The Dreamcast. Was is rubbish or unlucky?

[Zelurien]

I owned a Dreamcast and a PS2 and just wondered what people thought. I really liked the dreamcast, I thought it had some good games, it was fairly innovative with it's VMU memory card and it had a built it Modem before any of the other consoles were thinking about them. Was it that the graphics weren't a match for the PS2? Was it that the PS2 could play DVD's (which I'll admit I was pretty keen on)?

Just wondered what the consesus was. Did you own one? Were you tempted?

 

[Tech Team FTW!]

I have never even seen a Dreamcast in real ife. I don't think it even made it to this country.

Another chapter in the long book of Sega fails...

 

[Dys]

What unkillable cat said + fantastic marketing on sonys part.

 

[Sevre]

It was rubbish AND unlucky.

 

[DesertHawk]

I still have my dreamcast, and I still love the games I have for it (as few as they may be). Now to respond to your question:

Rubbish, no. Unlucky, partly. I think it may have come out a bit too early and did not have enough 'good' games to keep it afloat in the long run. When the, hardware-wise, superior PS2 was up and running, I don't think DC had much of a chance. Sega had not enjoyed the same popularity, or success, that the playstation did in the previous console generation. So it was my understanding that developers flocked to to the PS2, dropping support of the DC almost entirely. No further great games = no way to push consoles.

It's sad though, because the DC was initially successful. Sony just had the upper hand (in popularity and hardware). Sega is partly to blame for this on the hardware front as they took a gamble in trying to be the first ones out of the door.

 

[Inverse Skies]

A bit of both... it wasn't the greatest console ever but I still think it was fairly stiff to crash and burn like it did. Didn't seem to do Sega justice somehow.

 

[SmilingKitsune]

Welcome to the escapist OP!
I remember playing a Dreamcast at a friends house, though back then I couldn't really tell if it was any better or worse than the other consoles, I've heard many people say how much they loved it thoguh, so I guess Sega were just unlucky, as has become the usual for them.

 

[Remleiz]

the dreamcast had some awesome games, such as Skies of arcadia, HotD2, Jet set raido, Crazy taxi, Shenmue.

But it was unlucky in its marketing and the fact most people were excited about the ps2

 

[Spyalt]

It was a great piece of kit, but had too high of a loss margain and launched at the wrong time. I think people were also put off by Seaga's previous screw ups so wanted to wait and see what Sony had to offer.

This

 

[mikecoulter]

Defiantly a mess up due to poor marketing and timing. However, it was a good console. Shame they've stopped making hardware now....

 

[CookieDuster]

I'm just waiting for them to give us an ending to Shenmue. That was the biggest kick in the balls when the Dreamcast went under.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Simply having chu chu rocket convinced me...
I don't know about the poor marketing; I remember reading a games magazine at the time when the Dreamcast was released, they seemed pretty excited by it, they conga'd with it and some guy walked around naked with a sandwich board hoping to get one.
But the chap who got it was some boy who painted his face blue and sat in a bath of maggots in a busy high street while wearing a nappy.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Hardly rubbish, but some atrocious decisions on Sega's part prevented it from ever rivalling the PS2. Rushing it to be the first next gen console, only for it to turn out to be inferior to the other upcoming consoles was not a good idea.

 

[Tonimata]

Mostly unlucky. A friend had one, and it was fairly good, and of course the fact that it was the first one to include online functions should've made it work. But the fact that most of the mainstream games people were interested in belonged to other franchises and the fact that the marketing was a very big piece of crap. It's unfortunate really, just how many games or consoles never saw light, or at least popularity due to the overcrushing ultimate trio that is Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

It had 2 great RPGs during its lifespan, Grandia 2 and Skies of Arcadia.

It had the best fighting game ever, Power Stone 1+2 (fuck off, people mentioning Marvel VS Capcom)

It had the cool memory card in the controller.

IT WILL BE MISSED!

Edit: This means that it was not rubbish, merely unlucky.

 

[Ranooth]

I loved my Dreamcast, and my god i miss it.

 

[Siris]

I'd just say unlucky. Sony just released a more popular system at the wrong time for Sega

 

[Selvalros]

The dreamcast was awesome. I loved that system to this day even though I sold mine to one of my friends. It didn't have a ton of good games but it had enough to keep me interested in it. The VMU was amazing and I had a lot of fun playing the Sonic mini-game on it when I wasn't able to actually play the game. I think that if it didn't have sony as competition and a bad wrap to deal with than the gaming industry would most certainly be different today.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

I have never even seen a Dreamcast in real ife. I don't think it even made it to this country.

Another chapter in the long book of Sega fails...

It did, I remember seeing it for either $525 or $255 at EB shortly after the PS2 came out.