10 Ways The Sega Dreamcast Was Ahead Of Its Time
6. GD-ROMs
After surveying the piracy rampant on Sony's PlayStation console, Sega knew they needed a better solution than a basic CD-ROM. Their answer was a proprietary format: the GD-ROM.
The custom disks were not readily available to the public, thus eliminating software piracy entirely. Sega seemed to be onto a winner.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, however. Whilst would-be copiers were foiled by the patent format, Sega neglected to consider that pirates could simply pack most of the console's games onto standard CD-ROMs. People being the massive b*stards they are, did not hesitate to do just that.
Not only did the GD-ROM fail in its sole purpose of combating bootleggers, it also caused a swathe of laser failures (not to mention the Dreamcast's distinctive raspy loading noise). Sony's decision to go with DVDs for the PS2 was disastrous for the Dreamcast; not only did the format offer eight times the capacity, but it also transformed the rival machine into a budget DVD player - a selling point which far outweighed its inferior launch library.
GD-ROMs were an unmitigated failure, but "ahead-of-its-time" doesn't always equate to "good". Sega were the first company to combat the issue of piracy head-on without resorting to a prohibitive cartridge format, and theirs was a move that'd later be imitated by Nintendo for the GameCube's Lilliputian discs as well as the Wii and Wii U's proprietary optical media.
Sega had to take the greatest hit of all to teach the rest of the industry how to fight piracy. Only the dead see the end of the war (cheers, Plato).