Dreamcast Among CNet’s “Biggest Tech Flops” of Decade
Tristan Oliver | July 17, 2009
Another Console Makes the List Too
The Sega Dreamcast can add another dubious distinction to its posthumous resumé.
CBS Corporation owned CNet has compiled a list of the top 25 biggest “tech flops” of this decade. Writer David Carnoy notes in his article that many machines which made the list were either “ahead of their time” or suffered from poor marketing muscle. Heading the list was Sega’s last console.
Carnoy, perhaps with the understanding that them’s fighting words, tried to clarify just what he means by a “flop:”
It’s also important to define just what a flop is. In my book it’s simply something that was really hyped but didn’t live up to its promise or expectations. And while the word “flop” has a negative connotation, we here at CNET have a lot admiration for the designers, engineers, and everybody else who put their heart and soul into bringing these products and technologies to the world. Some of them didn’t deserve their fates.
In what can only be described as bipolar at its best, the Dreamcast’s top spot comes with a short description proclaiming that “We loved the Dreamcast” but “it didn’t make it.” The DC beat out other flops such as the Sony Aibo, Satellite Radio, HD Radio, HD DVD and–interestingly enough–another console from another big name.
Coming in at #20 on the list is Nintendo’s Game Boy Micro, what would be the last in a series of re-imaginations for the long standing console franchise. Carnoy claims that the Nintendo DS rendered the portable system obsolete. Another portable console, the Gizmondo, also made the list. Ever heard of it? Neither have we.
For all its lack of support and slumping sales, Sony’s Playstation 3 is nowhere to be found on the list–though its UMD format did make the cut.
Filed Under Gaming News, Sega
Fuck the bastard! Dreamcast was meant to overwhelm the N64 and the playstation, and guess what, IT DID! (But the sony faggots kill “her” with their gaystation 2! RIP dreamcast…
@gabsonic
…I actually heard from someone that the Dreamcast was actually part of the 6th generation (PS2, Gamecube) instead of the 5th (PS1,Nintendo 64).
That bastard if I see I`ll kick his ass for dissing the dreamcast >:(
No one said the Dreamcast was bad, it just didn’t do as well on the market as it could have. You can’t ignore the fact that the PS2 came along hardly 2 years later and bested the Dreamcast right off the bat. Sonys console just had a stronger foundation behind it at this point.
Lol, Edwin Shy, you mistook a compliment for a folly. It’s a flop because it got really undercut by the PS2 and later systems. The DC was probably the best system SEGA ever made, second only to the Genesis. The only problem is that Sega’s system was not as highly anticipated as the PS2. The PS2 had things the DC never would, like a DVD drive and an expansion bay, to make it compatible with Broadband ethernet. Sure, the DC had a ethernet expansion, but it was released too late in the console’s lifetime. The DC would’ve given SEGA the marketshare it needed, but when you put it up with a slightly more expensive console that had better technical features and a larger hype, you have a lose-lose situation. And that, my good friends, is how the DC failed. RIP Dreamcast. 1998-2006.
Ethan : I know that was my brother talking as he still plays the Dreamcast
Damn, it’s no wonder Sony’s so far in the red, they took up like 10 of those slots.
The Dreamcast was a creative sucess, though, as many of the ideas were later stolen by Microsoft for the X-Box.