It wasn’t really an issue while the console was still alive though, at least not until very near the end at least. It would have became a massive issue if the console continued though.
Comment on The Sega Dreamcast
Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The Dreamcast ended itself because it had no pirating protections. You could literally copy games and play the copies on your console. I’m not against pirating, but the dreamcast’s own fans killed it, by copying all the games instead of buying them. Support your game devs, pirate old games
B0NK3RS@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 2 months ago
My PC gaming friends get mad cause they have gotten less attention from game devs recently and games don’t release on PC as much anymore, it’s cause 35% of PC gamers pirate games, so it’s no surprise that companies aren’t rushing to that market. Pirate old games all you want, but if you pirate new games, you don’t get to complain about the game companies not catering to you
tuckerm@supermeter.social 2 months ago
I've heard this argument before, but I'm not sure that the numbers support it. Despite the Dreamcast having a head start, the PS2 started eclipsing the DC's sales almost immediately, and that's even with the PS2 having some supply problems early on.
If piracy was the main problem, I would expect to see huge system sales and small game sales. Instead, the DC just didn't sell very well outside of its initial launch.
I'm not saying piracy didn't exist, but Sega had lost so much support from customers and developers with the 32X, Sega CD, and Saturn, I suspect those are more to blame. They'd have been able to handle the problem of game copying better if they didn't have a dozen other problems at the same time. Heck, it was the first console with built-in online services, and that's the industry's main way of dealing with piracy now.