On this day 10 years ago die hard gamers made one final stand. Their way of life was disappearing. The once dominant arcades were losing their prominence. The shift to console gaming was on. To make matters worse the industry was being taken over by casual gamers. Companies had figured out how to mass market games. It was no longer about creating new and original content. It became a science and all creativity was thrown out the window. Gone were the days when real gamers had a say. Now all game makers had to do was advertise Lara Croft’s polygonal boobs or another cheesy gimmick and they had an instant million seller. One company stayed true to gamers and that was Sega. Sadly, they weren’t in the greatest shape after years of misfortune. Their last hope was the dream machine and real gamers rallied behind it.
Sega took 200,000 pre-orders (then a record) and then launched the Dreamcast on 9-9-99 to much hype. 18 games were immediately available and by Christmas the system had a sizeable library. The system quickly overtook the Playstation as the fastest to hit a million. For a brief moment in time everything was finally right. The Dreamcast was a success and it looked as though the future of the videogame industry could be put back on track. Of course, most people didn’t believe it would last. They were right. It was just the calm before the storm.
Sega had to overcome many obstacles for the Dreamcast to be a success. They not only faced fierce competition, but their own history and financial troubles. The odds were against them, but the system was succeeding. A juggernaut was looming and how the Dreamcast responded would determine its fate. When the PS2 hit it smashed everything. People instantly forgot about the Dreamcast and that was the end. The question is why?
The success of the original Playstation was undeniable. Sony owned the console market by the time Dreamcast arrived. They had incredible brand loyalty and they parlayed that into even greater success with the PS2. Sony could only deliver 500,000 units at the launch on October 26th 2000. That just wasn’t enough. Throughout the holidays it was nearly impossible to get one. You would think that would have translated into more Dreamcast sales, but it didn’t. People would rather wait for a PS2 and have nothing for the holidays than buy a DC.
The ironic thing is that the PS2 wasn’t the great console at launch it would later become. It cost $100 more than the Dreamcast and its launch lineup was mediocre at best. Dreamcast was into its second generation of software by that time. Sega had a stellar library of software and many of the second generation games on their console actually looked better than the PS2’s launch titles. None of that seemed to matter though. People weren’t buying the PS2 because it was better. They were buying on name alone.
In January of 2001 Sega pulled the plug on the dream machine. The Dreamcast didn’t die because it was a terrible system. In the end it was Sega’s past that caught up with them. They were in bad financial shape before the launch of the Dreamcast and were bleeding money profusely. They needed an instant and massive success to keep going. The Dreamcast was a success, but just not a big enough success. To reach the level of success needed to keep going Sega needed to sell 5 million consoles. They only managed to sell 3 million. Sega tried everything. They cut the price of the system by $50. They even tried giving away the system with a SegaNet subscription. Nothing seemed to work.
In order to survive Sega had to drop the Dreamcast. If they had been in better financial shape the Dreamcast would have at least survived as a niche product. Instead Sega had to drop out of the hardware business for good and become a third party developer. Along with the loss of their hardware Sega also lost something else. They lost their creativity. The days of creating quirky original games were over. They were now just another developer making cookie cutter games that they hoped would sell.
The end of gaming, true gaming, was marked by the death of Dreamcast. Ten years later and it is still looked at as one of the greatest consoles ever. The Dreamcast should have been the console that took gaming to another level. Instead it will be forever known as the console that was ahead of its time.
Tags: Dreamcast, videogames
