U-Turn: Peter Moore didn't execute Dreamcast

EA COO Peter Moore, anecdotally known as the man who pulled the plug on Sega's beloved final console, the Dreamcast, has explained it wasn't his decision to make.

Speaking to IndustryGamers, the former Sega executive explained a misunderstanding is behind the widespread belief that he was the one to pull the trigger - or rather, "make the call".

"The idea of 'making the call' came out of an interview with Keith Stuart of The Guardian – when I said making the call, I was actually referring to the telephone call," he explained.

"He interpreted that as making the decision, and I was very much a part of the decision, but it certainly wasn't just me telling the Japanese team that we need to get out of the console business."

Moore explained that a number of Sega executives from offices around the world had agreed to discontinue the Dreamcast, but it fell to him to tell the press.

"My comment about making the call was that I had to announce – with several hundred journalists on the call, and I shall never forget it – that we were moving on and will not be selling hardware anymore and will be disposing of existing inventory as we transition to third-party publishing," he said.

As for why the Dreamcast folded, Moore was blunt.

"It's a difficult early period when you're selling hardware because you're not making a lot of money, and in some instances you're losing money. We need to build an installed base and we just couldn't get there," he said.

After 15 years as one of two or three major players on the console hardware scene, Sega's discontinuation of the Dreamcast in 2011 marked its exit from the ranks of platform holders. Despite its failure to sell, many gamers nurture a soft-spot for the Dreamcast, which boasted many forward-thinking features like online connectivity, DLC, and in-game voice chat. Working consoles, replacement parts and games are hotly pursued by collectors, and homebrew developers are still producing games and ports for the system