polygon was associated with which tile and clearing memory once the tile was rendered. It also wouldn't produce the same quality of image since it couldn't push as many polygons as the later CLX2 or use the large textures. Other options available in 1997 were the Voodoo Graphics and (possibly) an improved version of the N64's RDP. Both of these options are far inferior to the PowerVR CLX2. The Voodoo Graphics is clocked slower (and so has a lower theoretical fillrate), suffers from overdraw (and so has an even lower actual fillrate), does not support the large textures that the CLX2 did, is wasteful with memory, and does not even have a triangle setup engine (and so the CPU would be taxed with those calculations). And RDP follow-on would have a triangle setup engine (except much slower), wouldn't support large textures, and suffers from overdraw. At best case, you are probably looking at not much better than half of the performance of the Dreamcast's CLX2 - and with lower texture quality. The PowerVR CLX2 was chosen because it proved to be more powerful than 1998's 3dfx Voodoo 2! Dreamcast hardware was far more powerful than you realize. And it was actually a very good time to launch a new console. The technology of late 1998 allowed a step change increase in capability. SEGA just really screwed up by delaying the North American launch by ten months. If you look at other consoles (N64, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox) none of the others have that kind of delay in between initial local launch and taking it global.

[@north-sea750]

Skies of Arcadia.

[@johntracy72]

That game needs a sequel. Such a great game. I really liked the Moby Dick steampunk setting.

[@Riz2336]

I recently played and beat Grandia II which was a solid Dreamcast RPG. I thought the system was awesome man, it had so many good games on it. Glad Sega is still around in some sense still to this day

[@aaronmarshall]

I waited with a buddy at the local mall on 9-8-99 for it to flip over to midnight 9-9-99. We snagged a Dreamcast and played Soulcalibur all night until the sun came up. Those were the days.

[@smokeyarcade]

It's still my favorite console of all time. I own maybe 6 total, but even I can agree, the lack of a DVD drive killed it. If they had a DVD drive and put the games on DVD's, they would've had a fighting chance against the PS2 for sure. I often wonder what the gaming space would look like today if Sega did a few things differently with the 32X, Saturn & Dreamcast.

[@nicolasromani3523]

I've never owned a Dreamcast, but the games shown here look pretty cool.

[@filipmartinez1162]

Powerstone is a must play, even on an emulator, so much fun

[@nicolasromani3523]

@@filipmartinez1162 thank u! :D

[@cf105cp]

You didn't miss anything. It sucked hence why it flopped.

[@filipmartinez1162]

@@cf105cp you sound like an FF weeaboo femboy, and not a gamer..

[@Rihcterwilker]

​@@cf105cp careful to not cut yourself on that edge.

[@Guilherme36594]

I remember back in late 90s and early 2000s, my friend bought a Dreamcast and called me to play. I never had one but i played A LOT with my friend, 1998 - 2001, the best years for sure, but Sega, on a desperation to beat PS2, tried everything and the console went downfall. Actually, all started bad on Saturn times. A shame. I can still imagine Dreamcast 2 or 3 nowadays face to face to today´s consoles.

[@justinmercado1185]

Two letters & a number: PS2

[@SuperZippyzippy]

Dreamcast was so ahead of its time. Love that console

[@TimBigler]

i loved the dreamcast, and didn't understand why everyone else didn't. shortly after it was discontinued, my local EB games (before gamestop took over) had a small dreamcast section and the employees said i was the only person to ever buy anything from that section.

[@codezero7981]

I always thought discontinuing the Dreamcast in 2001 was way too early, Sega should have put up more of a fight and made the console last till late 2003 at least.

[@ericp631]

From '93 onwards they were bleeding money like crazy, they just didn't have the funds to continue even if they wanted to. Despite having a dedicated fanbase, they just weren't broadly popular with hardware or first party software.

[@VOAN]

There were some gaming rumors back then that mention had Sega not left the hardware business, the Sega Dreamcast would had gotten some of the better third party games that PS2 was getting. Games like Grand Theft Auto III, Max Payne, Dead or Alive 3, Guilty Gear XX, Mega Man X7, Soul Calibur II, Doom 3, Onimusha, Viewtiful Joe, Superman Returns, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, I-Ninja, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Call of Duty, Killer7, Burnout, WWF Raw is War, Beyond Good and Evil, Rayman 3, Resident Evil Zero, Devil May Cry, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, and much more would had arrive on the Dreamcast had Sega not wave the white flag too soon. In fact Rockstar mentions that a port of GTA3 for the Dreamcast was already in development but when they started work on it, Sega already made the announcement for the Dreamcast cancellation thus Rockstar was force to cancel the Dreamcast port immediately.

[@mjdf122]

Sega Dreamcast 9.9.99 It’s Thinking

[@JudasMcGavin]

MGS2 Tanker background music ❤️‍🔥

[@Arthur-xr1vk]

the problem with Dreamcast is that people wasn't ready for the innovations that SEGA came up with before it was popular... SEGA was too ahead of time, and this was their downfall...

[@FreemanNFriends]

Thank you for videos they make me happy

[@dumbstruckempire]

Outstanding video, guys! Really well put-together.

[@BURRITO44]

Awesome video

[@gabrielepasquali5479]

Dreamcast was the best console ever produced. Infact it was the last true console.

[@funkywonky94]

Please elaborate as to why it was the last true console

[@lordeowstheking]

Relax 🤓

[@cf105cp]

Nope. I use mine as a doorstop. Seriously I do. And I got mine free. It sucked. Deal with it.

[@ejakaegypt]

Why didn’t it last then?

[@gabrielepasquali5479]

it's hard to explain. I grew up in an era where consoles differed from computers. I grew up with Atari, Nintendo and Sega. their features were created specifically for games; the consoles were produced by houses that were the main video game producers; today only Nintendo remains. the feeling I had with the advent of new consoles produced by houses like Sony or Microsoft meant that the consoles were based on PC hardware but with the limitations of a console. for this reason today I believe it is more convenient to buy a PC that has the same games of equal or higher quality but at lower prices; Furthermore, with a PC you can do many more things. This is my personal opinion and I respect those who have a different opinion on this topic.

[@lazydgsf7429]

Nothing sad about the Dreamcast. Some things just aren’t meant to last, or even be here long. Those were the best few years in gaming and it’s never been the same since.

[@timothylewis2527]

A lot of people preferred NFL 2k to Madden. Especially during the Dreamcast years. Madden got the exclusive NFL license and killed the competition, though.

[@camrunner6633]

The emergence of dvd put dreamcast as an unseeen disadvantage

[@intbronzefeed3824]

I still play the dreamcast today always play pso and record of lodoss war

[@unit0122]

Love your channel ❤

[@matt.willoughby]

If it had a DVD drive it would have been a massive success. Sega always failed to support their consoles, Nintendo were still bringing out amazing SNES games well into the N64's lifespan. By 1998 being a Saturn owner here in England was pretty depressing, 2 or 3 games a month being released, same with dreamcast. By 2002 there was nothing being released for the Dreamcast. They could've been selling 50k a month well into the mid 00's but of course Sega didn't do the decent thing. I'm always a Sega gamer, but they are never learned from past mistakes and being a fan wasn't made easy

[@ibobeko4309]

I remember my friend buying a dreamcast and anyone else had a ps2, we had a blast with crazy taxi and few other games but than there was nothing while on ps2 the releases never stopped. I felt bad for my friend.

[@castome7pi]

Well, there was nothing officially, not officially there are ports made for this console from even last year or so from games you can buy. You could even play gran turismo 2 or other games on it if you had bleem.

[@ericp631]

I highly doubt that. While the DVD player was a major component to the success of the PS2, there were many other factors at play for PlayStation's popularity and why almost no one wanted a Dreamcast.

[@mikaelkarlsson8969]

The marketing in Europe was so bad that the only way to find out that it even existed was to visit a electronic shop. Almost every one i visited had smal batches and the boxes was hidden high up and close to the ceiling. No demo kiosk no magazine ot tv commercial. 700 million people in Europe and 1.8 million sold. Untited states 300 million and 5.5 million sold. I do not come from the poor parts of Europe. All other consoles like nintendo and sony had massive marketing with demo kiosk everywhere. There was also alot of Tv and magazine commercial. It was wild in comparison. Genesis was the only sega console that had pretty good marketing. Happy i bought the console. Amazing graphics at the time. Better marketing and less arcade games and more games like Re code veronica and i think it could have succeded. The hardware and graphics was amazing.

[@ibobeko4309]

Sega made many stupid mistakes, first they brought the Sega 32x for the Sega Mega Drive and 6 months they released the Sega Saturn. Sega released 18 games for the 32x in Europe, everyone concentrated for Sega Saturn, whoever bought an addon without any function. Or the Sega CD, in Europe only 4 games been released for it. And the Sega Saturn missed a chance, it had 2 cpus and and they made the console for the ultimate 2d gaming until they realized what PS1 did but it was too late. And nobody wanted to develop games on hard to code due 2 processors and poor 3d capabilities while the PS1 bet on 3d and was easier to program. And that was all before the dreamcast.

[@mekman4]

Great Stuff, as always!

[@Brbos06]

I was never a fan of the Saturn, Sega of Japan killed the hardware side of Sega.

[@Sly88Frye]

8:49 I know where San Rafael is as I've driven through their many times as I live in Santa Rosa which is not far from there. You could pronounce it that way if you want but most people pronounce it as San Rafel. I am not sure why it's pronounced that way😂

[@dallase1]

Sega made the Genesis Mini console long after the Dreamcast.

[@johntracy72]

If only Sega had not released the 32X...

[@codyw2935]

Sega can't market and make idiotic decisions, but I bet if they announce a new console or part 2 of this (won't happen unfortunately) I bet it would be an instant hit since it's been so long people would flock to buy it whether it's good or bad. I am a die hard sega fan so I think it would do decent at least in the long term.

[@jaredbrown691]

Amazing video but also great taste in clips to drop in with it’s always sunny and so I think you should leave.

[@scruffy7443]

Dreamcast use the PowerVR, that made most of the games characters have fat fingers and blobby.

[@dejon18]

Wrong place wrong time its that simple

[@alyasabady]

dreamcast was dope dont care what nobody say, just not enough games

[@jonhaines2737]

29k gang Dreamcast was awesome 👌

[@aran563]

¡29k gang!

[@thezood]

I don't want a stinky, free or not

[@dragonitesr_ttv685]

i didn’t even know sega had its own console until 2005 , i was born in 1995

[@CulturedVultures]

ohhhh this makes me feel bad inside

[@albalog2449]

Born in January 1990, I was bullied hard in the mid 2000s for sticking with my Dreamcast. From what my Japanese girlfriend has told me (1987 born, also a DC owner back then), most post-2002 releases in Japan were simple "anime-like" games or "solid texture PS1-like" games, not "core 2000s style" games like GTA San Andreas or Half-Life 2. So with what she's told me, I wouldn't put much thought into Japanese DC games lasting into 2005.

[@andrewdeavila]

29K gang!

[@SeanShaffer2369]

29K GANG!

[@UmVtCg]

I think never even heard of the Dreamcast until later. Either that or I ignored it or it was not for sale in my region, I don't even remember.

[@filipmartinez1162]

Probably was sold in your region but not advertised, I remember the US commercials, it was also sold in Mexico but they never had any Mexican commercials for it.

[@Blue_Nova707]

29k GANG!

[@KevinPascal-lv9xr]

6th Gen Gaming kinda overrated especially since 2021 @D the world moves on to 7th Gen Gaming

[@pharmcat8484]

I wear my socks for a week at a time.

[@CulturedVultures]

thought you would just slip that in did you

[@Link-Hero-Of-Twilight]

sonic adventure 2 is the best dreamcast game who agrees!?

[@FabioOrtega]

29k gang!

[@nicholasbullock1709]

29k Gang!

[@lordeowstheking]

Yep.. nobody hasn't made a video like this before..

[@CulturedVultures]

yeah I just got sick to *death* of John Wick after the first time he punched a dude in the throat

[@paulvondresky8639]

29k Gang 👍

[@GAZZ707]

yes the ps2 actually does give me nightmares to this day because of the red screen of death lol

[@ukneo113]

29k gang 😜

[@kickpuncher1892]

Yea dreamcast was doomed. Not a good console.

[@CulturedVultures]

nah it ruled!

[@filipmartinez1162]

Tell me your Parents only let you play PS1 while DC was out without telling me you were poor. 🙄

[@remixchild]

Tbh the Dreamcast felt like it was made for a battle vs the psone not ps2

[@annatar18]

29K gang!

[@Cyberpunk001]

29k gang!

[@carl0076]

29K GANG!

[@ImTheMayor]

29K gang!

[@paulmason3201]

29K GANG!