[quote name='elwood731']Your history is a bit confused. Was Nintendo helped by the crash? Somewhat, but it was also hurt. In fact, early on it had trouble convincing many companies to make games for the NES because they had rededicated efforts to the PC. Stores had no interest in carrying the system, and as others have mentioned ROB and the Zapper were added to make it presentable as a "toy" rather than "game."
It can also be said that Atari helped Nintendo by turning them down, since the NES was originally offered to them for distribution outside Japan. Same with Genesis and the Lynx. Obviously, they made the wrong choice of those three.[/QUOTE]
I think when 2 console makers pull out of the industry entirely and your main competition had failed and subsequently studios who made games for them closed down, you're helped quite a bit. Imagine if just 1 console maker pulled out now, how much that alone could help the others. Nintendo was helped more by the crash than they were hurt by it.
I pointed out those things myself in this thread and the Atari part fits in with what I said about them seeing the industry as a fad at that point. Nintendo may have had to pull the strings to get NES accepted at retail in the beginning, but after that it was gangbusters because they had a quality product and no serious competition.
[quote name='Puffa469']So what caused the Dreamcast to fail?
Many would say the ease of Piracy on the system.
I would argue that the real killer was retailer and consumer distrust of Sega after the Sega CD, 32X, Saturn mess.
Some would also say the PS2 came along and killed the Dreamcast, but I think the system was already doomed by that point.[/QUOTE]
All of these, it was a perfect storm against DC so that really it was mostly the hardcore who owned it. Add no support from EA to that list. I think the biggest reason is distrust of Sega followed closely by PS2.
[quote name='Jodou']Dreamcast was the first to introduce online console gaming when comparing those three. In fact, PS2 did very little to support online outside of SOCOM and Twisted Metal Black. Phantasy Star Online was just too buggy and hacked to really get things off the ground, but the console was dropped long before it had a chance to improve anyways. The only thing that survived the first wave of online was Live and only because M$ had the money to pour into the project.
You can do anything when money is no object.[/QUOTE]
I had a lot of fun online with PS2 with many games. Off the top of my head, NFSUG, NFSUG2, Hot Shots Golf 4, Champions of Norrath, NHL, Burnout 3, ATV Offroad.