Peter Moore: I Didn't Kill the Dreamcast

[Greg Tito]

Peter Moore: I Didn't Kill the Dreamcast

The current EA executive clarified a long-standing rumor that he pulled the plug on Sega's last console.

Peter Moore has hung his hat at some pretty big brand-name companies. He cut his teeth at the sports apparel giant Reebok, before transitioning to the videogame industry and launching a new console for Sega - the ill-fated Dreamcast which forced the veteran company out of the hardware business. In an interview from 2008, he mentioned "making that call, not the Japanese" regarding the Dreamcast's discontinuation, but Moore said today that he was just one of about six people to make that decision. It was not his decision alone, but Moore did run the call with hundreds of journalists on the line in 2001 to actually announce the fate of the Dreamcast and it was a experience that will stay with him forever.

"The idea of 'making the call' came out of an interview with Keith Stuart of The Guardian did [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86260-Oh-My-God-Peter-Moore-Killed-The-Dreamcast] - when I said making the call, I was actually referring to the telephone call," Moore said. "He interpreted that as making the decision, and I was very much a part of the decision, but it certainly wasn't just me telling the Japanese team that we need to get out of the console business."

The holiday season in 2001 was Sega's last chance to make the Dreamcast work. "We had all agreed - maybe a half a dozen people in the corporation around the world - of what we needed to hit for the platform to continue to be viable going into 2001 and we simply didn't hit those numbers," Moore said.

"My comment [to the Guardian] about making the call was that I had to announce - with several hundred journalists on the call, and I shall never forget it - that we were moving on and will not be selling hardware anymore and will be disposing of existing inventory as we transition to third-party publishing," he clarified.

Well, Moore might not be the "Satan in business casual" that my esteemed colleague Andy Chalk called him in 2008 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86260-Oh-My-God-Peter-Moore-Killed-The-Dreamcast], but that doesn't absolve him from all his sins. I mean, the Dreamcast! Come on! It had legs!

Source: IndustryGamers [http://www.industrygamers.com/news/better-know-peter-moore/]

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[JaredXE]

What's sad is that the Dreamcast was ahead of it's time. It had better graphics than any system out there and tried to do online multiplayer before Xbox did. Hell, it came with it's own built-in modem!

I loved my Dreamcast, and it's sucky that Sega dropped it.

 

[Delock]

So... Do we blame Kotick now?

Joking aside, while people do have fond memories of this console, and there are rumors floating around of Sega making another console, I'd rather they'd continue to stick to software (and even better: advertise their fucking games rather than pretending that pirates are the reason they're not selling well).
After all, they had a few... problems with hardware in their previous consoles.

In respect for the Dreamcast, I'll leave it at that and just say that it's sad that like so many others in the industry it failed due to numbers of sales when it still could of gone on.

 

[twistedheat15]

Just gimme a HD jet set radio on network, and I'll be happy.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

What's sad is that the Dreamcast was ahead of it's time. It had better graphics than any system out there and tried to do online multiplayer before Xbox did. Hell, it came with it's own built-in modem!

Yeah, its time. Evidently, 2001 was no longer its time - by that point there were three consoles more advanced than it.

It could have given the PS2 a run for its money, but it probably was weaker overall. It's like the Saturn; the Saturn did 2D better than any of the other systems, and while it was difficult to program for in 3D, when a dev knew what they were doing, it produced some of the best visuals of its generation (case in point, the Saturn version of Shenmue, which almost looked like a PS2 launch game.) The real problem is that Sega screwed up the transition from the fourth generation to the fifth generation by making all of the useless addons for the Genesis[footnote]The Sega CD was a pretty cool idea, but the 32X was a mistake. While it wasn't as bad of a system as everyone says it is, it was a terrible business move, since it confused people about Sega's real 32 bit system.[/footnote]. They never quite recovered from that mistake, and it's a real shame.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

EA? Doing something bad? Again? Well, would you ever believe it?

Next you'll say Fox has been massaging the truth. And by that I mean, outright lying.

 

[4RM3D]

Sega always had the superior consoles, but somehow always drew the shorter end in the console wars. This includes the portable consoles.

I never really figured out why Sega failed in the end... Marketing, maybe?

 

[Charli]

Sigh I'd really like Sega to get back into the biz, but it's my reasoning that the masterminds behind the Dreamcast have probably moved on from the company, I was floored by that thing, way more than the PS2 or anything that's come out so far...

It was really ahead of the game if you excuse the terrible pun...


Sega had great systems but I think they had TOO many and bad pacing for them, and the time between the Saturn and the Dreamcast was very short... so I guess people who weren't dazzled by the Saturn (understandably) didn't take to the Dreamcast and were charmed by the prospect of a brand new competitor in the console war, playstation.

Nintendo rode out the low but stable time of the gamecube and then exploded on the scene after some years with the Wii.

 

[Arkley]

The Sega CD was a pretty cool idea, but the 32X was a mistake. While it wasn't as bad of a system as everyone says it is, it was a terrible business move, since it confused people about Sega's real 32 bit system.

No, the Sega CD was a terrible idea. It added a colossal (for the time) amount of storage space for games on a system that just didn't need it and couldn't use it for anything useful. The Mega Drive/Genesis just didn't have the horsepower behind it to do anything useful with 700mb of space, and so what we ended up with were horrendous FMV games, trying to render full motion video with the Genesis' ageing capabilities and producing awful results in both the visual & gameplay department. Furthermore, a CD add-on likely caused as much confusion about the nature of the Saturn as the 32x did - although, combined, they no doubt amplified each other's confusion inducing capabilities tenfold.

Can you imagine being an average consumer at that time? No internet to guide you, video games hadn't even been back on the market long enough for the kind of culture we have surrounding it today. And then Sega releases this CD-playing add-on for their existing console, and then releases another system which plays CDs. Both marketing campaigns boast awesome new capabilties and such, but one plugs into the old system and one...doesn't, I guess?

Then imagine you actually bought the Sega CD and sat down to play a nice copy of HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS CRAP?

And then the Saturn actually arrives in stores, rushed out of the gate to beat the PS1 and with very little & no notable software.

In conclusion, this entire post was a long-winded way of saying "the Sega CD was actually a terrible idea, and it was the Sega CD, 32x & Saturn fiasco that killed the Dreamcast, not some guy in SEGA management who actually took it off the shelves".

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The Sega CD was a pretty cool idea, but the 32X was a mistake. While it wasn't as bad of a system as everyone says it is, it was a terrible business move, since it confused people about Sega's real 32 bit system.

No, the Sega CD was a terrible idea. It added a colossal (for the time) amount of storage space for games on a system that just didn't need it and couldn't use it for anything useful. The Mega Drive/Genesis just didn't have the horsepower behind it to do anything useful with 700mb of space, and so what we ended up with were horrendous FMV games, trying to render full motion video with the Genesis' ageing capabilities and producing awful results in both the visual & gameplay department. Furthermore, a CD add-on likely caused as much confusion about the nature of the Saturn as the 32x did - although, combined, they no doubt amplified each other's confusion inducing capabilities tenfold.

Can you imagine being an average consumer at that time? No internet to guide you, video games hadn't even been back on the market long enough for the kind of culture we have surrounding it today. And then Sega releases this CD-playing add-on for their existing console, and then releases another system which plays CDs. Both marketing campaigns boast awesome new capabilties and such, but one plugs into the old system and one...doesn't, I guess?

Then imagine you actually bought the Sega CD and sat down to play a nice copy of HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS CRAP?

And then the Saturn actually arrives in stores, rushed out of the gate to beat the PS1 and with very little & no notable software.

In conclusion, this entire post was a long-winded way of saying "the Sega CD was actually a terrible idea, and it was the Sega CD, 32x & Saturn fiasco that killed the Dreamcast, not some guy in SEGA management who actually took it off the shelves".

The main benefit of the Sega CD was that the discs were cheaper than cartridges, and they occasionally did put the extra storage space to good use -- try playing Lunar or Sonic CD and telling me that the system itself was a terrible idea. Also, there were a ton of other JRPGs that I'm sure would be just as fondly remembered as Lunar today if they had ever made it outside of Japan. It's not Sega's fault that most of the third party devs didn't know what to do with the new format; this was true of pretty much everything in the early days of CD-ROMs, including PC games. Also, it's really no different than what you see with the shovel ware on the Wii and the DS. There's an innovative new feature, but people wind up shoehorning it in, rather than finding ways to actually make it work well.

But you're right, it was the mishandling of the transition from the Genesis to the Saturn that ultimately brought down the Dreamcast.

Edit: Also, the Sega CD was released when the Saturn was still just a blip on the radar. The 32X was the one that was released right before it.

Edit Edit: Yeah, we're talking 1992 vs. late, late 1994 (early '95 by the time it made it to Europe.) The Sega CD had plenty of time to get established before the Saturn came along, and I'm old enough to remember relatives who had a Sega CD.

 

[Arkley]

The main benefit of the Sega CD was that the discs were cheaper than cartridges, and they occasionally did put the extra storage space to good use -- try playing Lunar or Sonic CD and telling me that the system itself was a terrible idea. Also, there were a ton of other JRPGs that I'm sure would be just as fondly remembered as Lunar today if they had ever made it outside of Japan. It's not Sega's fault that most of the third party devs didn't know what to do with the new format; this was true of pretty much everything in the early days of CD-ROMs, including PC games. Also, it's really no different than what you see with the shovel ware on the Wii and the DS. There's an innovative new feature, but people wind up shoehorning it in, rather than finding ways to actually make it work well.

But you're right, it was the mishandling of the transition from the Genesis to the Saturn that ultimately brought down the Dreamcast.

It's entirely Sega's fault that they released a system that devs couldn't do anything with. If they were too short sighted to see that they were releasing something that:

1.Devs wouldn't understand or utilise properly

2. Didn't have the horsepower behind it to properly utilise the benefits of its media's storage capacity,

then they were either stupid or didn't do enough research. If they did realize this and then released the system anyway, they were idiots. Either way, releasing it was a dumb move.

Oh, and pointing to the handful of good games that exist for the SEGA CD to try to justify its existence isn't very smart* - had the SEGA CD never launched, those games could have been released on the Saturn, and the Saturn would have launched without all the negative buzz surrounding it, and benefiting from some really awesome games.

So, yes, everything about the SEGA CD was a terrible idea. If you owned and enjoyed the use of one, then that's absolutely fine, I'm not here to tell you that you're wrong to do so. But you are wrong in saying that the SEGA CD wasn't such a bad idea.



*For any overzealous mods or posters, I am not accusing this poster of not being smart, nor am I accusing him/her of stupidity. I am only pointing out that the argument being made is ill-thought out and incorrect, I am insulting no one.

Edit:

Edit: Also, the Sega CD was released when the Saturn was still just a blip on the radar. The 32X was the one that was released right before it.

SEGA was still well aware that the Saturn was going to one day be released, not to mention (again, unless they were idiots) aware that there would, very soon, be a full generation of consoles using CDs as their primary storage media for games.

Even aware of this impending CD generation and even aware of their own development of a participant of said generation, they still pumped out a CD-add on for an ageing console that couldn't benefit from its superior storage and that devs had no idea how to use. It was a bad idea.

 

[drednoahl]

I'll always remember Moore for the parody South Park did of him. I don't really care what he says - he played a part in killing Dreamcast and the original Xbox before their time imo. If he can pull off a trilogy and cripple EA then I might forgive him.

 

[vsove]

I'll always remember Moore for the parody South Park did of him. I don't really care what he says - he played a part in killing Dreamcast and the original Xbox before their time imo. If he can pull off a trilogy and cripple EA then I might forgive him.

I too hope that thousands of people lose their livelihood because I'm angry about video games.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The main benefit of the Sega CD was that the discs were cheaper than cartridges, and they occasionally did put the extra storage space to good use -- try playing Lunar or Sonic CD and telling me that the system itself was a terrible idea. Also, there were a ton of other JRPGs that I'm sure would be just as fondly remembered as Lunar today if they had ever made it outside of Japan. It's not Sega's fault that most of the third party devs didn't know what to do with the new format; this was true of pretty much everything in the early days of CD-ROMs, including PC games. Also, it's really no different than what you see with the shovel ware on the Wii and the DS. There's an innovative new feature, but people wind up shoehorning it in, rather than finding ways to actually make it work well.

But you're right, it was the mishandling of the transition from the Genesis to the Saturn that ultimately brought down the Dreamcast.

It's entirely Sega's fault that they released a system that devs couldn't do anything with. If they were too short sighted to see that they were releasing something that:

1.Devs wouldn't understand or utilise properly

2. Didn't have the horsepower behind it to properly utilise the benefits of its media's storage capacity,

then they were either stupid or didn't do enough research. If they did realize this and then released the system anyway, they were idiots. Either way, releasing it was a dumb move.

Oh, and pointing to the handful of good games that exist for the SEGA CD to try to justify its existence isn't very smart* - had the SEGA CD never launched, those games could have been released on the Saturn, and the Saturn would have launched without all the negative buzz surrounding it, and benefiting from some really awesome games.

So, yes, everything about the SEGA CD was a terrible idea. If you owned and enjoyed the use of one, then that's absolutely fine, I'm not here to tell you that you're wrong to do so. But you are wrong in saying that the SEGA CD wasn't such a bad idea.



*For any overzealous mods or posters, I am not accusing this poster of not being smart, nor am I accusing him/her of stupidity. I am only pointing out that the argument being made is ill-thought out and incorrect, I am insulting no one.

Edit:

Edit: Also, the Sega CD was released when the Saturn was still just a blip on the radar. The 32X was the one that was released right before it.

SEGA was still well aware that the Saturn was going to one day be released, not to mention (again, unless they were idiots) aware that there would, very soon, be a full generation of consoles using CDs as their primary storage media for games.

Even aware of this impending CD generation and even aware of their own development of a participant of said generation, they still pumped out a CD-add on for an ageing console that couldn't benefit from its superior storage and that devs had no idea how to use. It was a bad idea.

*sigh* Again I say, the Sega CD launched in 1992[footnote]At which point the Genesis was at the height of its popularity; hardly an "aging console"[/footnote]. The 32X launched in late 1994, just a couple of months before the 1995 launch of the Saturn. See a difference here? If they had waited 'til the launch of the Saturn to put out a CD based system, those games simply never would have been made, or at best they would have been made in a chopped down cartridge only form -- like Phantasy Star IV, or on Nintendo's end, Seiken Densetsu III. And how on earth is it a hardware manufacturer's fault if only a few third party companies are creative enough not to take the easy way out in taking advantage of the new features of the hardware? I've said this before, but in 1992, PC games on CD-ROM had the exact same problems as the Sega CD did. At best, they took a floppy based game and added in some voice acting and redbook audio. At worst, you saw FMV games at least as lame as anything on the Sega CD. Heck, Myst, one of the best selling games of all time, was nothing but an FMV game. It was just less half-assed than all the other ones.

As for your edit: Sega was aware by 1992 that the Genesis would eventually have a successor, yes. But that would be like saying Sony was aware the PS1 would have a successor in 1997, or that the PS2 would have a successor in 2002. It was kind of immaterial at the time; you might as well hold off on buying a car because eventually the world is going to run out of gas.

 

[mjc0961]

Satan in business casual? For helping decide to end SEGA's efforts in hardware? That's something he should be praised for. Aside from the Genesis (the base Genesis, not the slew of add-ons they came out with later that only spawned 3 or so good games), SEGA was pretty awful at hardware. And yes, I'm including the Dreamcast in that assessment. It had a few games you liked. Whoopee. It was years ago, get over it.

Sega always had the superior consoles, but somehow always drew the shorter end in the console wars. This includes the portable consoles.

Superior handhelds? Like the Game Gear? The one that was so giant it barely qualified as portable, had a downright terrible screen that could barely be seen in indoor light and was useless in outdoor light (killing its portability even more), took 6 AA batteries and sucked them down in a few hours, and barely had any decent games to play on it?

There was nothing superior about the Game Gear. Game Boy kicked its ass for a reason: better portability, better battery life with less batteries needed, and most importantly, way better games.