9/9/99 Is a very strong and vivid day to many gamers around the world. That's the day that the long awaited and awesome Sega Dreamcast came out. Well in North America at least. Sega sold 500,000 units in just two weeks in the United States alone, having hardware shortages and not being able to catch up with the empty stock. It was definitely leaps and bounds, if you will, over the PlayStation and N64. Sega had a fail with the Sega 32X, the Sega CD, and the Sega Saturn. They only really had a strong run with their Genesis, which is still the best selling console in Brazil today. The Dreamcast was truly Sega's last effort to regain all the momentum they lost after the Genesis, but with all the fails they produced it would end up not being near enough to get the job done.
Sony had their first PlayStation console release in 1994 and it became a massive success worldwide. It was the first console to sell 100 million units worldwide. It really could do no wrong, with great graphics, games, and just in general the best console vs Sega and Nintendo. Fans fell in love with Sony's console, and the sales reflected that fact. It wouldn't lose it's momentum much like Sega's Genesis. But unlike Sega, Sony wouldn't have epic fails follow the release of PlayStation.
Enter PlayStation 2. It was released in 2000, 15 months after the Dreamcast. This particular Sony product had two things going for it: it had great momentum from the PlayStation, and it had a DVD player built in. This truly was the beginning of the end for the Dreamcast. Even though it sold very well initially, and was the first console to be available to play online, it just couldn't stand up to the power of the PlayStation 2. And the hype for PlayStation 2 certainly didn't help. When most of the gamer community is behind a particular console, it will generally sell the best, even if it's not the best overall console. It's a sad fact that the Dreamcast died so early, with it barely selling 10 million consoles.
With the fact that the sells were so low, and with the choice to either quit hardware or die trying, Sega opted out of the hardware manufacturing business. At least as far as home hardware goes, since they still make Arcade hardware. After the Dreamcast failed they would go on to make games for the others, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube. They did do something right with the Dreamcast though. They ended on a positive note. The sales certainly didn't show it, but Dreamcast was the first Sega console since the Genesis to be well received and be innovative well above the others. Sega just had too many past fails, and the Dreamcast suffered for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment