So piracy literally killed my favorite console. What a shame!
It didnt.
How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
151–160 of 169 posts
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
I only buy Nintendo consoles, so I remember being jealous of their ability to pirate. I guess you were happy with your Wii and DS.
I don't think any piracy will ever compare to DS piracy. You could put all the games you wanted on a micro sd card, stick it into the R4 (or any of it's many clones) and there you go. And for the last couple years of the DS these cards could be had for under $10. Even the Wii required some effort to soft mod, and you still had to care about updates. The DS was totally broken however.
The PSP was also bad. I think that piracy becomes a problem when it gives consumers a superior product for free.
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#153There are two points to note. The first is piracy probably didn’t lead to the failure of the Dreamcast. They didn’t sell many of the consoles... if it was a piracy issue then you’d expect they’d sell many consoles, but few games (the line up of games was really good). The article mentions Ikaruga a lot. It worth noting that Ikaruga for the Dreamcast was released a year after the Dreamcast was cancelled. They probably…
> The first is piracy probably didn’t lead to the failure of the Dreamcast. Sega led to the failure of the Dreamcast. They had failed fans with the SegaCD. Released the 32X as a "bridge" between the 16bit and 32bit consoles (then promptly abandoned it). They released the Saturn with almost no fanfare in the US, and with last minute architectural hacks to make it pass as a 3D console (just barely). By the time the Dre…
Do not underestimate the value proposition of a DVD player in 2001. It had a huge impact on sales.
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#154Did the breaking of the copy protection on the Dreamcast really play a big part in Sega's downfall? If so, it would be one of the only cases I know of where IP piracy led to financial ruin of the content creator.
Nah Sega was already dying before the DC came out. That console was a hail Mary for them. Sony and Nintendo have faced huge piracy and it never killed them.
This
The Dreamcast sold well at release and some time after (in North America at least), however Sega's financial situation was bad they didn't have loads of cash like Sony or probably even Nintendo at the time. The system was selling well but not well enough for Sega to recoup it's financials. Also EA boycotted the system completely and was not publishing games for it. Add to that the hype of the PS2.
Just a perfect storm for Sega, even though they really made good console correcting a lot of their earlier mistakes.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast
Moore stated that the Dreamcast would need to sell 5 million units in the U.S. by the end of 2000 in order to remain a viable platform, but Sega ultimately fell short of this goal with some 3 million units sold.
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The Gamecube sold about 3.8 million first year and the PS2 9Million something first year
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. A good example was the branding of the PS2's processor as the "Emotion Engine," ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_Engine ) which in the runup to release got hyped as some kind of fundamental breakthrough in computing that would let the PS2 render things like faces with so much detail they'd be able to break your heart. This was all bunkum, of course, but it ensured that all the media oxygen got sucked into…
> A good example was the branding of the PS2's processor as the "Emotion Engine," ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_Engine ) which in the runup to release got hyped as some kind of fundamental breakthrough in computing that would let the PS2 render things like faces with so much detail they'd be able to break your heart. That reminds me of the hype around the PS3's cell processor. There was a lot of videos comp…
the cell processor was a great processor. It's actually more powerful than what's in the PS4 at the moment but no where near as friendly to develop for.
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. A good example was the branding of the PS2's processor as the "Emotion Engine," ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_Engine ) which in the runup to release got hyped as some kind of fundamental breakthrough in computing that would let the PS2 render things like faces with so much detail they'd be able to break your heart. This was all bunkum, of course, but it ensured that all the media oxygen got sucked into…
> A good example was the branding of the PS2's processor as the "Emotion Engine," ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_Engine ) which in the runup to release got hyped as some kind of fundamental breakthrough in computing that would let the PS2 render things like faces with so much detail they'd be able to break your heart. That reminds me of the hype around the PS3's cell processor. There was a lot of videos comp…
Consoles often (or at least were often) sold at a loss because Sony / Microsoft will make their money back on licences from developers / games sold.
I think Nintendo are the exception to the rule there though.
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A good example was the branding of the PS2's processor as the "Emotion Engine," ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_Engine ) which in the runup to release got hyped as some kind of fundamental breakthrough in computing that would let the PS2 render things like faces with so much detail they'd be able to break your heart. That reminds me of the hype around the PS3's cell processor. There was a lot of videos comp…
the cell processor was a great processor. It's actually more powerful than what's in the PS4 at the moment but no where near as friendly to develop for.
I think it might be worth clarifying that it is more powerful than the PS4's CPU in very specific tasks, but not "all around" faster
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The first is piracy probably didn’t lead to the failure of the Dreamcast. Sega led to the failure of the Dreamcast. They had failed fans with the SegaCD. Released the 32X as a "bridge" between the 16bit and 32bit consoles (then promptly abandoned it). They released the Saturn with almost no fanfare in the US, and with last minute architectural hacks to make it pass as a 3D console (just barely). By the time the Dre…
Do not underestimate the value proposition of a DVD player in 2001. It had a huge impact on sales.
Ah yes as I recall the cheapest way to get a dvd player was to buy a PS2.
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of people were stoked for the Dreamcast upon its release. What ultimately did it in was the PS2 -- a superior console in virtually every respect, released just two years later (in the USA).
> What ultimately did it in was the PS2 -- a superior console in virtually every respect I beg to differ. Graphically it was, but it should be given it was two years younger. Sound quality it was too but honestly very few people would have noticed on the typical set up of that era. However the Dreamcast has 4 controller ports built into the console itself, rumble packs from day one, a portable gaming unit (ok, that w…
None of those superior features were things people particularly cared about. Most people didn't have good enough internet for online gaming at the time. Most people never went to arcades (isn't the point of a console that you don't need to), 4 ports is nice but an adapter fixes that easily, and it's not meaningfully more portable than a PS2.
Re: How the Dreamcast Copy Protection Was Defeated
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What ultimately did it in was the PS2 -- a superior console in virtually every respect I beg to differ. Graphically it was, but it should be given it was two years younger. Sound quality it was too but honestly very few people would have noticed on the typical set up of that era. However the Dreamcast has 4 controller ports built into the console itself, rumble packs from day one, a portable gaming unit (ok, that w…
None of those superior features were things people particularly cared about. Most people didn't have good enough internet for online gaming at the time. Most people never went to arcades (isn't the point of a console that you don't need to), 4 ports is nice but an adapter fixes that easily, and it's not meaningfully more portable than a PS2.
> Most people didn't have good enough internet for online gaming at the time.
That's not really true though because the requirements for online gaming were also lower back then. I agree people didn't have broadband but the DC's online games worked fine with a dialup modem and in fact it used a slower modem than was common in PCs at that era (33k baud as opposed to 56k) that people also used for online gaming.
> Most people never went to arcades (isn't the point of a console that you don't need to)
Consoles were always intended as a compliment to arcades, not a flat out replacement for them. Plus Sega often had a Crazy Taxi (or whatever) cabinet in student bars and other trendy places as well as the usual places dedicated for gaming.
> 4 ports is nice but an adapter fixes that easily,
I agree it's hardly innovative but it's yet another thing you need to buy. Another expense and another device you need to have the foresight of owning before your mates pop round with a handful of controllers. So I think the real question should be: "why the hell didn't the PS2 have 4 ports when every other console of that generation did (Gamecube, Xbox, Dreamcast)?"