Why did the Dreamcast fail?

Another reason for the failure of the Dreamcast was the fear of Sega dropping support...which it inevitably did. As proven in the past with the 32X, the Sega CD, the Sega Game Gear, and the Sega Saturn, Sega just could not compete with Nintendo, and later, Sony. Despite having the most superior system on the market at the time(and I will stand by that), Sega just did not feel that it could keep up with Sony and Nintendo. And the announcement that Microsoft was making the leap of faith from Computer to Console market scared them as well.

Third Party Developers did not give much support to Sega for that reason...many of the Dreamcast's best games were developed by Sega themselves. With Sega's penchant for suddenly dropping their game systems off the face of the earth, third party developers were reluctant to get involved with them, because they knew it would be a failure. Alot of the third party games that made it to the Dreamcast were ports from other systems, done so purely for the sake of advancing the developer's own finances, not for support of Sega.

A little known fact is that many electronics stores throughout the US absolutely REFUSED to carry the Dreamcast when it launched...I used to work for an Electronics/Appliance retailer that, when Sega launched Dreamcast, refused to carry the Dreamcast. They lost no money in the deal, as Playstations and even Nintendo 64s continued to sell at a satisfactory rate for the company, and there was no demand for the Dreamcast.

Although Dreamcast sold relatively well, it didn't sell enough. For the most part, consumers and retailers alike were familiar with Sega's terrible support for their own systems, and when Sega pulled the plug on Dreamcast, barely a year after it's release, it was a shock to few, and expected of by many. I regrettably admit that I purchased Dreamcast on launch day, and it was one of the worst purchases I ever made. Despite the fact that Dreamcast was a very powerful system, it was Sega's lackluster support that killed it. Their reputation of abandoning their systems is what did them in, and they folded on the console market and began developing games for other companies.

In the end, I say good riddance...Sega was the textbook definition of a quitter. They see that the other companies are hurting them in the market, and instead of striving to outdo the competition, they just threw their arms up and called it quits. They did it with the Sega Master System, the 32X, the Sega CD, the Saturn, and the Dreamcast...their entire history of consoles lost from being abandoned. A sad end to a great company, but an ending they deservd nonetheless. They just did not know how to support their systems, and they were afraid to step up and challenge the competition.