Reminder: SPORE is coming out in two weeks

[kali o.]

Lack of support killed the DC -- EA was the first and most vocal and many followed suit.

Piracy may have been a contributing issue but the console being killed by Sega was purely because support was in the can and not about to get any better.

For the record, I really liked the DC. As a console, it had a lot of potential for awesomeness.

[Zeus]

The DC had an amazing two years games-wise. As good as any in history IMO. It's such a shame it died, it was a great system with tons of awesome games on it

[Zeus]

Not right now.

Coo. If you ever need help, let me know. Between Kijiji and some local game stores here, I seem that relatively regularly.

I haven't forgotten about the MvC2 for PS2. There was that one but it was pretty beat up. I'll keep an eye out for ya

[Eric]

We were there when this all occurred. Piracy was a huge huge problem for software sales on Dreamcast. Ultimately what killed it was a lack of income from software sales and royalties.

Software sales were a huge problem for the Dreamcast period, whether or not it was directly the result of piracy can't be said. It's easy to blame the DC's death on piracy, but the fact was it was Sega's last hurrah, and Sony came out with a better and more powerful system. Look that article you're referring to even said that the DC was cracked around the time the PS2 came out, PS2 came out in 2000, DC was dead in 2001. How wide-spread could word of mouth piracy on an unpopular system have really been?

The major evidence I would use would be a comparison in sales between early DC games, and then later ones, big ones like Sonic Adventure 2 which sold under 100,000 copies on Dreamcast. Despite having a larger userbase in the area of 10 million when Sonic Adventure 2 came out, Sonic Adventure 2 sold over a million copies on Gamecube by the time the Gamecube had hit 6 million units sold.

According to this Sonic Adventure sold 390k copies on the DC.

http://vision.pcvsconsole.com/?article=13

Keep in mind Sonic Adventure 2 came out well after Sega had already announced it's plans to discontinue the production of the Dreamcast, and there were only 4 million DCs sold in the US total. It stands to reason if people passed on the Dreamcast and bought a GC, and the GC had a higher base of owners that they might pick up Sonic Adventure 2, which was released on a dead system.

[Julius Seeker]

Software sales were a huge problem for the Dreamcast period, whether or not it was directly the result of piracy can't be said. It's easy to blame the DC's death on piracy, but the fact was it was Sega's last hurrah, and Sony came out with a better and more powerful system. Look that article you're referring to even said that the DC was cracked around the time the PS2 came out, PS2 came out in 2000, DC was dead in 2001. How wide-spread could word of mouth piracy on an unpopular system have really been?

The major evidence I would use would be a comparison in sales between early DC games, and then later ones, big ones like Sonic Adventure 2 which sold under 100,000 copies on Dreamcast. Despite having a larger userbase in the area of 10 million when Sonic Adventure 2 came out, Sonic Adventure 2 sold over a million copies on Gamecube by the time the Gamecube had hit 6 million units sold.

According to this Sonic Adventure sold 390k copies on the DC.

http://vision.pcvsconsole.com/?article=13

Keep in mind Sonic Adventure 2 came out well after Sega had already announced it's plans to discontinue the production of the Dreamcast, and there were only 4 million DCs sold in the US total. It stands to reason if people passed on the Dreamcast and bought a GC, and the GC had a higher base of owners that they might pick up Sonic Adventure 2, which was released on a dead system.

See, now there's a guy who knows how to argue =P

Good points, I would be inclined to agree. I still think Dreamcast suffered greatly from piracy, but I can't use Sonic Adventure 2 as strong evidence anymore.

[SineSwiper]

[bovine]

what is this thread about now?

So I went and bought the game. Not only the game, but the galactic edition. They were all out of regular editions, and the packaging was nice, so I submitted. The game is mildly fun. Nothing I would have waited years for, but it is certainly an above average game. It tries to do a lot of things and does them all poorly, but since it does so many things, at least it is entertaining in its ability to mix things up from stage to stage.

Also, it's SUPER short. I got from single cell to interplanetary in a single sitting.

[Julius Seeker]

what is this thread about now?

So I went and bought the game. Not only the game, but the galactic edition. They were all out of regular editions, and the packaging was nice, so I submitted. The game is mildly fun. Nothing I would have waited years for, but it is certainly an above average game. It tries to do a lot of things and does them all poorly, but since it does so many things, at least it is entertaining in its ability to mix things up from stage to stage.

Also, it's SUPER short. I got from single cell to interplanetary in a single sitting.

Now that's a shame, that was one thing I was hoping this game wouldn't be.... short. The main thing I was looking for was a nice update to Sim Earth, a game which didn't have a lot of hands on involvement from the player, but a game that I found somehow entertaining.

[Julius Seeker]

One thing I can say about SPORE, it is more typical of the Sims than Will Wright's past games. Maxis titles in the past often had minimal player input, and most of the game was spent watching things develop (which I always liked, I could read and play Sim Earth at the same time, for example). Not to say I'm not enjoying this game so far. I have played through the first three stages, and I have found the game to be fairly fun. What I find interesting is that the feedback for this game has been mixed, some preferring the more casual early levels, while others prefer the more complex later portions.

I still haven't played a great deal, only the first three levels. So far I can say that I have enjoyed the progression. This may not be a game for everyone, but it is certainly a game for me.