Ten years past

[Firemage]

Now more than a few gamers will remember the date 9/9/99, and then a good few others won't, Ten years ago we started the 128bit era. Sega's Dreamcast was a epic step above and beyond that of the last generation, for the first time adding things like built in internet access, in addition to the extra processing power offered by the 128bit tier. Yet the 3rd party developers where cold to these developments and Sony had their pre-PS2 hype machine in full gear, the Dreamcast didn't lose out to it's lack of ability so much more than it lost out to the mythic promises of what was yet to come.

So now we look back 10 years, the gaming world is a very different place, Sega is now a 3rd party company, and software mega giant Microsoft has moved into the industry. Sony continues to leverage their nature as a tech company to push the latest things, and Nintendo, Sega's long time rival holds out as the sole pure game company among the 3 now.

It is not that people didn't like Sega systems, thous who own or owned them often speak of them fondly, and there is often a question of not if Sega will make another system but rather often the question is when they will.

Also now we heard that Sega in someways it getting back to basics the next Sonic might be going back to it's 2d roots, maybe that is the best place for it. kotaku.com/5355153/sonic-returns-in-new-2d-hd-game

I and maybe a few others out there wonder if there will ever be a day when old hands Sonic and Mario go toe to toe not in the same games but rather on the latest generation system release but their mother companies.

So happy 9/9, and happy 10th Dreamcast.

[cyberlink420]

The Dreamcast failed because of two things:

1) Sega was fighting an uphill battle following the admitted failure that was the Sega Saturn.

2) They couldn't hope to stand against the massive hype machine that was the PS2.

It's really too bad, though, Because the Dreamcast was a fantastic system with one of the strongest overall lineups of any console...

[Chowwow]

Because of the trauma induced by my years of schooling and work, I almost forgot about the DC's 10 year anniversary. You have no idea but I was a HUGE Dreamcast fan back in the day. After purchasing the Saturn (for full price no less) as a middle schooler, I became a huge Segaphile. When I first heard of the DC, I felt like it was the second coming of the messiah.

I got that thing on Christmas of the year of the Dreamcast's epic launch. Two bad omens happened though: one was that the first console I bought broke down after one day of use. Second was after I returned it for another one, the Gamestop employee who help me said, knowing my plight, "yeah, I don't buy from Sega, they're trash".

Anyway, I stuck with the console for the years since: having the thing accompany me through my late mid-school to freshman year in high. Just before the curtain fell on the DC and the twilight of PS2's launch, I remember reading the (last) Official DC mag trying to explain away the cut backs and slowdown of work on the DC as business as usual. Even as a naive punk back then, I knew something was wrong. Still, once the DC went bust, I was crushed. While the system stayed strong enough to see Sonic Adventure 2 released, I had to import Shenmue 2 just to keep things going strong.

I quickly realized that being depressed about Sega's downfall was silly, and moved on to other things. Now I'm into NGE and anime!

While I agree the DC was a great system, I think it was only a matter of time. With a lot of costly effort, the DC might have lasted another year going gun-to-gun with the PS2. But this would have been in vain, with the Xbox and Gamecube releasing one year later - which would have brought the death blow, rendering the DC officially obsolete.

I think the only reason the DC even had the sort of success it had was because of the techniques utilized by then Sega USA CEO Peter Moore (and corporate strategist Charles Bellfield) and I think that, by dropping out of the console race, financially saved the company in the long run.

Still, I get the feeling that Sega nowadays is lost and the quality of work leaves much to be desired for someone who used to be a major player. Does anyone feel the same?