Dreamcast Resurrection? Will the Phoenix Rise?

[TheEdge]

The 32X was also a factor in the demise of SEGA as a console maker. I bet lots of people's heads asploded when they couldn't figure out which 32-Bit upgrade to get. 32X or Saturn!? Glad I waited and got the Saturn.

I agree, there were way too many add ons. The Genesis was on life support for a while and the SegaCD and 32X was like injecting adrenaline into the heart of a overdosing heroin addict (See movie "Pulp Fiction"). I stand by my point though that they were behind from the beginning. Saturn may have been big in Japan (Im assuming from what I heard) but left Sega in last place even in the states. They were the underdog from day 1.

[Melf]

close, but not quite. Playstation beat out the Saturn solely because it was $100 cheaper, much the same reason the piece-o-shit heXBOX 360 is beating the PS3.

Sega's brand name was damaged by the Saturn era, and a little game called Final Fantasy VII had a lot to do with pushing things in the Playstation's favor. Price wasn't as much of an issue as 3rd party support was.

Don't me get started on how god awful the XBOX 360 hardware actually is (from a quality standpoint) and what a ripoff their accessories and internet play subscription is.

Agreed on the 360 hardware. but then, have you ever known Microsoft to make a product worth a damn in terms of quality? As for accessories, the Wii has you paying $15 for attachements, and all consoles want too much money for controllers. the 360 wireless adapter is LOL expensive, but only a dummy would buy that when you can get one cheaper at a computer store.

Live is worth the money to me. XBLA games and an incrediblly intuitive online setup is much better than the "you get what you pay for" free service on both the Wii and PS3. Friends codes are ridiculous, and just go and try to play Wipeout HD with some friends to see how unnecessarily frustrating it is.

The ONLY reason Dreamcast dropped off of the face of the earth was easy piracy.

Long before piracy became a major problem for Sega, the company's lack of cash did it in. Sega simply could not compete with the gobs of cash Sony tossed around in advertising and snatching up 3rd party exclusives. The lack of a built-in DVD player hurt it too (remember when the best-selling software for the PS2 in Japan was the Matrix DVD?). The library for the DC is incredible, it offered real online play, and Sega was actually GIVING THE DARN THING AWAY if you subscribed to SegaNet - and the console still couldn't sell enough to compete with the PS2. Sega's brand name was all washed up by that point (they sort of admitted it by bringing back the Sega Scream for a time), and there was no money to advertise. Hell, even former SOA head Peter Moore admits it.

We were selling 50,000 units a day, then 60,000, then 100,000, but it was just not going to be enough to get the critical mass to take on the launch of PS2. It was a big stakes game. Sega had the option of pouring in more money and going bankrupt and they decided they wanted to live to fight another day. So we licked our wounds, ate some humble pie and went to Sony and Nintendo to ask for dev kits.

[j_factor]

Funny though, Sega sold less software and were further in the red in 2002 compared to 2000.

[108 Stars]

You can´t have a complete change of your business model and expect it to work great in an instant.

[Afcs46]

Sega (console market) will rise from the ashes... Just check the new portable Sega Vision. I think they are watching the market tendencies to launch a console in full strenght.

[GameUser-16-32-128]

Sega (console market) will rise from the ashes... Just check the new portable Sega Vision. I think they are watching the market tendencies to launch a console in full strenght.

SEGA's console market will briefly rise and then get buried again. It looks like another failure for SEGA! They will have a really hard time selling this thing. It doesn't look serious enough to compete against the likes of the PSP or the DS. It's obvious that it's not made for games but just for playing media. It'll get destroyed by Apple's ipod and iphone not to mention a million other similar devices that are flooding the market. If you're going to make a portable, make the damn thing look like it has a a decent 8 way control pad and at least 3 buttons for games!

[esb09]

I don't think many people will buy the Sega Vision. Their reputation is too damaged, mostly from raping their franchises.

I mean, it'd be almost like Atari saying they're going to make a console again, although not quite THAT bad. But close.

[Afcs46]

Well, a good Sega collector will have it for sure...

[esb09]

Oh yeah, I'd buy it. But we're not a big market, I don't think.

[j_factor]

I wonder how they'll position the Sega Vision. Will it be right next to the PSP at Gamestop, or will it be in the portable mp3/video player section at Best Buy? If it's the former, they've got a steep hill ahead, and if it's the latter, they're entering a crowded market.

I dunno, I could see them doing okay with it. Hasn't the Beena been a success in Japan?

[j_factor]

Nevermind, this video pretty much answers it. It's a multimedia device, and its gaming capability is just java. Still, a pretty nice set of features:

-- Music
-- Videos
-- Camera, including video
-- On-board mic, with sound recording
-- Built-in TV tuner
-- Radio
-- E-books and text files
-- 2GB of on-board memory
-- Micro SD supported
-- Games, but it looks like just java

Better confirmation

This isn't going to take the world by storm, and it doesn't have enough memory for my liking, but it's not necessarily a guaranteed failure. There are a lot of mp3/video players around, but how many of them have a TV tuner?

[TmEE]

what kind of TV tuner it has ? I hope its digital, and can decode all major formats...

[Elusive]

1seg, perhaps. There was a similar tuner released for the DS 'over there'.

Seriously, it's a SEGA-branded MP4 player - no more a glorious console fanboy-fantasy rebirth than the Homestar projector was. Sega just produce toys on the side

[Benjamin]

Playstation was only $100 cheaper than Saturn for a few months. The Saturn dropped to $299 before Christmas '95. Both systems dropped to $199 at the same time, E3 '96.

Yep, but the N64 and PSX were $150 the following year while the Saturn remained at $200 by bundling the three pack with the system. The problem with the short lived $400 price point was that the PlayStation's 3-D performance blew it away, and watching Sega charge more for an "inferior" machine took a toll on its credibility I think from which it never recovered. It also kept the early adapters away in favor of a wait and see attitude, completely negating the advantage of the premature launch (though I doubt that would have made any real impact in the end).

[retrospiel]

You know one what really hurt the Saturn in the long run ? The controller.