9.9.9: Dreamcast Memories and Musings

These were good months. Triple A game after Triple A game came out of Sega, Capcom and Namco at this time, the last stalwarts of the arcade industry: Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, Soul Caliber, House of the Dead 2, Shenmue, Space Channel 5, Chu Chu Rocket, all the Capcom fighters, Skies of Arcadia, nearly every title for the U.S. launch was worth getting into, the Dreamcast had, and has, a rock solid library, easily beating the libraries of games for consoles that lasted three times as long in the marketplace.

Sega Gives Up the FIght

When Sega prematurely called it quits on the Dreamcast, I felt betrayed, betrayed because I was finally rooting for the underdogs, they finally gave me something to cheer them on for, it looked like if they could hold they're feet to the ground, they could win this one. Alas, it was not to be, Sega's old financial woes from the 16 and 32 bit days finally caught up to them, and sunk the best console they ever made. I believe this particular luminary summed up my feelings on Sega's backing out quite well:



(Just mentally replace the girl getting yelled at with Sega's board of directors and it totally works.)

Preach it Tyra, preach it.

The Outcome

Ultimately, the Dreamcast's still-born existence seems to have killed online play prematurely until this past generation. If Sega had made it a few more years, online would easily been the norm during the PS2 / Xbox / Gamecube era rather than an afterthought. Sega's last stand also was the last time that arcade games were seen as serious system sellers instead of games relegated to download-only status. In retrospect, it's kind of amazing how Sega picked up their strategic ball from the Genesis years in being the consoles for the home arcade experience, something that didn't happen with the myriad of add-ons to the Genesis and the Saturn.

Unfortunately, it speaks to how quickly things change in this industry when I go to PAX this year, and see Sega's booth relegated to a two table booth towards the wall, when these guys were once giving Nintendo, still a dominant force in the industry, a run for their money. It seems even Sega's roll as just a publisher and developer means less and less in the ongoing years, as the only big title from Sega in years, Yakuza 3, isn't getting released in the U.S. and their once top-developers, Yu Suzuki and Yuji Naka are quietly shoved out of the company. Sega is now slowly dying on life support, and this is one fan who would've rather seen them go out in the blaze of glory that was Dreamcast.

But on this day, I see we put that all aside, pull out our little white console that tried, and boot up one of the many games that still make this system stand out from the pack. I think I'm gonna go give Jet Set Radio another spin...