Dreamcast didn't have a DVD player at a time when DVD playback was the most important thing in the world, and while a lot of its exclusives were great and unique, they weren't all palatable for normies.
Again the Dreamcast was released in November 1998. The DVD was first released in March 1997, Sega even consider adding the ability to play DVDs to the DC but as DVD-Players still cost something like 500 to 600 Dollars in 1998 adding that to the DC wasn't economically feasible.
Sega's really big mistake was the 11 months gap till they released the DC in the West, since Sony then immediately stole all the DC's Thunder by having their big PS 2 reveal
11 days after the DC's release in America.
The real issue was the game size. The GameCube already had a tough time because the mini DVDs were smaller than the PS2 and Xbox, the Dreamcast was using a proprietary format called the GD-ROM, which had more capacity than a CD-ROM but less a GameCube miniDVD.
Yeah that would have been an another issue had the DC lived beyond January 2001.
Also the GD-ROM only had 1,1 GB compared to the CD-ROMs 700 MB maximum so it wasn't much of an upgrade.
Switch released a few years before its competition too, and its primary gimmick definitely wasn't "entirely" what sold it unlike with the Wii (many people treat it as a regular console). It may be a better example to use then, because it again had the price and library advantage, but didn't coast on gimmicks to kick the competition's ass.
No, the Switch sold hugely on its gimmick of being a portable ''Home''-Console.
Besides that there is also the factor that Nintendo was able to import a large part of the WII Us library again since barely anyone had a WII U and that Nintendo could focus all its effort on one platform since it wasn't supporting a home console and a handheld at the same time anymore.
Soulcalibur 2 is obviously going to look better on any platform of the time (including Dreamcast had it released there), which is a given, but I do acknowledge the significant graphical advantage the other consoles had. But again, I just don't find it to be a generational leap in quality between it and its competitors.
Again no, I don't think that Namco would have been able to improve the graphics of Soul Calibur much on the Dreamcast.
Dead or Alive 2, Project Justice and Fighting Vipers 2 all released at least a year later and non of them look better than Soul Calibur 1.
Just for consideration the N64 released in June 1996 and the DC in November 1998. That is a gap of 2 Years and 6 Months.
The gap between the release of the DC and GameCube is 2 years and 10 months, between the DC and the Xbox about 3 years.
I nowadays believe that Sega's only chance would have been to scrap the November 1998 release of the DC in Japan and instead release the DC in December 1998 in America. Sonic Adventure, Sega's Killer App for the DC was ready in Japan by 23.12.1998 perfect for a holiday release. Beyond that:
A) They wouldn't have totally abandoned the Western market for more than a year
B) The hype around the DC in the west wouldn't have immediately been killed by the announcement of the PS 2.
Furthermore they could have used the whole year of 1999 to build Hype for the December release of Shenmue, the DC's second killer App. For 2001 they would have had the role out of the DC's online gaming capabilities with Phantasy Star Online.
Beyond early to mid 2001 the arrival of the Gamecube/Xbox and the release of the first big AAA games for the PS 2 would have forced them to sunset the DC in 2002/2003 anyways.
