Today was 9/9. It was the fifteenth anniversary of the western launch of the Dreamcast, the final console by once industry leading pioneers Sega, and a console that went out in a blaze of glory, setting the tone for the console landscape for years to come, and getting a staggering amount of great games in a mind bogglingly short period of time.
Fifteen years later, Peter Moore, who spearheaded Sega of America while the Dreamcast was active, looked back on the console, and reminisced about it.
“The memories of course are bittersweet — we all know how this movie ended — but I was fortunate to have worked at that time with some of the most amazingly dedicated individuals, all of whom were galvanized around a single goal: prove the naysayers wrong, launch the console with a bang, get to a meaningful installed base within the first twelve months, and keep the momentum going in the face of the upcoming stiff competition,” said Moore on his Twitter.
“In our heart of hearts, we worried that we would not be there for the entire journey,” said Moore, “but it was with great pride that with our Sega Sports games in particular, that we ushered in the era of connected interactive entertainment.
“I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that the Dreamcast and it’s [sic] online network laid the ground for what we all take for granted today — online game play, linking innumerable gamers from around the world to play, compete and collaborate, as well as enabling new content to be delivered in addition to that which was delivered on the disc.”
The cruel irony, of course, is that one of the biggest nails in the Dreamcast’s coffin was when EA publicly swore off from supporting the platform, and pulled all their games from the system (quite like what has happened with them and the Wii U today), and today, Moore finds himself working for that very same EA.
That note aside, the Dreamcast was in fact a wonderful console, and if any company has to bow out of the hardware race, the Dreamcast is exactly how they should strive to do it.
