Sega's Dreamcast Was Almost The Original PC Port Console For Some Massive Games
The Dreamcast is often looked back upon as a failed system, but that's not entirely the truth. It had an extremely brief time in the spotlight from 1998 to 2001 before it was overshadowed by competitors, most notably Sony and the PlayStation 2. The Dreamcast was the first of its console generation, though, and showed the world the potential of 3D with its then-HD graphics — plus, it had hardware that no other console could match at the time.
Behind the scenes, there were plans to add even more niche features to the console before it was released, and it had capabilities well beyond that of a normal gaming console. In an interview with The Ringer, who also interviewed successor Peter Moore, former President of Sega America Brian Stolar revealed that the Dreamcast served as the original PC port for a number of popular PC exclusives.
Stolar served as president of the company when the Dreamcast first came out, and in the interview, he described a number of things that, ultimately, didn't make it to launch. In addition to lost features like a DVD drive and integrated storage, Stolar revealed that the team at Sega was "in talks" to bring exclusive ports of "World of Warcraft," "Half-Life," and "System Shock 2" to the Dreamcast before its lifespan abruptly ended.
World of Warcraft, Half-Life, and other ports were coming to the Dreamcast before its demise
The Dreamcast was, for a brief time, the most powerful console on the market, capable of running games that only optimized PCs could efficiently handle. The console was particularly notable for its online features that let players connect to one another via the internet and download DLCs, and these features would have been used to make PC MMOs like "World of Warcraft" work correctly. The Dreamcast was already able to support MMOs, such as "Phantasy Star Online," so having "World of Warcraft" available on the console isn't as far-fetched as one might think.
The massive success that was "Half-Life" was also going to be ported from PC to Dreamcast, as well as the cult classic sci-fi "System Shock 2." These three were the only PC-exclusive games that Brian Stolar mentioned in the interview, but he also stated that "Grand Theft Auto 3," "Max Payne," and "Fable" as other games that were planned to be brought to the Dreamcast (via The Ringer).
Ultimately, the console's waning popularity and the shift of public interest away from the Dreamcast to the PlayStation 2 proved to be the death knell of these plans — but some of the games would end up being brought to other consoles anyway. "Half-Life" eventually received a PlayStation 2 port, and fans of "System Shock" are looking forward to a full-fledged remake coming to consoles and PC in the coming years.