Peter Moore: I did not kill Dreamcast, I swear.

[Alabtrosmyster]

I love the Dreamcast, but one thing that isn't brought up much, is how the controller only had one analog stick. That wouldn't hurt them if they had lasted longer through that generation.

Also, the memory cards that lost their data every time you changed the battery (like the Saturn did).

I had a third Dreamcast memory card that was 4x the size, used some sort of flash memory and lasted over 20years! (I sold my old consoles a few years ago)

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Yes, I remember it took a few moments for them to crack the PS2, but when they did you needed a modchip. Dreamcast was cracked from Day 1 because the GDROM is essentially a CDROM with 1GB of data, so all the modders did was to remove some files from the GDROM and burn it to a 700Mb CD. Crazy thing is, most Dreamcast games were not over 700Mb......so it was a breeze for pirates.

The funny thing is, one of the reasons why Sega went for the extra capacity was to offset the traditional CD-ROM specs and thus prevent piracy, well that didn't work out. Also, we can see that Sega and MS were close way back then too and Moore was instrumental. The Dreamcast used a tweaked Windows CE for it's OS, so I imagine it was much easier for pirates to circumvent any level of security there was, if any, through a windows PC......Truth be told, Dreamcast was a piraters' 101 class session. You remember bleemcast? Dreamcast was pretty much open season.

It wasn't really a Day 1 crack IIRC, because while GD-ROM was "basically" a CD-ROM, it wasn't a stock CD-ROM format. Sega made the MIL-CD format as an extension of audio CDs to fit more data, and it would have worked if Sega weren't Sega and left the code for it in the BIOS of every Dreamcast console.

It still took a little bit for hackers to find the MIL-CD code to exploit buried in the BIOS, but that was one of Sega's biggest mistakes: leaving the code in the BIOS in the first place. They must've thought insane obfuscation would've been enough but underestimated the persistence and curiosity of the hacking community.

I generally get the feeling Dreamcast's security system was less intricate than the Saturn's, because it took about 20 years for the Saturn's to be openly cracked, while it took significantly less time for Dreamcast's to see the same. Dreamcast supporting Windows CE was probably a factor in that, actually, as you've said.

 

[EDMIX]

TBF Dreamcast did get some initial big 3P support like Soul Caliber and RE Code: Veronica. But they messed up the Japanese rollout so badly they were never able to build sufficient market share in the territory, and therefore were not able to win over more Japanese AAA support.

Meanwhile most Western 3P AAA support was still focused on PlayStation and PC, with N64 a somewhat distant 2nd, but Sega were virtually nonexistent with Western 3P AAA games by late 1997, let alone 1998, and Sega simply didn't have enough time to build up enough install base in the West to knock against Sony or even Nintendo's install base in those territories, to where those companies could prioritize Dreamcast with original 3P AAA games, particularly exclusive ones.

Big in Japan, but EA is massive. They literally can control the success or failure of a home console and that lack of support by the west is really what killed them imho.

Even an exclusive like Code Veronica didn't even move numbers of the last REs to really hold up the Dreamcast. They'd need massive support from the east like Square putting a FF title or something.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Big in Japan, but EA is massive. They literally can control the success or failure of a home console and that lack of support by the west is really what killed them imho.

Even an exclusive like Code Veronica didn't even move numbers of the last REs to really hold up the Dreamcast. They'd need massive support from the east like Square putting a FF title or something.

That's another reason why Dreamcast ultimately failed IMO. Was it kinda shitty that EA wanted exclusivity on sports games for Dreamcast? Yes. But Sega were in a situation where they they needed EA more than EA needed them. Some good did come from Sega keeping Visual Concepts but IMO if I had some input on Sega decisions at the time, I would've refocused VC towards some different type of games, give EA their sports exclusivity contract for Dreamcast, and acquired Lobotomy Software & Treasure.

Just imagine that timeline. EA would've pushed Dreamcast hard for the sports games, maybe even with some exclusives and perks (we saw how they prioritized Genesis over SNES back in that gen), and I'm sure Sega could've landed marketing deals with them as part of those terms. That would've been really good against Sony in the U.S market. Meanwhile they could've locked up arguably the best FPS studio on consoles at the time in Lobotomy and funded an Exhumed/PowerSlave sequel, even Dreamcast/PC cross-platform if they wanted. And acquiring Treasure would've enabled the studio to have some bigger budget to work with. Maybe in addition to Ikaruga they could've done a Silhouette Mirage or Mischief Makers sequel, or just a whole different type of game to branch out even further.

Always felt like Treasure started to struggle finding their footing once Sega folded Dreamcast.