Dreamcast

The Dreamcast is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony’s PlayStation 2, Nintendo’s GameCube, and Microsoft’s Xbox. The Dreamcast’s 2001 discontinuation ended Sega’s 18 years in the console market.

In 1988, Sega released the Genesis (known as the Mega Drive in most countries outside North America), in the fourth generation of video game consoles. It became the most successful Sega console ever, at 30.75 million units sold. Its successor, the Saturn, was released in Japan in 1994. The Saturn is CD-ROM-based and has 2D and 3D graphics, but its complex dual-CPU architecture was more difficult to program than its chief competitor, the Sony PlayStation. Although the Saturn debuted before the PlayStation in Japan and the United States, its surprise US launch, four months earlier than scheduled, was marred by a lack of distribution, which remained a problem. Losses on the Saturn contributed to financial problems for Sega, whose revenue had declined between 1992 and 1995 as part of an industry-wide slowdown.

Dreamcast is region locked.