2 Dreamcast questions

[OldSchoolGamer]

wasnt piracy that killed the system anyway :P

Every system has or ends up having piracy, I would suggest lack of 3rd party support from big guns like EA (DAMN YOU EA) combined with distrust of SEGA over past mistakes (Early release of Saturn, poor support for SegaCD and 32x causing market confusion) as well as the hype machine from Sony who ended up releasing the PS2 WITH DVD compatability were far greater factors in the DREAMCAST demise!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Every system has or ends up having piracy, I would suggest lack of 3rd party support from big guns like EA (DAMN YOU EA) combined with distrust of SEGA over past mistakes (Early release of Saturn, poor support for SegaCD and 32x causing market confusion) as well as the hype machine from Sony who ended up releasing the PS2 WITH DVD compatability were far greater factors in the DREAMCAST demise!

I wouldn't underplay the actual amount of rampant piracy going on for that system.

When it comes to the Dreamcast - it was a genuinely rare and awful combination of factors that converged at one particular moment in time.

1.) A no-hardware-mod method of copying/playing games was devised, and the system had virtually no upgradeable firmware to combat this.

2.) Games could be copied on the CD Rom media, which had just hit a lifetime low in terms of cost-per-disc.

3.) High-speed internet services were becoming a more standard service in place of dial-up.

4.) P2P services like Napster and Kazaa were still in their infancy and going largely unchecked by governments and ISPs.

I was in game retail during the entire lifespan of the Dreamcast, and I'd recon that in it's second year, most people I knew didn't purchase a single game at retail yet had every major release.

[plastic]

I wouldn't underplay the actual amount of rampant piracy going on for that system.

When it comes to the Dreamcast - it was a genuinely rare and awful combination of factors that converged at one particular moment in time.

1.) A no-hardware-mod method of copying/playing games was devised, and the system had virtually no upgradeable firmware to combat this.

2.) Games could be copied on the CD Rom media, which had just hit a lifetime low in terms of cost-per-disc.

3.) High-speed internet services were becoming a more standard service in place of dial-up.

4.) P2P services like Napster and Kazaa were still in their infancy and going largely unchecked by governments and ISPs.

I was in game retail during the entire lifespan of the Dreamcast, and I'd recon that in it's second year, most people I knew didn't purchase a single game at retail yet had every major release.

That's honestly depressing.

I consistently play my Dreamcast, and consistently make note of how "ahead of its time" it truly was. I often think similarly of the Saturn, but that's a whole separate story.