Sega Dreamcast 2 - Theoretically!

[Wrath Of Khan]

Yes, I know there is a boatload of youtube videos claiming that Sega is secretly working on a Dreamcast 2, and yes they are all nonsense.

However Sega did recently license Shenmue to Yu suzuki. So this I posit, what if someone/ a hardware manufacturer licensed the Dreamcast hardware, software and the right to build a successor.
Impossible? Maybe... If handled right such a console could garner huge pre-orders. 
I'm talking about a small volume run selling only a million units or so. I'm not talking about competing with modern consoles directly. A niche market for enthusiasts and Sega fans.

So yes this is a fantasy thread but what kind of specs theoretically would such a system have?
Could a viable system be built with a lower volume production?
Would it be a financially viable enterprise for a smaller company who want to make a buck but are not one of the big players?
Is it logistically possible?
Perhaps backwards compatibility to the original Dreamcast could be included, if cost effective.

Would it make sense to build on the existing dreamcast hardware in any respect? 
A similar but upgraded hardware architecture to the original dc might make sense.

Such an endeavor would also require officially licensed games and new games. Unity compatibility would be a must.

Any ideas? 

 

[rygD]

It should be called the Dream Machine, or something fun like that.

Viable system in low volume?  Define "viable".  I think that now is a great time for niche markets.  I feel the Pandora was successful enough, but it doesn't rely on games made for it.  Maybe we should look at something like the Retro VGS for our answer, since there is some similarity to that idea.

I think a big part of why old consoles are still popular is because there are so many, usually at an affordable price, and they already have a game library.  If a DC2 was backward compatible, maybe.  I doubt it could survive without it, however I don't think many would go for it over an original Dreamcast.  Maybe add Saturn compatibilty or something else to draw even more people in.

While it is a fun idea I don't see it working out unless it either was competing with modern consoles or it offered something that isn't found somewhere else.  The former requires a company with some big money, and some game studios to offer something.  Exclusives would help.  As always, the thing that makes a console successful are games.  If there aren't any good games, or at least games people want to play, it probably won't have a chance.

 

[DaMummy]

Let's start putting movies on VHS while we're at it. 

 

[rygD]

Let's start putting movies on VHS while we're at it. 

I was looking at a bunch the otner day that were being sold for 25 cents each.

 

[benoitb]

The ps4, xbox one, and recent arcades are all almost PCs.
Sega is developping on pc. If Sega or another company was to make a Dreamcast 2, it would almost be a PC.

I don't really see the point, I'd rather have Sega release all their games on the PC (including yakuza, project diva) and be ambitious again on the game development front.

 

[ekianjo]

I'm talking about a small volume run selling only a million units or so. I'm not talking about competing with modern consoles directly. A niche market for enthusiasts and Sega fans.

One million is not considered "small volume" anywhere.

 

[ekianjo]

Besides that idea is completely bullocks. Why do you need a new Dreamcast? For what purpose? What can it do that other consoles cannot do ?

And consoles are not made for the sake of hardware, they are made to play games. Who would make games on a system that is not supposed to reach a critical mass ? Even the WiiU can't get games with all the cash they have behind them and massive marketing efforts.

You know the answer: no fucking anyone. Stop living in the matrix.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Besides that idea is completely bullocks. Why do you need a new Dreamcast? For what purpose? What can it do that other consoles cannot do ?

And consoles are not made for the sake of hardware, they are made to play games. Who would make games on a system that is not supposed to reach a critical mass ? Even the WiiU can't get games with all the cash they have behind them and massive marketing efforts.

You know the answer: no fucking anyone. Stop living in the matrix.

A bit angry today ekianjo? The wii u is not successful but there are games and indy games too. It's a theoretical thread.
Who would make games for a low volume system? Several companies actually still release games for the Dreamcast, sales average four to 5,000 copies, maybe more, per game.
It's an indie games system now I guess. 
What can I say, the Dreamcast has soul.

Sega is never going to make a new console it would seem and a dc 2 is not going to happen. There is lot's of bullshit videos on youtube claiming the arrival of a dc 2.

Still Shenmue 3 is happening and honestly I figured that to be a total fucking pipe dream.

Exits stage left from fantasy Dreamcast thread...

 

[Chip]

I don't think it's likely that sega will produce any more consoles, and even less likely that they'd make another dreamcast.  Which is kind of a shame, because as Kahn has pointed out, the system is still quite beloved and developed for by a small but devoted group of fans.

If they were to release a "dreamcast 2", I suspect it would be something along the lines of the ill-fated NeoGeo X.  Sega themselves probably aren't foolish enough to do it, but I could see them selling the rights to someone who would.  I'm envisioning something like a ZBOX, painted white with a dremcast logo stuck on the top, a stripped down linux install, a non-compliant customized version of nullDC, and a ridiculously high price tag to take advantage of collectors.

But I really don't see anybody coming up with actual fresh hardware.

 

[Night]

Seeing Sega seriously invested in hardware development again is unlikely nowadays imo.
But if to speak purely hypothetically and out of imagination, i think any "Dreamcast 2" of sorts would probably be something along the lines of a Steam Machine designed by Sega rather than any type of a direct competitor to modern consoles.

Something like that won't put Sega in a risk of not having any third-party support and will likely allow them to just ship the thing with all sorts of retro gimmicks like official Saturn-style USB controllers or some kind of "retro theme" on top. They might even ship it with a pre-installed emulator that will allow original Dreamcast games to run, or maybe with free Steam codes for Dreamcast (and possibly Megadrive or Saturn) games that were already re-released on the platform.

Heck, they can even include an optional Blu-Ray drive as an addon for running original DC (or even Saturn) games off the discs.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

I don't think it's likely that sega will produce any more consoles, and even less likely that they'd make another dreamcast.  Which is kind of a shame, because as Kahn has pointed out, the system is still quite beloved and developed for by a small but devoted group of fans.

If they were to release a "dreamcast 2", I suspect it would be something along the lines of the ill-fated NeoGeo X.  Sega themselves probably aren't foolish enough to do it, but I could see them selling the rights to someone who would.  I'm envisioning something like a ZBOX, painted white with a dremcast logo stuck on the top, a stripped down linux install, a non-compliant customized version of nullDC, and a ridiculously high price tag to take advantage of collectors.

But I really don't see anybody coming up with actual fresh hardware.

Yup, a neo geo x type affair is a possibility that I was envisioning, hardly a welcome concept but I reckon someone might see a buck in such an enterprise.

 

[ekianjo]

The neo geo x sold ass and they had to sell it in wagons in Japan because nobody wanted it. It was an utter failure.
So, nostalgia works for some stuff, but assuming it works for everything is just wrong.

And 5000 units sellers is like a drop in the ocean. It's for fun, certainly not for profit.

 

[Kev2442]

For a Dreamcast 2 (Dreamland ? ) or any new home console, I could see something along the lines of the Shield Android TV hardware-wise.
Like a Tegra X1 or a PowerVR Series7XT SoC. I've been wondering for a while about putting high-end mobile processors into competitive consoles.
Imagination has made PowerVRs with special Ray Tracing abilities. While they're meant for the professionnal market, that would be awesome as a complimentary GPU.
I wonder what a PowerVR Wizard plus a Tegra X1 would do together graphics-wise.

 

[fusion_power]

I wonder how the original Dreamcast Hardware compares to the recent available (mobile) ARM Chipsets like Tegra, PowerVR, etc..

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

I wonder how the original Dreamcast Hardware compares to the recent available (mobile) ARM Chipsets like Tegra, PowerVR, etc..

Indeed, I wonder also. It's been said that in some ways the dreamcast was more powerful than the ps2, perhaps in other regards not so much.
The ports of games to both systems ended with the dreamcast having the better port. There was a lot of teething problems with the ps2.

 

[dflatline]

Sorry but ekianjo is right, this idea is complete bollocks.

 

[EvilDragon]

The neo geo x sold ass and they had to sell it in wagons in Japan because nobody wanted it. It was an utter failure.So, nostalgia works for some stuff, but assuming it works for everything is just wrong.

And 5000 units sellers is like a drop in the ocean. It's for fun, certainly not for profit.

Though, honestly, in my opinion the NeoGeo X was a failure because of the horrible software. The inital setup had horrible scaling, was running with wrong aspect and had VSync issues.

For NeoGeo fans, this is the worst thing you could do to their beloved machine.

I remember people anticipating it, but the horrible reviews killed it.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Sorry but ekianjo is right, this idea is complete bollocks.

If you read the actual thread then you would know that I stated that it was a fantasy thread. Reading? We used to do that back in my day!!!
 

 

[dflatline]

Sorry but ekianjo is right, this idea is complete bollocks.

If you read the actual thread then you would know that I stated that it was a fantasy thread. Reading? We used to do that back in my day!!!
 

It's still bollocks.

 

[fusion_power]

Though, honestly, in my opinion the NeoGeo X was a failure because of the horrible software. The inital setup had horrible scaling, was running with wrong aspect and had VSync issues.

For NeoGeo fans, this is the worst thing you could do to their beloved machine.

I remember people anticipating it, but the horrible reviews killed it.

Well, at least the actual build quality of the Handheld Unit was not that bad (for a china device)