10 Video Game Consoles The World Wasn't Ready For
2. Sega Dreamcast
The Sega Dreamcast is one of those game systems that had everything going for it when it launched but never got enough traction to become the console it was designed and imagined to be. The system ended up being the final nail in the coffin of Sega's hardware development and would lead the company to become software-only.
The Dreamcast featured an incredibly powerful CPU with more memory and graphics capabilities than the competition. It also was the first console to feature a built-in modem, which gave it Internet and online play capabilities.
The system was vastly overpowered compared to its contemporaries, and it also featured a ton of well-developed games, but even with these things going for it, it didn't manage to sell well outside of Asia, and it ended up becoming a commercial failure with only 9.13 million consoles having been sold.
The biggest reason the Dreamcast failed was its competition. The Sony Playstation 2 ended up destroying Sega's console in the marketplace. Both systems were innovative, and even a bit ahead of their time, but only the PS2 won the console war. One of the reasons had to do with the PS2 buiilding off of the success of the Play Station while the Dreamcast had to build off of the failure of the Sega Saturn. Despite its impressive characteristics, that was a burden the Dreamcast couldn't overcome.