real.geizterfahr: So what happend ten years ago? Why did it fail so badly?
What happened to the Dreamcast was the result of several factors.
1) Bernie Stolar was a moron
2) Consumer confidence in Sega was at an all time low because of the failed Genesis add-ons and the premature demise of the Saturn.
3) First party titles were strong but third parties simply ported from the PSOne making the console look graphically inferior to the PS2. Which it was only marginally.
4) No online titles at launch despite being marketed with 6 million players. 6 months after launch we finally got Chu Chu Rocket.
5) No support from EA. Despite what you think of them they are important especially in the US. Sega had to divert a significant budget into Sega Sports to compete with Madden and NBA.
6) The 33.6k Modem was not fast enough and only Quake 3 managed 4 player online play with any level of smoothness. Unreal Tournament was cancelled.
7) A vast majority of players were happy with the PSOne and were prepared to wait for the PS2.
There are other factors but those are some of the biggies.