Challenge: Make the Sega Deamcast succeed!

Angel Heart

Banned
As the title says: What has to go different in an ATL to make the Dreamcast a success? And how do you think would today's gaming world look like? Who in your opinion might be the first one to bite the dust under a successful Sega? The Nintendo or the PlayStation? And might we in this ATL still see an X-Box? :confused:
 

Sachyriel

Banned
Kill the Saturn, make those games for Dreamcast. Bigger Dreamcast library and being the first CD game system of the next gen, right? More people want those games, and it's Sega...

SEGA
 
We have to go way to the past. First off, we have to kill the 32X. Sega decides to focus instead to the Sega Saturn. Next, Sega shouldn't enter that stupid "battle" with the Playstation. They should do their own thing and not try to release their Saturn before the Playstation at all costs. So with more time for the Saturn, the Saturn might be a little bit more easier for third-party developers to develop their games. And Sega should have really released Sonic X-Treme, to push the Saturn again. And the Saturn should have run at least until 2000.

With that, third-party-developers like EA or Konami won't abandon Sega, so we might see "money"-series like the EA Sports-Games on the Dreamcast. Also, considering the longer developement time for it, it might be as competetive as the Playstation 2. With a better Dreamcast, and valuable third-party developers, this should put the Dreamcast in a good position.
 
Scrap the 32X and MegaCD, these lost public confidence in Sega.

Make the Saturn easier to write games for, it was this that lost it the 3 party that would never come back.

It must must must launch with a Sonic game, even if its a 2D game rendered in 3D (actually that might be best, as Sonic has never worked in full 3D)

Daytona should have had a multiplayer mode as well. Earlier release of Street Fighter games (big audience, and many agree the Saturn SF games are still the best ever versions)

Dreamcast again needed a Sonic launch title, it did hint at Wii style gaming with its fishing rod controller, perhaps Sega could have branched into Wii style gaming earlier?

In any case you really need a more successful Saturn to keep the third party developers that never bothered with the Dreamcast.
 
Give it a DVD Drive instead of a CD Drive, that was one of the main reasons why the PS2 was much more successful at it's launch.
 
One of the big problems with the Dreamcast was that it was meant to be part of the sixth generation and compete against the PS2, XBox, and Gamecube. But it was released rather early (a year and a half before the PS2, three years before XBox and Gamecube), so the technology hadn't had time to really catch up. When it came out it was brand new and cool, and was a cult hit back at that point. But once the other consoles came out, it wasn't quite so bright and shiny. PS2 had a fantastic game library, Gamecube had a library that appealed to a lot of casual or yonuger gamers, XBox had great hardware and some games that appealed to more hardcore gamers. So the Dreamcast didn't really have a chance against those. If Sega took its time, and tried for an unhurried release in 2000, they would've had two extra years to increase the tech, and it would've been an equal competitor in that generation of the console war.

Honestly, though, I think it would've worked best in the same sort of niche; a cult hit that keeps Sega afloat with a small library of fantastic games, rather than pumping out a few gems amongst a sea of flops, like the other consoles.
 

Thande

Donor
The Dreamcast was basically killed by the PlayStation 2. What if Sony's DVD format flopped for some reason? The reason why the PS2 is still the world's bestselling console is, I think, mainly because people were buying them 'for a free DVD player' back when DVD players were still very expensive.
 
The Dreamcast was basically killed by the PlayStation 2. What if Sony's DVD format flopped for some reason? The reason why the PS2 is still the world's bestselling console is, I think, mainly because people were buying them 'for a free DVD player' back when DVD players were still very expensive.

I think more than a few PS3 sales can be viewed in a similar light.

The Dreamcast had some very innovative ideas that were just too soon, I'm sure it had something similar to Xbox Live, and its Visual Memory Units had a lot of potential that was never realised.
 
A DVD drive would indeed be good. As Thande says people were willing to spend so damn much on a PS2 because they reasoned it was a DVD player too. IIRC I got a PS2 before a proper DVD player.

As would better copy protection. The Saturn is woefully easy to pirate- you just download and burn the disks, no need for a chip. Piracy can help a system, its a big part of the PSX's success but...not as much as the DC had.

The big one that stands out is better marketing.
They spent a lot on marketing but they wasted it- sponsoring Arsenal? WTF?


So...a idea- in keeping with the suggestion of DVD flopping how about we somehow get a situation like blu-ray/hd-dvd with DVDs? And make the one Sony backs lose- the PS2 will be a big factor in pushing it the victory but it can't go totally against the tide. Maybe put DVD already on the ropes before the PS2 even appears?


re: Scott and Sonic, Didn't it launch with Sonic Adventure? I got mine the xmas right after release and sonic adventure was with it.
 
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Right, how to make the Saturn succeed...
1) Sega launches the Saturn in it's original form, with a single Hitachi SH1 processor, as it's CPU, instead of the 2xSH1's it's eventually released with...
(Basically, Sega doesn't panic on seeing the Playstation's specs, & don't effectively redesign it in order to counter the Playstation, thus releasing it earlier, & making it easier to program/delevop games for).
2) Fit it with a DVD Drive, as some of the Japanese licencees did to their Saturns made under licence (JVC made a enhanced Saturn with a DVD, under the name of Wonderdrive, while Hitachi made a Saturn variant for luxury vehicles in Japan, featuring a DVD drive, a 8inch LCD display, & a integrated GPS system).
As for X-Box, considering the Dreamcast used version 1.5 Windows CE Professional, as it's operating system, could Sega have launched the Dreamcast, under the Microsoft label in the U.S, in a similar way that Apple intended to do with the abandoned "Pippin" games console, which was to be made for them by Bandai...?
 
As for X-Box, considering the Dreamcast used version 1.5 Windows CE Professional, as it's operating system, could Sega have launched the Dreamcast, under the Microsoft label in the U.S, in a similar way that Apple intended to do with the abandoned "Pippin" games console, which was to be made for them by Bandai...?
What makes you think that a Microsoft-branded console would do better than a Sega-branded one? (Note that the original XBox lost money every year it was in production)

As for the DC, you really do need to do something about the PS2, which essentially dominated that generation- Sega doesn't have Microsoft's deep pockets or Nintendo's core franchises...
 
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