Former Sega Prez Discusses the Dreamcast's Failure 86
An anonymous reader writes "Former Sega of America president Bernie Stolar speaks out about the man who ousted him, EA's attempt to monopolize sports games on the Dreamcast, why the Dreamcast failed, and a legendary prank he pulled against Sony. 'I fought to have a modem on the platform. Maybe it was early — who knows. But I fought for a modem in the beginning because I wanted to have massively multiplayer online games on that system.' When asked about the console's online capabilities not catching on with consumers, he said, 'It doesn't surprise me, because there wasn't software tied into it. They were not building and going after software to start that. I mean, I was looking for developers and content providers to start doing that. Sega did not do that after I left. They just abandoned it.'"
Re:sounds like some rationalization going on (Score:3, Informative)
Sega Rally 2
Virtua Fighter 3
Dead or Alive 2
Soul Calibur
Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Powerstone
Head Hunter
Phantasy Star Online
Skies of Arcadia
That's just a handful I can think of off the top of my head. The hype for the DC was ridiculous at the time for a console.
The real reason for Dreamcast's downfall (Score:1, Informative)
Re:sounds like some rationalization going on (Score:4, Informative)
Hype? What hype? Here in Switzerland the kids often thought it was the PS2 or X-Box (having no idea about their actual release dates). You need to know that Sega, as far as I know, was never all that popular in Europe. I don't know about the rest of the world, but here nobody even knew they'd made a new console.
Hell, we had to look on the internet (without youtube) for the actual DC commercials since we didn't have even one around here (since Switzerland has German TV stations, I feel safe to say in all German speaking countries, there was a marketing black hole when it comes to that piece of hardware).
The games were great, the hardware was advanced and powerful. Just... nobody knew that.
Great Sonic (Score:1, Informative)
"BS: I think theyâ(TM)re going through some really difficult times. I donâ(TM)t believe they have the content, developers, and producers there that they had at one time. I donâ(TM)t know their financial position, but theyâ(TM)re probably not spending the type of money they should be spending. You tell me the last time you saw a great Sonic game."
He obviously doesn't read /.
2D Sonic [slashdot.org]
Re:Who's to blame? (Score:3, Informative)
Does a DVD player make the PS2 a better game system? Sony's hype machine and press ignorance made it seem far more "next-gen" than it actually was. And games like Shenmue, Metropolis Street Racer, Sonic Adventure 2, and Under Defeat show the Dreamcast could hold its own regarding quality graphics.
Well it does not make it a better game system but it helped to sell the hardware. Go to youtube and dig out the IGN dreamcast interviews, all the Sega people interviewed pretty much said that the Dreamcast sales took a nosedive the day the PS2 hit the streets, and that at least in japan the PS2 was heavily used as a DVD player also because it was the cheapest of its time.
(Probably the other countries also used the PS2 heavily as a DVD player). Face it, while nowadays it is unimportant due to having DVD players left and right just like CD burners back then. The time the PS2 came out the DVD functionality was one cornerstone which sank the Dreamcast and almost sank the gamecube.