The Dreamcast Scene Is On The Verge Of Death And No One Seems To Notice

[treyldog]

I'm just going to skip the intro junk, the title says it all. I got into a LONG talk with TacT and i think Bob Dobs about this last Friday. It is undeniable that more and more money is going into Dreamcast development. But with more money going into development, comes a need for more money being received by developers. but i don't see this happening. Not enough people care about the Dreamcast to support such a scene, and the fact that these games are coming out on other platforms really doesn't help to much, as new games on most of these other platforms are a dime a hundred. tact mentioned that soon, Chineze clones will come out with build in games, but thats just it BUILT IN games. even if these clones come out, they will most likely not support new stuff, witch does nothing to help the scene, and it might even hurt it a bit by taking away the reason to buy a DC to play the classics. Go ahead, dispute me on this, i'm curious to hear others thoughts.

[krssn]

I don't see the problem with other platforms like Xbox live being supported. On the contrary. They can bring in money and potentially lower the price of physical retro console versions. They never did, but Völgarr the Viking would've probably been a fine example of that...

Prices should however be in the same range as their digital counterparts, being only slightly more expensive to offset the manufacturing cost...

[namine207]

I actually think it's garnered even more attention. I think that projects like the DreamPi and DC Serv have enabled gamers to get into some of the things that made the Dreamcast so unique even easier. I would say that it's still definitely a niche community, and atm I think the online player base is a bit low, but I know petter3k said he's been getting a lot more donations now than ever, and as a result, the AFO server has progressed a ton! I think it'll just take more time for it to have an even larger user base.

[DR TEAMCAST]

Well I think the fact the Dreamcast can still be played online is why it's relevant. As long as the servers are up there will be people playing

People are still here, I don't see how it's on the verge of death. And to be honest, it keeps getting better with each new online game restored, new homebrew game, etc. It's certainly better now than it was since it was discontinued. There's not as many people around, but it is better

[OGDCFAN99]

They likely come out on other platforms because its the only way they can recoup some of their costs. I think that DC indie games are finally advancing to the point where we might see a few releases that actually rival what a retail game would look like and not like some glorified SNES game. Hell, they'll get my money! Sales might pick up a little bit but it'll always be a labor of love just because the user base of this legacy platform is so small.

And yeah the fact that people host all these private servers says alot. The Dreamcast is one of the most loved retro consoles so there must be money to be made. Maybe not in the indie game segment though.. maybe it'll take a businessman (that knows a lot more than us) and not a game developer to figure out how to capitalize the most off of it.

[pcwzrd13]

They likely come out on other platforms because its the only way they can recoup some of their costs.

Exactly. The whole reason we're getting Dreamcast versions of any game is because the developers are fans of the console, just like us. At the same time, they're also developing the game to make money, and developing exclusively for the Dreamcast isn't a good business decision. There's a lot of time and hard work that goes into game development so you logically want as many people to be able to play your game as possible and you also want to get a good return on your investment. It's one thing if you're developing a game simply as a hobby, but otherwise it just makes sense to release the game on multiple platforms.

[SoulOfIce]

I dunno man, I just signed up for the site last week, so i'm an example for you that there are still new people getting into the Dreamcast scene and stuff. And also I think it might be even better than before now that you can go online fairly easily with the DreamPi method. Plus there have been alot of cool advancements in the community as of late as well, like alot of games servers being brought back from the dead and even some coming soon, Dreamcast accessible websites like Dreampipe and the Dreampipe BB forum. And this might be inaccurate/false, but isn't there a Kickstarter for a 3D game that's also coming for the Dreamcast, and it's 3D so that would make it the first 3D Dreamcast game by an indie dev! So yeah, I don't think it's dying...at least I hope not! Because I and alot of others LOVE this console...and plus I just signed up recently, so it would kinda blow for it to die down so soon, but I doubt it

[OGDCFAN99]

Welcome soulofice and very well put!

[Dreamcaseal]

I only liked dreamcast for a handful of games and i loved the console's design. I was actually coming here to make a thread asking if the Dreamcast is dead yet to some of you guys, lol. Dreamcast died to me a while ago. All the games I liked on it are stale and i dont like them anymore. Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst in offline mode if you host locally is better than dreamcast PSO offline mode efen if the rules are slightly different. I dont like PSO anymore tho so it doesnt matter. DREAMCAST IS GARBAGE move on. ya i know where im at right now, lol. sorry guys but its dead who cares. Tribes 2 is also dead. Unreal tournament 1999 is also dead. Quake 3 is dead. A lot of my fav games are dead. Only Tiberian Sun Multiplayer is still slightly alive and fun to me and its almost dead too now. dotn worry be happy plenty of new games coming out and like i said the old games are long dead now. I dotn care anymore.

[Aleron Ives]

...yet you still care enough to come on a Dreamcast forum to troll everybody.