Dreamcast's death meant the survival of Sega?

[Fear and Loathing]

I haven't bought another system since the Dreamcast (well apart from PSP for Mega Drive on the go!), because there are none that appeal to me enough and as the Sega games are spread across the consoles I'd effectively have to buy all of them to get all the games I want.

With the Dreamcast Sega were producing quality games in quick succession, I think games like F355 Challenge, Virtua Tennis, Shenmue and MSR were released in a period of a couple of months over here, just great game after great game. It was so exciting to own one at that time, just waiting to see what amazing game was going to be released next. As I say, none of other consoles since then have caught my eye in the same way.

I'm just kinda hoping that Sega have a plan to make quality games for all of these systems so a wider range of people become fans of their games, allowing them to build enough of a customer base back up to launch themselves into the next console race in 5-6 years time. Well thats what I'm dreaming of anyway

[Cernex]

My two cents about Sega's retirmnet was due to poor merchandizing and market decisions in the post-Genesis era.

The Sega Genesis was a HUGELLY succesful console back in the day (even beating Nintendo in one Christmas season (92? 93?) , were it had 60% of the market).

Problem came with the 32x/Saturn era.

The Sega CD, although a commercial failure, still holds a lot of respect AND has plenty of critically praised games (Snatcher and Lunar come to mind), so if Sega had just stayed there, it wouldn't had lost a lot of money.

Problem came with the 32x.

We all know a console (and add-ons) needs R&D, merchandizing, manufacturing costs... the whole schbagle. Well, problem with the 32X was, besides Doom and MK II, IT FAILED. COMPLETELLY.

It costed Sega a lot of cash, from which it never really recovered (reason why "Neptune" was never developed).

And the Saturn (IN AMERICA)... oh, I still remember that infamous E3 were they tried to have a headstart from the PSX, but ended up alienating a lot of major console salers (Wal Mart comes to mind) AND really never had any EXCELLENT software (one of the reasons I THINK the only way to play a Saturn right is with imports), and the PSX lowered it's price, thus giving one deadly blow to the Saturn in US.

And that's were the other problem comes: SONY.

In the whole "SNES-Playstation" debacle we all know, the Playstation was created and not only did it almost killed Nintendo, but killed ONCE AND FOR ALL one of Sega's biggest selling points: the adult market.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean it killed it in the point of "it dissapeared"

What I mean is that one upon a LONG time, with the Genesis, we ALL know (and remember) the classic "SNES is for kiddies and the Genesis is for grown-ups", and very right they were (Shadowrun, Snatcher and Mortal Komabt 1, just to name a few).

See here, Genesis had the grown-up market, while Nintendo, at least at the time, tried to please the "familiar" aspect of it (problem with Nintendo??? They never tried to please the grown-up audince... but that's for another argument). But when the PSX came with such games as Tomb Rider, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Clock Tower... I mean, they were games you would surelly never, EVER play in the SNES OR the then-up-coming N64 (which died for reasons of it's own).

Why did this titles got to the PSX when the Saturn was more powerful (check Wiki)??? Plenty of theories are lying around... the fact they didn't had a dev kit alienated customers... the fact it wasn't selling good enough in US (always a critical market)... I mean, you name it...

Point here is, that the PSX COMPLETELLY TOOK the grown-up market, and now the "evolved" phrase was "the N64 is for kiddies, and the PSX is for grown-ups".

Were's SEGA in that equation??? OUT.

So, with SEGA without one of it's biggest selling point, the Saturn was suddenly floating out of there (at least the way I see it) with not a lot of things to "call out" casual gamers, reason why it was such a flop in US.

And coasted a lot more to SEGA.

By the time the Dreamcast got here... man, so many things... GD-Rom not being big enough, the PS2 and MGS2 stealing a lot of it's "next-gen" thunder... there were a lot of bad decisions that, COMBINED with the 32x/Saturn HUGE FAILURES (because the American market has always being bigger than the Japanese market), SEGA was already dying by the time it got out.

They just didn't had the money anymore to keep pushing it by the time they pulled the plug, at least the way I see.

The Dreamcast was a good console and all, but it was dragging 2 VERY BAD consoles (well, 1 console and 1 add-on), and it just wasn't good enough, or at least it I think that's the reason.

Sure, Sega no longer had to invest in R&D anymore, nor merchandizing... I mean, with the money it had, it could make games like no other. That's why, to me, they pulled the plug too: They just couldn't afford another console either.

So, did "killing" the Dreamcast saved SEGA??? Yeah. Was it the Dreamcast fault SEGA stopped doing consoles??? NO WAY
Was the Dreamcast a bad console??? By the looks of it, and judging by the numbers we have, NO.

El Cernex

(P.S: Didn't mentioned the whole "SEGA US/SEGA JP" debacle because I don't know "enough" about it. I only know they were constantly fighting with each other AND both invested in r&D for THEIR OWN systems (as I remember hearing somewere SEGA US already had developed it's own cartridge based next-gen conosle, but it was soon "replaced" by the Saturn))

[mesosade]

dreamcast was a damn good console if it was released during ps1 they'd be rolling in it. HELL i've been on my dreamcast till now! and ummm screaming at chankast too

[ßüboni¢ $oñic]

(P.S: Didn't mentioned the whole "SEGA US/SEGA JP" debacle because I don't know "enough" about it.

aSSUMING Sega International is not a synonym for Sega Japan I think it would had been a good idea for SOA, SOJ, EU Sega and Sega Brazil to just assume a regional autonomy and then see how their fortunes changed and give it to the head of all sega divisions asuring good growth and software diversity.