It was actually the opposite problem... they sold plenty of hardware. But they lost money on every sale and didn't make it back on software purchases as was the plan.

In fact, the Dreamcast had sold more than the Xbox and Gamecube combined for the first several years of their lifespan.

[–] DosDude@retrolemmy.com 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There was also the playstation 2 releasing about 6 months after the dreamcast, with dvd capabilities, when dvd players were expensive as fuck. People were using them as a DVD player. Basically the same reason the playstation 3 sold decently at all in it's first years.

[–] DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've heard stories of people buying or being encouraged to buy a PS1 because it also played CDs.

[–] DosDude@retrolemmy.com 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Never heard of that. Audio cd's have been around for a while by then. And cd players weren't expensive. But I could be wrong. I was not really in to consoles at that point.

[–] DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

I wasn't around then but i think the stories I heard was "kid wants his own cd player and gaming console so he buys a PS1"

[–] SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

the Xbox was a financial disaster that was basically a massive loss leader by a larger company that could absorb it just to tee themselves up for next generation. Microsoft’s Xbox division was $2bill in the red when it was all said and done.
the GameCube sold the worst of all the big 3 consoles (Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo) at 21 mill total. Xbox 24mill. The Dreamcast sold just 9mill. That’s less than half of the 3rd worst selling system.

You’re cherry picking your numbers it seems to ignore Dreamcast’s count at 9mill units sold. First years are only part of the story. The story is they did very poorly.

Your comparisons are not propping up the Dreamcast. The fact that it did worse than GameCube and Xbox despite the fact that both did not do well at all just further indicates how disastrous it was.