Well the Sega Dreamcast comes out in Japan in just a few short days. It's sure to be a hit in Japan. In fact pre-orders have all ready reached iMac proportions. But what happens once it hits the US?

Industry people seem to think that there may be some problem trying to get the American game buying public to buy into the whole Dreamcast thing. I agree, but there reasoning seems to be uninformed. For example, the whole "Three Strikes You're Out" thing. A popular opinion is that even though the Genesis was a huge success, the Dreamcast may make people wary because of the fact that the32X, Sega CD, and Saturn Systems all failed. There is a bit of a flaw in this logic, and it mainly has to do with the fact that Sega is a Japanese company, and that things are a bit different in Japan.

In Japan the Mega Drive wasn't that popular. Sure many people bought one when it was new, but the PC Engine totally eclipsed it in popularity, and as soon as the Super Famicom was out, the MegaDrive really went down. Here in the states, the Genesis did great. Because of many good reasons (Sonic, EA Sports), and bad ones (advertising, and lies).

The 32X and Sega CD pretty much bombed worldwide. This was sad since the Sega CD had a lot of potential. It was pretty much a PC Engine with more power and less colors, it should have done great, but I guess all of the cinema driven RPG developers were already hung up on the PC Engine.

The 32X was largely American in nature, had no real developers and tanked big-time. No surprise. No loss.

But the real misconception is regarding the Saturn. People in the American game magazine industry seem to think of this machine as a failure. They seem to forget that in Japan, the Saturn is Sega's most popular system ever. Games like Vampire Saviour, Grandia, X-Men vs Street Fighter Tokimeki Memorial, Sakura Taisen ect sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The fact that none of the games that I mentioned ever came out here in the states, may have something to do with the differences in popularity overseas. Now it seems that that software support for the Saturn is finally dying in Japan, but that's more because of DC development than anything else. There are only so many developers to go around.

So what does this mean to US gamers? If the DC is going to be such a success in Japan, then what about over here? Well, that's somewhat of a wildcard. Sega has pretty much already said, in discussion with Dave Halverson of Gamers Republic, that they will once again leave many Sega of Japan games where they came from. They are planning it already!

So will they screw up again? Well it wouldn't surprise me at all. I expect a very strong launch as far as titles and media go, but after that, who knows? Sega of Japan made sure that the Saturn had plenty of RPGs since a lack of which is mainly what got their butt kicked with the Mega Drive, and then Sega of America made sure we DIDN'T get any RPGs. When selling a system, it is important that you emphasize the machine's strengths, not it's weaknesses. So, for example, don't put a bunch of 3D racing games out just because that's what the competition has, if your machine can't do 3D racing games well. Do 2D fighting, or sports. Otherwise, you just lose, and look stupid at the same time.

But for now I guess it just doesn't matter. The DC will be import only for quite some time, and by then, as I'm looking at my Japanese DC GD ROM collection, I will have a hard time caring about a US release.