Sega set to cut remaining Dreamcast and Saturn support

It looks like the Dreamcast's long, slow demise has taken another turn for the worse, as Sega recently announced that it'll soon stop supporting the console in Japan, with its predecessor, the Saturn, also suffering a similar fate. According to the company, the cut-off date for repairs will be September 28th of this year, after which you'll be left to fend for yourself if your console finally conks out after one too many games of Ikaruga. Given what they're selling for these days, however, simply replacing the console with another, slightly less used one is probably your best bet in any event.

[Via Joystiq]

[Vimal @ Apr 2nd 2007 3:58PM]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

[BloodFalcon @ Apr 2nd 2007 3:58PM]

Who in their right mind is still playing with a Dreamcast? I honestly don't remember there being any blockbuster - must have - mega Games for this system with the exception of some RPG (a type of genre I can barely stand).

[Ben @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:05PM]

The Dreamcast was a system that had a lot of extremely creative and fun games which met a lot of critical praise, but never excelled in terms of sales. That's why people still own the system years after the industry giants gave up on it. A few games that I enjoyed include: Ikaruga, Rez, Jet Set Radio, Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, Power Stone etc.

[Matt @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:47PM]

Well I'm in my right mind and I play my Dreamcast. Dreamcast was and still awesome. Not everyone has the cash for a new system like the 360/PS3/Wii. I can get a dreamcast for less than half the price of a controller. Sure the graphics arent to good but its still one hell of a system. I guess what I'm getting at is : LIVE ON DREAMCAST!

[kelmon @ Apr 2nd 2007 5:02PM]

The Dreamcast was a superb console that I fail to understand why it failed. Personally, I was sold on Soul Calibur but I honestly don't remember playing a duff game for it. Metropolis Street Racer (MSR) was, however, the game that I played the most on it and it still ranks as my favourite racing game ever.

[derek @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:08PM]

From the page:

Usually our company product patronage receiving, thank you for truly.

This time, is selfish truly, but concerning game machine 'Sega Saturn' for our company home and 'Dreamcast', ending substance compensatory repair with 2007 September 28th arrival acceptance amount, because it receives, no soldier/finishing understanding it receives, the fish you say to ask. To your for a long time to be deep appreciation you say patronage.

Selfish truly? Fish you say to ask? Google translator still has a lot of work left.

[BandB @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:10PM]

They were still supporting deamcast!

Dang, good on them for going this long.

wonder if my Turbo Graphics 16 is still supported. oh wait, that went down 2 weeks after I bought it. RIP Bonk

[Liqwid @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:12PM]

... I'm still playing mine. And it has the only baseball game that I can stand (MLB 2K1) other than Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball. PSO and PSO v.2 (very repetitive, but I somehow kept on playing), Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2, Jet Grind Radio (kick ass game, btw), Sega Rally 2, TNT Hardcore Heat and other awesome stuff.

[trev @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:12PM]

BloodFalcon - you missed out then :)

Soul Calibur 2, Power Stone, Res, Samba De Amigo, Crazy Taxi, Shemune(?), Jet Grind Radio. Allot of them genre defining at the time, all of them amazing fun - PowerStone on 4 Player was amazing!

Anyway I hope that Nintendo is seriously considering snapping up some of these games for emulation on Wii. And if not then Im sure you can find some less than legit emulators online.

[Ayle @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:32PM]

Did you forget Ikaruga?

[MiniMiteyMo @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:18PM]

Seeeeega!

[JON BLAST @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:33PM]

best Sega Saturn game ever - Dragon Force. Cruelly difficult, but awesome battles.

[Sinbios @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:47PM]

Shining Force 3 Scenario ? Langrisser ? Princess Crown? Panzer Dragoon ?

I still play my Saturn all the time, thank you very much :)

[Sinbios @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:49PM]

Bah, Engadget breaks tag brackets... I meant to put "x" and "n" after some of those titles.

[Kurt @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:51PM]

Dreamcast only lost because of the Sony Hype machine. For the first 2 years of the PS2 the Dreamcast was by far the better console. Sega released the DC before the PS2 and most people held off buying it because the PS2 promised Toy Story graphics from the incredible, stupendous, awe inspring emotion engine. What a load of crap!!!

[gene holman @ Apr 2nd 2007 5:53PM]

The hype machine for the PS2 was staggering to behold. Back in 99 I overheard a sales clerk discouraging a customer from buying a DC. Why? Because the PS2 was coming out, and it was going to be "so much better". I didn't understand turning away customers that wanted to buy a product that was in stock vs one that was not even released. If I managed that shop I would have told that fella to be a fan boy on his own time-sell what we have now!!!

[BloodFalcon @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:25PM]

TOP 3 REASONS DREAMCAST FAILED:

#3 Difficulty developing games for this system - unlocking its full potential.

#2 Japanese ties caused it to be subject of games not focused on the US market

#1 SONY PLAYSTATION 2

[James @ Apr 2nd 2007 5:33PM]

Didn't most of the games people are listing as "reasons to own a Dreamcast" get ported to other systems anyway? Powerstone is on PSP, Jet Grind Radio is on GBA (granted, neither makes multiplayer easy, but...), Panzer Dragoon is on Xbox, Ikaruga was on GC (and apparently 360?), Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, and Shenmue all showed up on other platforms... I'm not saying it wasn't a good platform in its day, but you can play most of its "hit" games elsewhere now. Is there a good reason to have one if you own an Xbox and a PS2, let alone a 360 and a PS3?

[Kurt @ Apr 2nd 2007 5:45PM]

yeah....you could have had those games 1 year before the PS2 and 2 years before the xbox even came out

[Aaron @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:33PM]

A GBA Jet Grind Radio is hardly a replacement for the Dreamcast version. That's like expecting the version of Elder Scrolls to be as good as the one on XBOX. Shenmue and the original Soul Calibur never appeared on another platform although their sequels did. Also Virtua Fighter 2 and many of the other saturn fighting games were incredible and are classics.

[www.Skyplans.com @ Apr 4th 2007 11:39PM]

Noooo!

I remember playing Phantasy Star Online and Crazy Taxi on my DC. Those were the good old days

[jared0x90 @ Apr 2nd 2007 6:57PM]

The Project Gotham Racing series is a descendant of Metropolis Street Racer (MSR), which was in fact far more difficult than any of the PGR games I have played. MSR was amazing back then and is still a really great game.

[KC @ Apr 2nd 2007 7:08PM]

=( I bought the Saturn just to play virtua cop!!!

[Le Master @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:40PM]

Sonic is one of the greatest games I've ever played. I love the Dreamcast.

[Adeel @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:30PM]

I think Sega should give it one last stab at the console industry. Bring Sonic back to his home on a Sega console.

[Tom @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:06PM]

Anybody else play "Silver" for Dreamcast? (it was avaialable on PC too.) It was a hack n' slash RPG I ended up putting over 40 hour into. That was probably my favorite game on the system, followed by Sonic Adventure and Seaman. I have a Wii and a 360, but I still play my Dreamcast and Saturn from time to time.

[ross @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:02PM]

If only Sega still made quality games, like it did back in the Genesis/Saturn/Dreamcast days.

The new Sonic games for the wii and 360 make me want to break my tv.


Dreamcast was a great system, I had one for a short while. Wish I had kept it.

[DeAthWaGer @ Apr 3rd 2007 1:02AM]

Dreamcast had the GREATEST launch games in the history of consoles (go look at the lineup and compare it to the absolute crap launches of every system since), on 9.9.99. DC games are STILL being made (mostly shooters) in Japan. The last DC GD-ROM game will be made this year, then the GD-ROM factory(ies?) will be shut down for good.

There was a lot for DC to offer, including incredible graphics (use a VGA box, gorgeous 640x480), amazing arcade ports, built-in modem, and a respectable price. The VMU was also a very novel idea.

A lot of people were burned by SegaCD, 32X, and then Saturn (at least in the US, Saturn did great in Japan since so many more games came out there), so DC didn't fare well MOSTLY from that, not necessarily just because of the PS2 coming out.
I still play lots of homebrew/emulators/bootlegs on my Dreamcasts (yes, I own 2). I also still play the occasional Saturn game as well (better-than-arcade port of Street Fighter Zero 3, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Guardian Heroes, Fighters Megamix, Radiant Silvergun... oh man I could go on).

I'm actually shocked that Sega has still supported Saturn repair, and this is going to continue until the day I turn 26.

If you actually can see what came out for these systems and how they lived up to their potential, you can actually understand how great they were and still are.
Don't bad mouth just because you're ignorant and are too lazy to learn the truth.

[Wokkus @ Apr 4th 2007 7:53AM]

i don't care what anyone says.. those consoles still had some of the best gameplay of their times

[cloud811 @ Apr 4th 2007 4:48PM]

nooo dreamcast is still the best system ever in my heart!!

[Marv @ Apr 5th 2007 2:14AM]

I still play and enjoy my dreamcast. I have it hooked up via VGA cable and play Virtua Tennis. I also own a PS2,360, SNES, and the Wii but will always have the dreamcast for my homebrew games. My 2 kids loves Samba De Amigo. Oh yeah!!!

[Frost @ Apr 27th 2007 6:01PM]

question, does the Japanese version saturn(HST-0004)play with American(NTSC) games?

[Andy @ Nov 24th 2007 5:49PM]

We have GC, 360, Wii... But after recently dusting off my old Dreamcast I'm hooked once again. Samba De Amigo, Soul Caliber, Skys of arcadia, Revolt, Jet Set Radio... and so many more, was amazed that they even looked good on a plasma screen (better than the gamecube does). Ah and the 2 player light gun games.

Nobody will ever convince me the ps2 was better than the DC, it wasn't.

Only problem I ever had was a tendency for the console to start cutting out after much use (not the complete death the 360's suffer but annoying all the same). Was never sure if it was overheating or what. Anybody know?

[leonardoalexis @ Mar 26th 2008 11:05PM]

i love my saturn & my dreamcast. its a shame that these systems didn't maked like the psx. retro gaming is the best.

[daytripper @ May 12th 2008 1:31AM]

DC was the one of the best systems ever. I'm glad i still have mine. MDK2 (damn that game was hard) Soul Reaver Legacy Of Kain and Chu-Chu Rocket, good times, good times.:-)