i think dvd playback was THE feature that sealed the dreamcast’s fate.
The other big thing is that Sega had just burned so many bridges during their surprise gotcha Saturn launch in the US that a lot of retailers didn’t want to deal with them again.
If they had been coming from a stronger position I wonder if they would’ve done better.
But it was a Sony, MS, Sega and Nintendo race. That’s just too many, someone wasn’t going to make it. And as the weakest of the bunch they were the most likely.
As an unknown Microsoft could’ve been, but they got a huge hit with Halo and had the money to push through either way.
As I write this it does feel like both Sony and Microsoft really started to push the whole living room entertainment convergence thing around this time while Nintendo happily stayed in their lane. The same dynamic continues to this day.