In January 2001, the gaming world was shocked with famed game company Sega announced that they were leaving the hardware business after 28 years. Their final console Dreamcast had not performed nearly as well as the company had hoped despite the incredibly low price point, the aggressive marketing behind it, and the huge library of quality titles. In the end, Sega decided they could no longer compete with Sony’s PlayStation 2, and decided to pull back and become a third-party software publisher.
During a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Peter Moore, President of Sega of America at the time, stated that he was the one to make the call on discontinuing Dreamcast:
“So on January 31 2001 we said Sega is leaving hardware – somehow I got to make that call, not the Japanese. I had to fire a lot of people, it was not a pleasant day.”
This was interpreted as Peter was the one whom made the decision to discontinue. However, in a 2023 interview with Sega Guys Channel, Moore clarified the 2018 statement, saying that he was not the one who made the decision to cancel Dreamcast and move to third-party publisher:
“I went over in January of 2001 (referring to Japan) and presented our numbers. The writing was on the wall there, and Europe was kind of hanging on. [I] was told we’re not going to be able to sustain producing hardware that’s losing money because the attach rate isn’t there. I think we were selling at 199 dollars and probably costing closer to 250-260. You need software attach rates, and it just wasn’t there. So the guys in charge there said, ‘you know we’re going to shut it down, and we’re going to move to third party, and you’re going to tell the world.’
I often get blamed for killing the Dreamcast. I didn’t do that. I did an interview where I said I had to make the call, meaning the telephone call, and people took that as making the decision.
It’s one of the things I smile at when I still see stuff that goes on.”
