Why the Dreamcast Failed!

[Darksaviour69]

well form what i see japanese sales figures

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~hokora/dcrank.html

the biggest selling game in japan is Sonic Adventure which sold just under 1/2 million units, but in the states it sold over 1 million

other interesting figures:
Shenmue: jap:326,222 US:458,977 more sold in the US
Soul Calibur II: jap:288,604 US:573,619 twice as much sold in the US
CRAZY TAXI: jap:113,177 US: 966,665 9 times more sold in US

this i can't belive
Jet Grind Radio: jap: 47,840 US:291,609

[SiZiOUS]

I don't know why the Dreamcast failed, because i never had the idea to re-sell it, even if i bought a PS2.

Sega lost their trust and gave up whereas all wasn't lost.

[Darksaviour69]

mmm the title of the topic is abit extreme, but my point is that japan sales are useally the highest, it just goes to show how much stronger the sales are in US where compared to Jap

[SiZiOUS]

oops sorry. in europe the dreamcast has failed very early.

[MetaFox]

I think those values are a little skewed. I remember reading higher numbers in an old issue of Dorimaga - right after they stopped calling themselves Dreamcast Magazine.

[Mental2k]

Another reason was name recognition sales on the ps2, and poeple had lost confidence with sega post saturn, also when sega dropped the megadrive/genesis, after releasing a whole slew of addons

[rcgamer]

I believe that sega made another critical mistake by dumping the dreamcast as early as it did. It just adds more distrust from consumers, and when you add it to the saturns short lifespan, the segacd and 32x nonsupport then it really makes them look bad. I could understand them cutting back production on the dc and making titles for other consoles but what is unforgivable to me is that they wont port any titles to the dc at all. They may as well be slapping customers who bought their system in the face.

[Cast128dreams]

I think that Dreamcast has(or had) the power to hit the market(it did it)...but not as much as sega wanted......Or in other words you should also thing and the other side......
Can you imagine how much money sega lose with the copies?......
Maybe they couldnt afford it because their buget has been drpped crazy with Sega Saturn!!!!!!.......

[Mental2k]

I believe that sega made another critical mistake by dumping the dreamcast as early as it did. It just adds more distrust from consumers, and when you add it to the saturns short lifespan, the segacd and 32x nonsupport then it really makes them look bad. I could understand them cutting back production on the dc and making titles for other consoles but what is unforgivable to me is that they wont port any titles to the dc at all. They may as well be slapping customers who bought their system in the face.


That's silly thats like saying nintendo not developing games for the N64 is a slap in the face, Sega have pretty much dropped the DC, you cant expect them to keep porting games to it, easpecially as if they did they'd probably lose money,when the whole point of them leaving the hardware scene was fpr them to recoup some of the mega losses they had made in the last few years.

[rcgamer]

That's silly thats like saying nintendo not developing games for the N64 is a slap in the face, Sega have pretty much dropped the DC, you cant expect them to keep porting games to it, easpecially as if they did they'd probably lose money,when the whole point of them leaving the hardware scene was fpr them to recoup some of the mega losses they had made in the last few years.

whats silly is you comparing the dc to n64. lets see is the n64 nintendos latest console? no. Does it have anywhere near the power of DC. No. The DC was made to compete against and get the jump on sonys ps2.
It would not cost near as much for sega to port titles that it had already developed to the dc as it did for them to make titles only for dc. If small game developers can come out with games for it and turn a profit then sega sure as hell could.
Segas recent (in console terms)track record speaks for itself. If you are going to put out a console then you should support it and it should have a longer life than 2 or 3 years.

[quzar]

I believe that sega made another critical mistake by dumping the dreamcast as early as it did. It just adds more distrust from consumers, and when you add it to the saturns short lifespan, the segacd and 32x nonsupport then it really makes them look bad. I could understand them cutting back production on the dc and making titles for other consoles but what is unforgivable to me is that they wont port any titles to the dc at all. They may as well be slapping customers who bought their system in the face.

you people dont seem to understand that sega didnt officially cancel the dreamcast until near the end of 01, even though the last DCs were made in december 00. (other than special editions).

The thing was that they stopped production ONLY because they still had a huge surplus in warehouses that were sitting unsold, and they figured they might as well not make more until they could unload the ones they already had.

its not like sega said, oh noes! pirates and stopped making them so that all the people wanting them couldnt get them.

[rcgamer]

you people dont seem to understand that sega didnt officially cancel the dreamcast until near the end of 01, even though the last DCs were made in december 00. (other than special editions).

The thing was that they stopped production ONLY because they still had a huge surplus in warehouses that were sitting unsold, and they figured they might as well not make more until they could unload the ones they already had.

its not like sega said, oh noes! pirates and stopped making them so that all the people wanting them couldnt get them.

I see no relevance between this and what i said. In fact i cant tell you arguing against me or with me. so if they didnt officially cancel it till 01 the console had a lifespan (at least here in the u.s. ) of a whole two years. it didnt come out here till the 4th quarter of 99. But millions of them were sold, so that just gets me back to my point of why not support the ones who did trust you and bought the system with a few games.Hell, they (gaming companies not just sega) are still porting games to the ps1 to this day.

what is sad though is that their (sega) stock actually went up by like 18% after they announced that the DC was being discontinued. How do you go from record opening day sales to having to cancel a system in just over two years (again thats in the u.s.). Only sega could accomplish this feat.

[Mental2k]

whats silly is you comparing the dc to n64. lets see is the n64 nintendos latest console? no. Does it have anywhere near the power of DC. No. The DC was made to compete against and get the jump on sonys ps2.
It would not cost near as much for sega to port titles that it had already developed to the dc as it did for them to make titles only for dc. If small game developers can come out with games for it and turn a profit then sega sure as hell could.
Segas recent (in console terms)track record speaks for itself. If you are going to put out a console then you should support it and it should have a longer life than 2 or 3 years.


Do sega have a current console? no. Were sega making a loss on the DC? Yes. Were sega starting to make a bigger loss on the DC? yes. Do small homebrew developers have to pay wages? no. Sega's recent console track record? 2 failed consoles? yeah speaks pretty well for itself. Dont be silly sega arent gonna throw more good money after bad.

[Darksaviour69]

9.9.99 was the release in the US. the reason that games are ported to the psx still because they still sell. the basic rules for selling video games these days is the magic million, u need to sell over million to be a success (it works a bit like the movie industry out of 10 moives made by one company, 6 are floppy 2 break even, 1 makes a small profit and 1 makes millions and that covers all the failures)

if you look at that page i linked to not many games were near the million mark (europe figures are not included, but it is the smallest of the big 3 markets)

[rcgamer]

I guess you are conveniently forgetting the segacd and the 32x disasters. However, I guess they are only attachments wich sega didnt support. Also the game gear.
I am not talking about homebrew when i refer to small game companies.
And games (professional games) are still coming out for it in japan. The psone still has ports and it is by no means a current console.
And im not just talking about right now, the last game they officially made (for u.s.) was one of the sega sports 2k2 titles wich came out in 2001 while there were millions of people still playing the DC.
But we will just have to agree to disagree.

[Mental2k]

But you have to remember the jap market is a bit of an exception, they're prone to fads.

But okay, i'll agree to disagree.

[Darksaviour69]

you got not remember money drives everything, the psx has a huge users base (still) and they still make money of it, even thought it is not a current console, but the dreamcast sales towards the end were not good enough, if they could have sold more games on the DC and make a profit they would have. The games that are released in japan are a bit different:
1. the are either ports or very low buget novel anime things,
2. the japanese maket is very different to the West (remembers its only a 2 hourse race there, ps2 and gamecube, the xbox sales where still being beaten by the dc in 2003 some weeks,).
3. the biggest user base for the dreamcast is japan (most DC where sold there)

[rcgamer]

Your right they are PORTS. wich is what ive been saying.
The majority of the cost of a game is in development. They make there money by first selling there games on ps2, xbox and gamecube. Those revenues generate them their profit. After they have made their money on those systems they could PORT to DC. And I also am not saying they should stock a million of them.
Nowhere in any of my posts did i say i wanted a new game developed for the dc.
And according to your link, the u.s. bought many more of their games than japan did. Here again I am not talking about right now 2005 im talking about since 2001. You cant tell me that in 2002 or 2003 they didnt have enough users in the U.S. that they couldnt have provided a few ports of their more popular titles.

oh well, in any case i doubt i have to ever worry about getting burned by another sega console.