Let me ask a basic question about Sega business decisions circa 1998/1999

So we all know that the sega saturn's strongest market was in Japan, where games continued to be released into 1999/2000, and that the Japanese loved the saturn and (I think?) it outsold the N64 and was the second place system there after PS1. We also know that the saturn did not sell well in the important USA market, and the CEO of Sega USA was telling people saturn wasn't their future, and only a small handful of games were released in small print runs in 1998, no one cared about the console around that time and stores were blowing out their inventory.

So why then, when Sega developed the dreamcast, did they release it in Japan in November 1998, and then wait practically an entire year before releasing it in the USA in September 1999? Wouldn't it seem to make sense to keep the saturn going in Japan where its doing ok, and speed up for an early release to fill the gap in 1998 the US where there would be no signfiicant cannibalizing of saturn sales since the sega saturn scene was commercially dead?

Maybe its something to do with pride of the Japanese wanting to release the latest and greatest technology in Japan first, or using Japan as a test market? But this decision to release dreamcast in Japan in 1998 when it would immediately start cannibalizing saturn sales, and have a year of solid dead time in the US, where the saturn isn't selling anyway, before selling dreamcast, seems on its face a little bit odd.

Any interviews that go into why there was such a gap between the Japanese release and US release, and why it was a good idea to release so early in Japan?

 

It's a very simple answer. The Dreamcast had a very crappy line up on release. Sega knew that to make any impact after the poor Saturn sales in the US they needed a load of crap that would appeal to the average US gamer such as shitty sport games and other trash. They knew what they were doing for sure. If the Dreamcast would have released in the US with the games the Japanese had it would have tanked big time. Sega were very cleaver with the Dreamcast release date feel.

Also, I know there are many American gamers on this forum who love great games but it's no secret that sports games sell systems in the US or at least did back in the day.

 

I would agree with that. Madden still sells and back when Sega was making the 2K NFL games they were selling quite well. So much so that EA had to sign that exclusivity contract with the NFL in December 2004 and take my beloved Blitz out of action.

If the Saturn wasn't notoriously difficult to develop for, they could have ported some Saturn games over to the Dreamcast. They did it with Genesis to Saturn, but it just wasn't feasible with SS to DC. I would have loved to see House of the Dead ported over to the DC.

 

You sure? MANY people swear the Dreamcast had the best Launch Line up in gaming history.

· Sonic Adventure (Sega)
· The House of the Dead 2 (Sega)
· Cart - Flag to Flag (Sega)
· NFL 2K (Sega Sports)
· AeroWings (Crave)
· Airforce Delta (Konami)
· Blue Stinger (Activision)
· Hydro Thunder (Midway)
· Monaco Grand Prix (Ubi Soft)
· Mortal Kombat Gold (Midway)
· NFL Blitz 2000 (Midway)
· PenPen TriIcelon (Infogrames)
· Powerstone (Capcom)
· Ready 2 Rumble Boxing (Midway)
· Soul Calibur (Namco)
· Tokyo Xtreme Racer (Crave)
· TrickStyle (Acclaim)
· TNN Motorsports HardCore Heat (ASC)

Only 2 sports games there and those are considered some of the best ever made. Hydro Thunder, Power Stone, Tokyo Xtreme Racer.... That is far from VERY Crappy.

 

That's the US launch line up, and yes, it was the best ever.

What Yakumo is referring to is the Japanese launch line up, which was certainly not (IIRC it was Pen Pen Trilcelon, Godzilla Generations, and one or two other games).

 

If i'm not mistaken, even the Japanese release was delayed several times due to problems in hardware production. Sega couldn't keep up with the demand even after it's release..

But if you really want in depth information, SegaBase is worth your time: http://www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/www.eidolons-inn.net/segabase/

On this subject, specially Saturn (Part 2) and Dreamcast (Part 2) articles.

 

Pen Pen Trilcelon wasn't going to sell systems, but that was a fine game for whatever the hell it was.

 

I think Sega's biggest problem was that Sega of America and Sega of Japan would not communicate together. SOJ was developing the DC, and released it there first because it's Japanese, and they weren't planning on SOA killing the Saturn so quickly.

 

I think what Killed the Dreamcast was 3 things

1. The Aforementioned SOJ and SOA not getting along and SOE left holding their dick in the wind.
2. Piracy
3. Sega was bleeding money at the time
4. The Looming threat of the PS2.

 

Smart business decision maybe? Escape the very competitive hardware market and just focus on selling the games to console and arcade vendors.

Kind of like what Nintendo should do sometime this decade.

 

See, I'm not sure piracy was as big of a deal as people put it out to be. At least in the US, broadband modems were uncommon at best in 1999-2001, and CD burners weren't hugely popular until at least a couple years later. So a few people could download DC games (which are about 200MB to 1 GB on average with some outliers obviously) but I doubt it was as significant as people put it out to be.

1,3, & 4 are totally true though.

 

Launching in multiple territories at the same time is relatively new thing. Look at the Famicom/NES. The Genesis/MegaDrive had a fairly large gap. Playstation too. More Im sure too, but I think Ive proved my point.

Piracy was a huge deal. It was incredibly easy back then to find someone with broadband access and CD burners.

 

I don't know why people are still giving their ideas on why the DC was released in the West much later when the true and obvious answer was in this thread's second post. It was all to due with the launch titles. Nothing at all to do with "communication issues" or anything else. The Dreamcast has bugger all for the western release so Sega waited until they did have Dreamcast titles that would appeal to the western market. And what did we get? One if not the best launch list for a western release ever.

 

True dat, it had a much richer launch line up than let's say the PS2 in PAL territories, but Sony had made such an impact with the PS1 that it didn't matter how good a line up it was for the DC. People lost confidence in Sega in the end. Double fuck up with the 32x and the Saturn (I love SEGA) costed a lot in brand equity. Sony was there at the right place at the right time with the right product.

It doesn't take a lot to lose the edge, I was a die-hard Xbox360 fan but the E3 reveal of the Xbox One and the DRM mishap, sealed the deal for whatever the PS4 was going to be, period. In hindsight it's probably a stupid way to think, (I mean both great systems right?) it's a perception thing.

Coming back to the initial post, I don't think it's a pride issue or over confidence, the market had moved on from Sega, they didn't see it coming. Sega kept being Sega, they had a cracking product and kept innovating for it, better than the competition IMHO. But sometime that's just not enough... and we didn't get Thunder Force VI on Dreamcast

 

Because the Western release made the console worth to buy at the first day instead of waiting 1/1,5 years like any generation to have the great games being released, but in Japan, where it was released almost a year before, suffered this problem as there was only a few games and probably one or two being worth at the time.

The Sega mistake at the time was simply killing Saturn without having an imediate replacement in the west, it would have been a better if they gave suport until the Dreamcast release.

 

What everyone has said really came down to lineup. Gotta understand games like sega rally and sonic adventure didn't come out at launch in Japan. For that market the big seller was virtua fighter 3 but due to manufacturing problems they weren't able to take advantage of impulse buyers plus that port was rushed out without even a proper vs mode. Bernie Stolar even said he released the dreamcast when he did cause he wanted to have a strong launch lineup that would really sell the system.

 

Any decision SEGA of Japan made with the console business was a terrible one minus the DC hardware. If SoA was allowed to make the decisions they wanted SEGA MIGHT be still making systems. If not they would have had much more success than they did regardless.

SoA proposed they work with Sony and gave Sony a spec sheet. The PS1 used similar specs to what SoA proposed. If SS had hardware similar to what PS1 got then shit SS might have gotten MGR and FF7. That's a thought.

 

This. And for some reason people always argue with me (on other forums) about it when I say this (usually, this is part of my reasoning for my hatred of Bernie Stolar).

Had Sega just brought the extended RAM cartridge over and gotten Capcom/SNK to bring those fighting games over, and made a bigger push with their JRPGs since that was the rising genre at the time, they could have been more successful.

But no, they released 1/3rd of Shining Force III, PDSaga, and Magic Knight Rayearth in such limited quantities that hardly anybody could find them (and even marketed PDSaga as being impossible to find!) and considered that a competent strategy to end the Saturn's US life.

 

How exactly did the broadband thing worked when it came to piracy? Wasn't it because it was a way to rip the games from the Dreamcast dial-up to PC via program tool or something completely different?

 

1 floppy at a time over dialup.... and moved locally via colorado backup tapes