Post#2 » Tue Dec 13, 2022 4:34 pm
I love the dreamcast, but xbox was basically the most powerful spec for that generation and DC was lowest in many regards so its really hard to compare. Xbox practically feels like a generation past dreamcast when you're playing some of the games that were designed to more fully utilize its specs.
If Xbox didn't have the sega games, I don't think that would be a big deal. Everyone I knew with an xbox at the time was into it for American games like Halo and other FPS games, as well as sports and racing stuff and big budget EA games. It was interesting to see sega games used as a pack in for awhile, but I don't think JSRF or Panzer Dragoon or Shenmue II or Gun Valkyrie or Monkey Ball were significant system sellers. Xbox was basically ignored in Japan as well even with the sega games, so it probably wouldn't have hurt them much from that perspective to have none.
I'm sure Sega and Microsoft had contracts in place about the use of Windows CE on dreamcast and they would have contemplated support for Windows CE for the life of the dreamcast. I don't see Microsoft breaking that contract, especially if the DC is only a minor competitor. Heck, this is somewhat analogous to the fact that various console manufacturers had to pay some kind of DVD license payment to Sony in order to use DVD technology on their platforms.