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Comment by nitrofire69 | Hacker News Reader

PS2 also being a DVD player sealed the deal. For a while there it was one of the cheaper options for a DVD player, and if you bought a PS2 to play DVDs, might as well buy some games too.

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That and being easy to pirate the games.

From what I remember, the OG Xbox had way more piracy in my circles than the PS2.

The PS1 on the other hand, I think everyone I knew had theirs chipped by the end.

Though it was really easy to pirate on the Dreamcast.

Someone took a hard look at the numbers and determined that even with piracy there was no uptick in units sold which means people were just not interested in the Dreamcasts unfortunately and it was piracy that killed it.

But then again people who knows Segas history wouldn't draw this conclusion anyway. The Dreamcasts didn't have a chance with Segas past and Sony Playstation 2 hype and money

It wasn't piracy that killed it*

Major typo correction since I can't edit that post now.

By the time it was really easy to pirate Dreamcast, the consoles were being clearanced out for $99.

People in the scene thought the DMCA was a joke back in 2000, then they ended up behind bars.

Yes, that was very much a factor for me. DVD players were still very expensive. A PS2 gave you games and DVDs for around the same price or less.

I know people that bought a PS3 on launch for the same reason. They didn't play any games, but it was a cheap Blu-Ray player.

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