Could the DC have held on in terms of HW (feature set/power)

[Anarchist420]

Was the DC's featureset and horsepower enough for it to last until 2004-05 (in your opinion)?

I think it was, because it had the best textures of it's generation (VQ TC> DXT1 which GC and Xbox used), and it had

The biggest weakness was probably the 16 bit RGB frame buffer and no higher than 60Hz with the VGA Box. A secondary weakness was the small storage size (1.2GB). They should've gone with 2x as much, so they'd have half the storage of a single layer DVD. With 8 MB of VRAM, they easily could've had a full 32 bit RGBA frame buffer, especially considering the fact that the PS2 had a 32 bit RGBA frame buffer AND a 32 bit z-buffer with only 4MB VRAM.

The Xbox had the only programmable GPU, and it was only DX8.1. The SH4 could do a lot although they probably should've clocked it faster.

 

[dguy6789]

The DC could have lasted as long as the PS2, they weren't very far apart in processing power. That said, I think it's pretty clear that powerful hardware isn't even a factor for staying in the console race considering that the PSX, PS2, and Wii won their generations despite being the least powerful of their generation.

 

[KentState]

The quality and quantity of the library is what wins each generation. This one is not over so saying the Wii won is a little premature, especially when you look at the game attach rate.

 

[smackababy]

The DC was expensive and the addons were quite costly. The game library was very good but lacked proper 3rd party support. That and that fact that with no real copy protection games were just burned and distributed amongst friends. Game sales are really what keeps consoles alive, and Sega was having a hard time with the heavy losses they were taking. If Sega was the major player Sony was (like when the PS3 launched), they could have sustained the life of the console far longer.

 

[Malak]

The DC was expensive and the addons were quite costly. The game library was very good but lacked proper 3rd party support. That and that fact that with no real copy protection games were just burned and distributed amongst friends. Game sales are really what keeps consoles alive, and Sega was having a hard time with the heavy losses they were taking. If Sega was the major player Sony was (like when the PS3 launched), they could have sustained the life of the console far longer.

Burning games has never really impacted any console, let alone the DC. In fact, I have never met a single person that copies console games.

 

[smackababy]

Burning games has never really impacted any console, let alone the DC. In fact, I have never met a single person that copies console games.

Are you serious? I have every DC game released in America because of the lack of DRM. Not to mention every friend I had in high school had 50+ burned DC games.

 

[Malak]

Are you serious? I have every DC game released in America because of the lack of DRM. Not to mention every friend I had in high school had 50+ burned DC games.

I guess I just associate myself with more reputable people.

 

[smackababy]

I guess I just associate myself with more reputable people.

Must not be on the internet much then I take it. Find me a person who has never illegally downloaded something on the internet and I'll find you a person full of shit.

 

[Soundmanred]

I never knew anyone who downloaded DC games back then, but I bought a DC off a guy a while back and he had stacks of burned games in the box with it.
I still don't know anyone who downloads console games, but I see it all the time on Craigslist.
I don't think the piracy was the downfall of the Dreamcast, it just had the makings of failure despite being a good system. I still love mine, and keep a spare.

 

[smackababy]

I never knew anyone who downloaded DC games back then, but I bought a DC off a guy a while back and he had stacks of burned games in the box with it.
I still don't know anyone who downloads console games, but I see it all the time on Craigslist.
I don't think the piracy was the downfall of the Dreamcast, it just had the makings of failure despite being a good system. I still love mine, and keep a spare.

It wasn't the major killer (the overall high cost of everything killed Sega), but being able to burn any game and play it with no hacks didn't help at all. Downloading games wasn't even needed. All you needed was someone who had it and you could copy the game.

The console had so much potential but gimmicky addons like the VMU cost way too much to produce. I'm sure the built in modem didn't help lower costs either.