GameCube vs Dreamcast
Rieko Kodama produced Skies of Arcadia for the Dreamcast. She says: “I only made one game on the Dreamcast, I wanted to make more. … It was an easy console to work with.” Sega stopped making the Dreamcast before the GameCube came out. The GameCube is the more powerful machine, and it sold more than twice as many. Below are the two side by side, with what the people who made games for them said.
Updated:
| GameCube | Dreamcast | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Nintendo | Sega |
| Generation | 6th generation | 6th generation (the first to arrive) |
| Released (Japan) | September 14, 2001 | November 27, 1998 |
| CPU | 485 MHz PowerPC "Gekko" | 200 MHz Hitachi SH-4 |
| Main memory | ~43 MB total | 16 MB |
| Storage media | 8cm mini-DVD (~1.5 GB) | GD-ROM (~1.2 GB, Sega’s own format) |
| Online play | Add-on modem/adapter (rarely used) | Built-in modem — online as standard |
| Units sold (lifetime) | ~21.7 million | ~9.1 million |
Two 6th-generation machines that barely met
The Dreamcast and the GameCube belong to the same console generation, but their time on the market barely overlapped. Sega launched the Dreamcast in Japan on November 27, 1998. The GameCube arrived on September 14, 2001, almost three years later. By then Sega had already announced that it would stop making consoles.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi was making games at Sega when that decision came. As a Sega employee, he wanted the Dreamcast to keep going. As the maker of Space Channel 5 and Rez, he wanted more people to be able to play his games. He says: “I felt those two things at the same time, it was a complicated feeling.” In November 2001, Rez came out in Japan on the Dreamcast and the PlayStation 2 at the same time.
Other companies were already planning for the next machines. Yoshiki Okamoto, then at Capcom, remembers which machines Capcom planned its biggest games for. The Dreamcast was not one of them. He says: “The next generation of consoles at the time were Sony’s PS2, Nintendo’s GameCube, and Microsoft’s Xbox.” Capcom split its big games among them: “3 for the PS2, 2 for the GameCube, and 1 for the Xbox.” One of the two GameCube games was Resident Evil.
The Dreamcast’s short life is a large part of why it sold about 9.1 million units, against about 21.7 million for the GameCube.
Which was more powerful?
The GameCube, by a wide margin. It came out almost three years later. Its PowerPC "Gekko" CPU ran at 485 MHz against the Dreamcast’s 200 MHz Hitachi SH-4, and it had far more memory (about 43 MB against 16 MB).
The Dreamcast was strong for its time, and some games moved from one machine to the other. Hiroshi Iuchi directed the shooting game Ikaruga at Treasure. It came out on the Dreamcast in Japan in 2002, after Sega had stopped making the console. A GameCube version followed in 2003. That was its first release outside Japan.
The Dreamcast’s real legacy: online
The Dreamcast was ahead on the internet. It shipped with a built-in modem, so online play came in the box instead of as an extra purchase. It was the first home console to do that.
On the GameCube, the modem and broadband adapters were sold separately, and few people bought them. One game that used them was Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II. It was a new version of the online game Sonic Team had first released on the Dreamcast in December 2000.
So the GameCube won on power and sales. The Dreamcast is the one remembered for going online first.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the GameCube more powerful than the Dreamcast?
- Yes. The GameCube launched almost three years later, in 2001, with a 485 MHz CPU against the Dreamcast’s 200 MHz, and roughly 43 MB of memory against 16 MB. The Dreamcast was strong for 1998, but the GameCube was clearly the more powerful machine.
- Did the GameCube outsell the Dreamcast?
- Yes, by more than two to one: about 21.7 million GameCubes against roughly 9.1 million Dreamcasts. Much of the gap comes from timing. Sega announced it would stop making consoles several months before the GameCube launched, which cut the Dreamcast’s life short.
- What is the difference between GD-ROM and the GameCube’s discs?
- The Dreamcast used the GD-ROM, a Sega-designed disc holding about 1.2 GB, chosen partly because DVD-ROM drives were still expensive at the time. The GameCube used a proprietary 8cm mini-DVD holding about 1.5 GB. Neither console could play DVD movies. The one exception was the Q, a GameCube made by Panasonic for Japan that added DVD playback.
- Why is the Dreamcast remembered so fondly despite selling less?
- It was the first console to ship with a built-in modem, so online play was standard from day one, and its library was small but full of original games. Sega stopped making it after only a few years, so it is remembered as a much-loved machine rather than a commercial success.