Sega Dreamcast
09-09-09 was famous for another thing 10 years ago!! And it wasn’t about the Beatles (now that i think of it, I don’t remember anything special about the Beatles back then)
Today 10 years ago was the release of the Sega Dreamcast. It was released on the market almost a year before the PlayStation 2. Sony hadn’t anything ready, but was trowing all kind of promises and specs on a shadow machine that was at least on paper to be technically superior to the Dreamcast! Most gamer still had the bast taste in theirs mouth of the Sega Saturn and where more tempted to wait and see.
I still think the Dreamcast was superior. It had an integrated modem and internet browser out of the box, the VMU (it’s memory cars with an lcd display) it’s still something that has never been duplicated on any other system. I dare someone to tell the difference graphically of playing a title on the DC or the PS2.
But Sega couldn’t play the wait and see game that Sony started. Couldn’t keep a large inventory of console while the PS2 wasn’t still on the market. Being already in the red for the Saturn failure it was too much and Sega dropped it and ceased to be a console maker shifting it’s business to game software development only.
The DC sold around 10 millions unit and was considered a failure where it took years for the XBOX reach 20 millions units and was seen as a success.
It’s all about hype and marketing!
If you want to read more about the Dreamcast : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast (it’s accurate)