[perpetualpatzer]

>It was 4 consoles fighting for attention around that time: Sega Dreamcast Nintendo 64 Microsoft Xbox Sony PlayStation 2

Yes and no. N64 was 3 years earlier. PS2 was a full year later, Xbox/Gamecube were two years later.

I've always been confused how Dreamcast didn't win a that fight. The previous three rounds of console launches were heralded by improved graphics technology and immediately took over the market (1990 SNES/Genesis, 1994 Playstation/Saturn, 1996 N64). Dreamcast came out when nothing relevant had come out for 3 years, with a generation better graphics and a 1-2 year head start on competitors.

[jandrese]

If Sega hadn't burned so many bridges with the SegaCD and Saturn they probably would have been a strong competitor in that generation. But both developers and customers were wary of their shenanigans by that point.