Sega Dreamcast

Cause of death

Killed by a successor

Made by

Sega

The PlayStation 2 played DVDs, and buyers waited for it rather than committing to Sega again.

The Dreamcast was first to the generation, shipped with a modem for online play years before that was normal, and is widely regarded as the best hardware Sega ever built. It was also following the Saturn, which had burned publishers and buyers alike, and it arrived a year before a PlayStation 2 that doubled as the cheap DVD player everyone wanted. Sega discontinued it after about 28 months and left the hardware business permanently.