5 ms·

Sega Dreamcast. All Sony had to say was "PS2 is coming next year" and everyone stopped listening to what they could get today.

shhehebehdh 8y ago
Even if they hadn’t, the PS2 is one of the greatest consoles of all time. It would have been a difficult competitor to go against.
- rocky1138 8y ago
  It could have held it's own technologically, except that SEGA were complete dumbshits and their console supported burned CDRs out of the box. That was a coup de grace.
  - orionblastar 8y ago
    I had a friend with a Dreamcast he had to mod it to play CDRs as the Dreamcast had a different CD format to hold more info. They had to reduce the CD to fit in a 700M CDR. Most games didn't use the full CD. Google mod chips some time they had them for the Playstation and XBox to use CDRs.
    - ac2u 8y ago
      You didn't have to physically mod the Dreamcast console. An exploit was found due to the console support for CD's with multimedia support, called MIL CDs. Initially a bootdisc was needed which you swapped with a CD-R, later all dumps of games were done in such a way that the exploit was bundled. You are correct though in that some games used the full 1GB+ capacity of the GD-ROM format and assets had to be removed/compressed in some cases.
  - rwallace 8y ago
    It may not have helped, but let's not call people complete dumbshits for leaving a loophole in their DRM. That was a mistake that could happen to anyone, and the outcome was decided by then anyway. Now botching the Saturn launch because of political infighting between the Japanese and American branches of the company? If you're going to call them complete dumbshits for anything, that's what I would pick.
    - pavel_lishin 8y ago
      Do you have a link where I could read about that?
      - rwallace 8y ago
        https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700 https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generat...
        pavel_lishin 8y ago
        Thanks!
iClaudiusX 8y ago
Sony tried to do the same in 2005 when Microsoft released the XBox 360, only they kept pushing back the release date. Thankfully their E3 2006 press conference was such a flop that in a bit of karmic justice it forced them to stop resting on their laurels and compete for marketshare again.
- rocky1138 8y ago
  There was precedent. Sony destroyed the SEGA Saturn's USA launch by simply walking up to the microphone at E3 in 1995 by saying just one word: $299.
  - Paianni 8y ago
    Saturn's launch was destroyed by a sudden release with too few retailers onboard. E3 was just a byproduct of that.
Lowkeyloki 8y ago
Agreed. Although the PS2 was fantastic in its own right, the Dreamcast was way ahead of its time (especially with network connectivity) and wasn't given a fair shake.
Paianni 8y ago
Dreamcast was developed and released far too early to stand a chance.

shhehebehdh 8y ago

Even if they hadn’t, the PS2 is one of the greatest consoles of all time. It would have been a difficult competitor to go against.

rocky1138 8y ago
It could have held it's own technologically, except that SEGA were complete dumbshits and their console supported burned CDRs out of the box. That was a coup de grace.
- orionblastar 8y ago
  I had a friend with a Dreamcast he had to mod it to play CDRs as the Dreamcast had a different CD format to hold more info. They had to reduce the CD to fit in a 700M CDR. Most games didn't use the full CD. Google mod chips some time they had them for the Playstation and XBox to use CDRs.
  - ac2u 8y ago
    You didn't have to physically mod the Dreamcast console. An exploit was found due to the console support for CD's with multimedia support, called MIL CDs. Initially a bootdisc was needed which you swapped with a CD-R, later all dumps of games were done in such a way that the exploit was bundled. You are correct though in that some games used the full 1GB+ capacity of the GD-ROM format and assets had to be removed/compressed in some cases.
- rwallace 8y ago
  It may not have helped, but let's not call people complete dumbshits for leaving a loophole in their DRM. That was a mistake that could happen to anyone, and the outcome was decided by then anyway. Now botching the Saturn launch because of political infighting between the Japanese and American branches of the company? If you're going to call them complete dumbshits for anything, that's what I would pick.
  - pavel_lishin 8y ago
    Do you have a link where I could read about that?
    - rwallace 8y ago
      https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700 https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generat...
      - pavel_lishin 8y ago
        Thanks!

iClaudiusX 8y ago

Sony tried to do the same in 2005 when Microsoft released the XBox 360, only they kept pushing back the release date. Thankfully their E3 2006 press conference was such a flop that in a bit of karmic justice it forced them to stop resting on their laurels and compete for marketshare again.

rocky1138 8y ago
There was precedent. Sony destroyed the SEGA Saturn's USA launch by simply walking up to the microphone at E3 in 1995 by saying just one word: $299.
- Paianni 8y ago
  Saturn's launch was destroyed by a sudden release with too few retailers onboard. E3 was just a byproduct of that.

Lowkeyloki 8y ago

Agreed. Although the PS2 was fantastic in its own right, the Dreamcast was way ahead of its time (especially with network connectivity) and wasn't given a fair shake.

Paianni 8y ago

Dreamcast was developed and released far too early to stand a chance.