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The is a
home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...
developed and sold by
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
. The first of the
sixth generation of video game consoles In the history of video games, the sixth generation era (in rare occasions called the 128-bit era; see "bits and system power" below) is the era of computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming devices available at the turn ...
, it was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999, and in Europe on October 14, 1999. The fifth and final home console produced by Sega, the Dreamcast is the successor to the
Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...
, whose commercial failure prompted the company to release it only four years after its predecessor's initial release. All licensed games for the Dreamcast were released on the
GD-ROM The GD-ROM (gigabyte disc read-only memory) is a proprietary optical disc format developed as a collaboration between Sega and Yamaha for the Dreamcast and other Sega systems. Specification A double-density format based on the CD-ROM that cou ...
format, a proprietary CD-based
optical disc An optical disc is a flat, usuallyNon-circular optical discs exist for fashion purposes; see shaped compact disc. disc-shaped object that stores information in the form of physical variations on its surface that can be read with the aid o ...
format jointly developed by Sega and
Yamaha Corporation is a Japanese multinational musical instrument and audio equipment manufacturer. It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the world's largest musical instrument manufacturing company. The former motorcycle division was establishe ...
that was capable of storing up to 1 GB of data. The Dreamcast itself features
regional lockout A regional lockout (or region coding) is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced t ...
. While the higher-capacity
DVD-ROM The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
format was available during the console's development, its then-fledgling technology was deemed too expensive to implement at the time, which resulted in ramifications for Sega when competitors such as
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
's
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
came to market; the Dreamcast was unable to offer DVD movie playback when the general public began switching from
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
to DVD, and its games were unable to take advantage of the DVD's higher storage capacity and lower cost. Furthermore, an exploit in the console's
copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on vid ...
system via its support for the little-used
MIL-CD The GD-ROM (gigabyte disc read-only memory) is a proprietary optical disc format developed as a collaboration between Sega and Yamaha for the Dreamcast and other Sega systems. Specification A double-density format based on the CD-ROM that cou ...
format effectively allowed users to play many games burned onto
CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be Write once read many, written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) ...
s, without any hardware modifications. The Dreamcast's initial release in Japan had four launch titles, which were '' Virtua Fighter 3tb'', ''
Pen Pen TriIcelon , known simply as ''Pen Pen'' in Europe, is a video game created by one of the first Japanese companies to reveal Dreamcast development, General Entertainment, otherwise known as Team Land Ho! It was released in Japan as one of four launch title ...
'', ''
Godzilla Generations is an action game developed by General Entertainment and published by Sega for the Dreamcast in 1998. It was exclusively released in Japan as one of the system's four launch titles. The game is based on the ''Godzilla (franchise), Godzilla'' fra ...
'', and ''July''. The North American debut featured 19 launch titles, which included highly anticipated ones such as ''
Sonic Adventure is a 1998 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It was the first main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game to feature 3D gameplay. It follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Pr ...
'', ''
Soulcalibur is a fighting game franchise developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. There are a total of seven main installments and various media spin-offs, including music albums and a series of manga books in the ...
'', and ''
NFL 2K ''NFL 2K'' is an American football video game series developed by Visual Concepts and published by Sega. The series was originally exclusive to Sega's Dreamcast video game console due to the absence of EA Sports's Madden NFL series on the syst ...
''. The European introduction was originally going to feature 10 launch titles, but the list increased to 15 as its delay from the original September 23 launch date allowed the inclusion of a handful of additional titles. Due to the similarity of the Dreamcast's hardware with Sega's own New Arcade Operation Machine Idea (NAOMI) arcade board, it saw several near-identical
ports Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of makefiles and Patch (Unix), patches provided by the BSD-based operating systems, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, as a simple method of installing software or creating binary packages. T ...
of
arcade games An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade ...
. Plus, since the Dreamcast's hardware used parts similar to those found in
personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...
s (PCs) of the era, specifically ones with
Pentium II The Pentium II is a brand of sixth-generation Intel x86 microprocessors based on the P6 (microarchitecture), P6 microarchitecture, introduced on May 7, 1997. It combined the ''P6'' microarchitecture seen on the Pentium Pro with the MMX (instruc ...
and III processors, it also saw a handful of ports of
PC games ''PC Games'' is a monthly-released PC gaming magazine published by the Computec Media GmbH in Germany. History ''PC Games'' was founded in 1992 and included a 3½-in floppy disk, which was changed to a CD-ROM in 1995. By 1999 it became the ...
. American third-party publisher
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
, which had extensively supported Sega's prior consoles beginning with the
Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...
, elected not to develop games for the Dreamcast due to a dispute with Sega over licensing. Sega discontinued the Dreamcast's hardware in March 2001, and software support quickly dwindled as a result. Software largely trickled to a stop by 2002, though the Dreamcast's final licensed game on GD-ROM was ''
Karous ''Karous'' (カラス, ''karasu'', "crows") is a vertical-scrolling shooter video game developed by MileStone Inc. for the Sega NAOMI platform and released in Japanese arcades on November 15, 2006. The game was later ported to the Sega Dreamca ...
'', released only in Japan on March 8, 2007, nearly coinciding with the end of GD-ROM production the previous month. The final first-party game for the Dreamcast was '' Puyo Puyo Fever'', released as a Japanese exclusive on February 24, 2004. This list documents all officially released and homebrew games for the Dreamcast. It does not include any cancelled games, which are documented at the
list of cancelled Dreamcast games The Dreamcast is a video game console by Sega. While Sega found success in its Sega Genesis in the early 1990s, they experienced a series of commercial failures with their subsequent releases of Sega CD, 32X, and Sega Saturn, and hoped to reverse ...
.


Licensed games

There are ' games that are known to have released on the console:


Non-game software


Unlicensed games


See also

* Dreamcast Collection * List of Dreamcast online games *
List of cancelled Dreamcast games The Dreamcast is a video game console by Sega. While Sega found success in its Sega Genesis in the early 1990s, they experienced a series of commercial failures with their subsequent releases of Sega CD, 32X, and Sega Saturn, and hoped to reverse ...


Notes


References

{{Video game lists by platform *
Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...
Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...