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Dreamcast’s strength was the hardware. Adding a DVD player would have just increased the price out of realistic range. The problem was the software and 3rd party support. The library just could not compete with PS1 and N64 and then the greatest console of all time came out and put it out of its misery, the PS2.
N64 and PS1 have not aged well. I’d absolutely take a dreamcast over the N64 and the PS1 really only beats it on RPGs. If you don’t have nostalgia for the 5th gen consoles, most of the games just aren’t very fun anymore.
If you’re going to go back in time to help Sega, you should go farther back and stop them from releasing the 32x against the Saturn.
A dvd player wasn’t going to fix the internal dysfunction at Sega.
Why?
Some people believe the Sega Dreamcast was a superior console but that it failed to appeal to the mass market because the Playstation and the xBox also had the ability to play DVDs.
At the time DVD players were very popular and a standalone unit could cost in the ballpark of £100, so the ability to get a 2in1 unit that played games and DVDs was very attractive.
If Dreamcast should have had a niche it should have been using the VMU as a portable MP3 player and giving the Dreamcast the ability to rip music.
You’re grossly overestimating what mobile tech was capable of in 1998. The dreamcast had enough power to play an mp3 but the VMU definitely did not. On top of that, the VMU only has enough storage space for a little over 6 seconds of music at 128kbps.
No shit the VMU as it was isn’t capable of MP3 capabilities. Not sure how crazy tech advanced you think mp3 players were in the beginning, the simplest mp3 players didn’t even have a screen, they were plug n play with direct drop file library- no software required and ran on a single AA battery. Also not sure why you think the disc reader wasn’t fast enough. Most people were happy to spend 2-3 hours ripping and burning a music disc. I think you’re comparing it to modern day expectations.
The Dreamcast came out in time where people were happy with any tech that was dual purpose and any that was cable of multiple functions received huge attention.
Here’s Sega’s VMU Mp3 player prototype: not saying this specific one would have been the one, just saying it’s capable.
https://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2016/10/a-closer-look-at-dreamcast-mp3-player.html?m=1
If the Dreamcast didn’t get discontinued in early 2001 then sure, it’s possible they could have released an mp3 player vmu. We don’t even know if the TGS prototype was a functional unit or just conceptual mockup. Either way, it would still be a case of too little too late.
When I said it would rip CDs very slowly I was referring to the processing speed, not the drive speed. Comparable processors of the time would encode at about 0.6-0.8x speed depending on the encoder used and I doubt the average consumer would want to spend 2 hours to encode a single CD worth of music on their dreamcast.
If there is anything I’ve learned from the grand history of the console wars, it’s that they play by highlander rules ** there can only be one!** or more precisely there can only be two plus Nintendo who is a separate entity and irrelevant to console discussions. Xbox and Steam Deck is about to fight to the death just like Sony killed Sega.
