Statistics. We all love a good statistic. So does YouTuber Vince19, and so he set about creating a video that goes deep into the statistics behind the sales of Dreamcast games in the United States. As Vince19 reiterates several times throughout the video, this is not one of those explorations of the highs and lows and ultimate cancellation of the Dreamcast. It is a pretty in-depth analysis of sales figures and variables and means and medians...and a whole host of other mathematical terms I have no real understanding of. You have been warned.
That said, I'm sure that if you watch the entire video you'll get a good understanding of the variables that lead to some games selling more than others, and the general downward trend in US sales as time went on from the initial release of the Dreamcast on 9.9.99 to the final game being released in the form of NHL 2K2. Whether a game was featured on the cover of a US magazine or in a TV commercial is also looked at with meticulous detail, and the findings are rather surprising.
One of the most interesting theories put forward in the video is that of the 'Hazuki Wall,' a visual representation in sales figures of big-name Dreamcast games that were released around the same time as the PlayStation 2 was launched in the US. Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, NBA 2K1 and Tony Hawk 2 were all released in the same window and plotted on a sales/date chart show us the 'Hazuki Wall,' Sega's last line of defence against the coming onslaught from Sony's leviathan:
It really is a fascinating look at the numbers behind the demise of the Dreamcast and I would implore you to set aside 40 minutes and give the entire video a viewing. Our thanks go to Vince19 for putting this video together and also name checking The Dreamcast Junkyard in the video as a source.
What do you think about this hypothesis and the Hazuki Wall? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion in our Facebook group or on Twitter.
It's interesting to look at the sales of the Dreamcast, you find that it actually did not fail in terms of sales. The problem was the SOJ forced SOA to launch the 32x and then the Saturn early. Then the famous e3 97 comment sealed the Saturn's death, this caused Sega to be in the red by the summer of 97 and made them not have a console for most of 97, 98 and 99 so they had no source of income not to mention the arcade business dying. The Dreamcast did fine in sales but the burden of past mistakes was too much. I did a big topic on it on Dreamcast-Talk and condensed it into a video here https://youtu.be/Ee1zwLN1D5A
The Hazuki Wall represents when I jumped into Dreamcast, Christmas of 2000. I had all 4 of those games lol. While I was already a Dreamcast fan since launch, those games definitely had an effect on my and kept me a Dreamcast kid long before I got my PS2...
4 comments:
It's interesting to look at the sales of the Dreamcast, you find that it actually did not fail in terms of sales. The problem was the SOJ forced SOA to launch the 32x and then the Saturn early. Then the famous e3 97 comment sealed the Saturn's death, this caused Sega to be in the red by the summer of 97 and made them not have a console for most of 97, 98 and 99 so they had no source of income not to mention the arcade business dying. The Dreamcast did fine in sales but the burden of past mistakes was too much. I did a big topic on it on Dreamcast-Talk and condensed it into a video here
https://youtu.be/Ee1zwLN1D5A
The Hazuki Wall represents when I jumped into Dreamcast, Christmas of 2000. I had all 4 of those games lol. While I was already a Dreamcast fan since launch, those games definitely had an effect on my and kept me a Dreamcast kid long before I got my PS2...
A true veteran of the battle of Hazuki Wall XD
I was on the front lines... It was bloody...
Post a Comment