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Uh, then why did they get out of the hardware market?

And why did almost every media outlet declare the Japanese launch a resounding failure? Then proceed to relate sales figures that indicated top-tier DC titles selling less than throw-off PSX, N64 and even Gameboy titles?

This link shows a DC news site gleeful that FOUR DC games showed up in the top THIRTY. One of which is Grandia II, one of the DC's most anticipated games.

Here's another fun quote from a few weeks before: For anyone wondering why I didn't report on Japanese sales of Dreamcast games in Japan last week, the reason is simple, if a tad depressing: None of them made the charts.

And let's check out a hardware sales quote, from the same site, for the same week:

On the hardware front, the Dreamcast moved 5,951 units which is on the higher end of the usual sales range. The PS2 moved 88,286 and the GBA helped to drain the batteries of another 73,315 customers.

Wow, that's a success? True, these are from the weeks before Sega pulled the plug, but check out sales figures. You'll see top-tier games like PSO topping out at 130,000 copies. A big PSX game will usually sell a few million copies. Those were the sorts of sales the DC needed to pull Sega out of its hole, and they never got them.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Dreamcast- I have one with more than 20 games, I still play it all the time. But I don't delude myself into thinking it was a success. Rather, the DC was the coolest "also ran" in the console industry in quite awhile. It sucks, but at least we can get the games for $5.99 now.

Uh, then why did they get out of the hardware market?

And why did almost every media outlet declare the Japanese launch a resounding failure? Then proceed to relate sales figures that indicated top-tier DC titles selling less than throw-off PSX, N64 and even Gameboy titles?

This link shows a DC news site gleeful that FOUR DC games showed up in the top THIRTY. One of which is Grandia II, one of the DC's most anticipated games.

Here's another fun quote from a few weeks before: For anyone wondering why I didn't report on Japanese sales of Dreamcast games in Japan last week, the reason is simple, if a tad depressing: None of them made the charts.

And let's check out a hardware sales quote, from the same site, for the same week:

On the hardware front, the Dreamcast moved 5,951 units which is on the higher end of the usual sales range. The PS2 moved 88,286 and the GBA helped to drain the batteries of another 73,315 customers.

Wow, that's a success? True, these are from the weeks before Sega pulled the plug, but check out sales figures. You'll see top-tier games like PSO topping out at 130,000 copies. A big PSX game will usually sell a few million copies. Those were the sorts of sales the DC needed to pull Sega out of its hole, and they never got them.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Dreamcast- I have one with more than 20 games, I still play it all the time. But I don't delude myself into thinking it was a success. Rather, the DC was the coolest "also ran" in the console industry in quite awhile. It sucks, but at least we can get the games for $5.99 now.

Capcom hired SNK's 80 best people and bought their franchises. So SNK's logo may be dead, but their people and franchises live on.

Capcom hires SNK.

• In an effort to confirm this story, SegaWeb immediately contacted Sega of America's Heather Hawkins. Her response to the news was, and I quote, "Yeah, I'll have more for you on the story as soon as Microsoft buys us out and we begin distributing GameCube games to small Scandinavian countries." When pressed for clarification, she responded, "Well, the story was just like all the other ones out there. OK?," and terminated the conversation.

• Hi gang, We'll be putting out a stuffy official statement later today, but I knew things would be going crazy on here about all the rumors, so I wanted to hop on really quick and let you guys know that we have absolutley in no way made any announcement to support all the rumors that are flying around. The statement we'll be putting out later today reinforces our total dedication to Dreamcast and Dreamcast technology moving forward, and our commitment to you- the Dreamcast community. This a case of rumor after rumor piling up into a big snowball.com that's been rolling along for over a year now. Anyhow, look for a statement later today...

Both are the truth. Sega makes a profit, though a small one, on each DC. Sony loses a ton on each PS2, partly because of Rambus and partly because it's just plain more expensive to build. This article explains it in some detail, along with a few pokes at the alleged superiority of the PS2.

It could easily simulate a Furby or Mindstorms, and it creates as well a million other interesting forms, if only for the eyes and ears. In fact, says Pesce, the PS2 could well be seen as a spaceship for scouring the universe of ideas.

Secondly, several commentators have noted that the Dreamcast (which cost less than a million dollars in 1999) may be from a practical standpoint a superior console (http://www.segaweb.com/features/ps2tech.html), yet despite this fact, Dreamcast users seem to have not yet achieved the digital nirvana predicted for PS2 users. It must be the trippy black and blue case.

Admittedly, it is amusing to think of John Carmack as the Shaman of the global village.

The platonic reality is that general purpose computers and the hackers that use them are what is transforming society beyond recognition, computer games are simply one of the most accessible and thus the most tangible shadows on the cave wall. To extend the analogy past the breaking point, the PS2 is a corporatist shadow puppet show on the cave wall.

Sony is selling PS2 at a loss. So if you buy PS2 and use it as a DVD player (or buy just a couple of games), then you'll hurt Sony's bottom line instead of helping it.

Check out some of the dreamcast titles like Shenmue, Yokasuka, Soul Caliber, and Ecco the Dolphin. Download some movies of the gameplay.

Yes, your PC + Geforce2 Ultra rocks the socks off the dreamcast from the performance standpoint. But there just don't seem to be games like this coming out for the PC. They're all prettier than Quake III, which seems to be one of the prettiest games on PC. And they have interesting play dynamics.... I haven't played any of them, but they seem fresh and fun. What do we have on PC?

I just ordered the port of Metal Gear Solid... I downloaded the demo a few weeks ago and realized that this was ten times more fun and just better designed than everything I've seen on the PC.

But the PC has a lock on certain genre's... FPC's belong on the PC. The control system and the resolution just make a difference there. Strategy games too seem to require a mouse. But if you just want to sit down and play a sports game, a fighting game, an adventure game... there are simply much better solutions on the console side of things.

-Erik

Check out some of the dreamcast titles like Shenmue, Yokasuka, Soul Caliber, and Ecco the Dolphin. Download some movies of the gameplay.

Yes, your PC + Geforce2 Ultra rocks the socks off the dreamcast from the performance standpoint. But there just don't seem to be games like this coming out for the PC. They're all prettier than Quake III, which seems to be one of the prettiest games on PC. And they have interesting play dynamics.... I haven't played any of them, but they seem fresh and fun. What do we have on PC?

I just ordered the port of Metal Gear Solid... I downloaded the demo a few weeks ago and realized that this was ten times more fun and just better designed than everything I've seen on the PC.

But the PC has a lock on certain genre's... FPC's belong on the PC. The control system and the resolution just make a difference there. Strategy games too seem to require a mouse. But if you just want to sit down and play a sports game, a fighting game, an adventure game... there are simply much better solutions on the console side of things.

-Erik

Check out some of the dreamcast titles like Shenmue, Yokasuka, Soul Caliber, and Ecco the Dolphin. Download some movies of the gameplay.

Yes, your PC + Geforce2 Ultra rocks the socks off the dreamcast from the performance standpoint. But there just don't seem to be games like this coming out for the PC. They're all prettier than Quake III, which seems to be one of the prettiest games on PC. And they have interesting play dynamics.... I haven't played any of them, but they seem fresh and fun. What do we have on PC?

I just ordered the port of Metal Gear Solid... I downloaded the demo a few weeks ago and realized that this was ten times more fun and just better designed than everything I've seen on the PC.

But the PC has a lock on certain genre's... FPC's belong on the PC. The control system and the resolution just make a difference there. Strategy games too seem to require a mouse. But if you just want to sit down and play a sports game, a fighting game, an adventure game... there are simply much better solutions on the console side of things.

-Erik

This is an interesting preview of bleem on the dreamcast. "Supposedly" bleem will play psx games better then the psx2, or the original for that matter. We'll see...