Sega Dreamcast

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Sega Dreamcast

Manufacturer	Sega
Type	Video game console
Generation	Sixth generation era
First available	November 27, 1998 September 9, 1999 September 9, 1999 October 14, 1999
CPU	200 MHz Hitachi SH4 RISC
Media	1.2 GB GD-ROM
System storage	VMU, Nexus Memory Card
Online service	SegaNet Dreamarena
Units sold	10.6 million^[1]
Top-selling game	Sonic Adventure
Predecessor	Sega Saturn

Sega Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト; originally called "Dural," and "Katana") is the fourth and last machine made by Sega that can play video games. It was sold before the PlayStation 2, GameCube, or Xbox came out. However, not many people bought it after the PlayStation 2 was released, so in the end Sega decided to stop making them. ^[2]

1 Making the Dreamcast
2 Competition
3 Release
- 3.1 Outside the USA and Japan
4 End of the Dreamcast
5 Items
- 5.1 Cancelled
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Making the Dreamcast

When it was time to make another video game machine after the Sega Saturn was released, Shoichiro Irimajiri asked Tatsuo Yamamoto from IBM Austin and his group to create it. However Hideki Sato's old group that made video game machines did not like this. Because of this, the two groups were in a competition to make the best machine.

Hideki Sato's group used Hitachi SH4 and PowerVR to make a video game machine called "White Belt". The name was later changed to "Guppy" and then "Katana".

Tatsuo Yamamoto's IBM/Motorola PowerPC 603e and 3dfx Voodoo 2 to make a video game machine called "Blackbelt" and then renamed to "Shark" in United States. In Japan, the machine was first called "Dural" and then renamed to "Katana"

On April 1997, 3dfx told people that Sega was using their 3dfx Voodoo 2 for a video game machine. Sega however wanted this to be a secret and became very angry. Because of this, Sega used Hideki Sato's "Katana" machine instead of Tatsuo Yamamoto's.

Later on, 3dfx sued Sega because they thought Sega broke their promise to them. ^[3] However, the two companies then made a type of agreement called a settlement so that they didn't have to go to court.

[edit] Competition

After Sega released their Dreamcast, many other video game companies also released their video game machines. This includes Sony, who released the PlayStation 2; Nintendo, who released the GameCube; and Microsoft, who released the Xbox.

[edit] Release

The Dreamcast was released in Japan in November 27, 1998, and then released September 9, 1999 in North America. Originally, many people liked the Dreamcast and it sold a lot. In the United States, 300,000 machines were sold on the first week and Sega earned $98.4 million dollars.

To help the Dreamcast sell even more, Sega told many stores to show some of their best games to customers, like Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, and Hydro Thunder.

Electronic Arts, a video games company, said that they did not want to make games for the Dreamcast until it sold one million machines. This is because Electronic Arts' video games on the Sega Saturn did not make a lot of money. However, in three months when the Dreamcast did sell one million machines, Electronic Arts still did not want to make games for the Dreamcast and made games for the PlayStation 2 instead.

Set5, a machine used when making the Dreamcast.

^[4]

[edit] Outside the USA and Japan

In places like Europe Sega decided to let other companies make ads for the Dreamcast. However, Sega did not give the companies enough money, so the companies could not make as much ads as the PlayStation 2, another video game machine that was competing with the Dreamcast.

Many of these companies also forced people to pay a lot of extra money for the Dreamcast than in the USA and Japan.

Some games were not even sold in Europe, because Sega was spending most of their time on selling the Dreamcast in the USA. Because of this, a lot of people who used to like Sega now liked Sony.

[edit] End of the Dreamcast

Unlike Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, Sega did not have a lot of money to use on the Dreamcast. Also many companies that make games, like Electronic Arts, did make games for the Dreamcast because their games did not sell well on Sega's last video game machine, the Sega Saturn.

In the end, Sega told people on January 31, 2001 that they would no longer be making any more Dreamcast machines. Sega's last video game sold for Dreamcast was Puyo Pop Fever, which was released on February 24, 2004.