Bottom line is that fighting games do not move systems like anyone here hopes they would.
it still is.
A crappy port does’nt really mean anything here in the US. You have no idea how happy I was to finally be able to play Marvel 1 with tag in’s for the first time without having to buy a Saturn, a 4 in 1 converter (which at the time was hella expensive) and then buying the expensive Japanese versions for like 60 plus dollars a pop. And even then, I did’nt realize that MvC1 was’nt arcade perfect until my trip to B5 in mid 2001. (Which was about just under 2 years after Marvel1 came out for Dreamcast)
The people that know anything about fighting game ports is just a minority. I still know way too many people that bitched to no end because Alpha Anthalogy did’nt include the PS1 and/or Dreamcast ports of Alpha 2 and 3 because it did’nt fucking include World Tour and/or Akuma mode. The people that play fighting games casually out number the people that play fighters competively. So to them, Super Turbo and GG X on Dreamcast means nothing to them since they probably never knew about it in the first place, and same with how crappy a port actually is. To them, the only thing that matters the most is if it has loading times or how many modes the game has.
The Dreamcast (back then at least) was’nt as bad as you make it out to be. Especially by saying something like Soul Calibur being a crappy game. Since to a lot of people, that was a top of the line kind of game for the Dreamcast. And for a lot of people, it was a lot more accessable than importing everything from Japan. Sure it was’nt perfect (and it’s even further away now) but it was better than nothing.
from MY UNDERSTANDING you should wiki info about the sega saturn and you’ll see were sega started to go wrong.
near perfect mvc2 was the only game that can’t be taken away from dc.
I believe the PS2 owns the real system crown for “king of fighters” at this point in time. The DC failed simply because of lack of/failed marketing in the US and Japan. From what i remember, the DC actually sold pretty well in the US but not in Japan. Once the Japanese folks aren’t involved in business you know for sure the console ain’t going anywhere despite sales outside of Japan.
This is the reason, right here. And even part of the Saturn’s failure can be traced back to people not trusting the system because when Sega had everyone’s attention, they dropped the ball with the 32X and Sega CD not being widely supported. This snowballed, and despite the fact that the Dreamcast had a great launch and a good library of games, people pretty much decided to buy a PS2 before it was even announced.
Conversely, Nintendo hadn’t released a cosole for what, 7 years? In between there was the Virtual Boy, which flopped like a mofo. But I think most people didn’t view that as a “real” system. And Nintendo’s first-party brands were more recognizeable.
As for the N64 outselling the Dreamcast- you of course had the eager Nintendo fans, there was also the fact that it was the last console of it’s generation- PS2 was announced as early as possible, specifically to stop the momentum the Dramcast had been getting, despite Sega’s dubious track record, wheras N64 had a chance to establish itself. Also, more simply, the N64 was around for like 3 years before the Dreamcast came around, and, again, there was a gap of several years before it’s successor came around, though not as many as in the SNES-N64 gap.
There was really nothing wrong with the Dreamcast…it had more to do with PS2 hype, and Sega’s reputation.
I assume 32X and Sega CD were even released as a way to try and scratch away at Nintendo’s lead in Japan…? Japan is the only market where SNES sales dominated Genesis ones… Wuold be interesting if they had never been released…or even if only one of them had been, and had been supported. If the Sega CD had been supported with non-FMV games (I mean more than 7) and the Saturn development/release not been rushed (wikipedia article on the Saturn is pretty good)and had then-nonexistent backwards compatibility…I don’t know. PSX seemed destined for success, but maybe if the Saturn were relased, it would have been a real 3-way battle, instead of the Saturn getting basically spanked by the PSX, and then the N64 coming out and for the spanking to continue in double-time.
edit:
Ah, after checking the 32X article on wikipedia:
Fucking Americans…
Sure, here in the year 2007, the PS2 fighter library far outclasses the DC in terms of being THE fighter console, but people seem to forget that DC was tops back in the time period of 2002, only a year after the PS2 came out, that the PS2 had NONE of these except:
#2
#7b (which was instantly recognized as the FAR inferior port)
#8
#12
#16 (KOF 2000 only, and Japan only)
Unless you count PS1 games with that, and then you can add:
#4 (lackluster port)
#5 (not arcade perfect, now considered a very bad port but was considered a good port WHEN IT WAS RELEASED…people dug World Tour mode…)
#7a (a HORRENDOUS port)
#16 (a BUNCH of SHITTY PS1 KOF ports)
I don’t know how the DOA2 and GGX ports compare with each other, but I do know that aside from CvS2, all the DC ports SPANKED the PS/2 ports.
Tons of DC exclusives, but at the same time, the PS2 had 2 major console fighter exclusives in Tekken Tag and Tekken 4 as well as SFEX3 which was PS2 only.
I thought CvS2 was a better port on the DC then the PS2 port? I know there has been threads about this already but I just wanted someone to clarify that.
Also Garou did come out for PS2 but it was still not 100% arcade perfect either, but it is a better compared to the DC version.
nobody seems to be mentioning price. the console was fucking EXPENSIVE on launch. That’s why I didn’t even get one until 2005. Now I play a decent 3s port and the amazing MVC2 port on my custom Sanwa for the DC. Pirated. I think it’s safe to say that I’m not the only one who’s done it. I can’t find any DC games at all offline besides the sega 2k sports games, a few Soul Reaver 2’s, and sonic games.
yeah, CVS 2 was a great port in Japanese or English with NTSC. They messed up the PAL version, though (still confused as to how they did that)
I watched Blind Date:Uncensored on my DC.
Truth.
It was $199, I mean it’s a nice chunk of change but dam as far as new consoles go that’s has cheap as it gets. Even back in those days…hell I think SNES and Genny where even $199 at launch.
it was 199 about a year later, still. Besides, do you buy your systems at launch when they’re the most expensive? the most expensive system I bought was the X-box for $130. I even got my PSP with several games for $90 flat. Besides, when the DC came out, everyone new that the PS2 would be out in a year. With way more power and WAY more capability and developers backing it. why spend $200 on a system that has a severely limited library when SONY is releasing a monster with what will definitely be a great library so soon?
A lot of casual gamers hated the default DC pad, which was garbage. It was also way too easy to burn copies of games and play for free, which of corse hurt things a lot.
These games don’t even really count.
#4, #5, #6, and #10 weren’t arcade perfect so only interested casual gamers, but the games themselves were not designed for casual gamers to like. Thus, casual gamers and hardcore gamers didn’t like them.
#9 and likewise with #6 the games were rejected in the states for many years and it wasn’t untill much much later that #6 gained popularity in the states, but even when it did, the DC version was deemed garbage because the Arcade and PS2 versions.
#12 struggled and the series is still struggling in the states. A lot of people support it but even more people hate on it.
#13, what?
Wait, what was your question? Why didn’t it do good? Hahaha, the popularity of fighting games has very little to do with the overall success of a system, sorry.
Sony…
That and the fact that there was next to no hype at all surrounding the Dreamcast,so I would like to here an explanation from Sega’s marketing branch.
Not that I care to argue over something so trivial, but the DC was $199 on launch day. Main reason I remember is because I got it at launch when I was 18 and there is no way I could afford anything more at that age. Check the link bro.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CGN/is_1999_April_19/ai_54414157
TS…as usual, hit the bullseye. Americans ruin the industry. lol
Shoot. I love fighting games…It’s the only reason i buy stuff is to play fighting games…
now excuse me while i play WoW, and later to play FFXII on my PS3.