I could think of many reasons why DC died and didn\'t sell as well as PS2 beside just hype.
PS2 predecessor dominate the videogaming market heh, makes a lot of videogame owners especially PSOne owner eye the PS2. Sega on the other hands, failed on many of their consoles attempt such as Sega CD, 32X, and even the true console Sega Saturn died a quick death that I don\'t see them in late 1998 and 1999.
Sega finally learned their mistake and sell a Dreamcast with a reasonable price tag unlike Saturn which was overpriced when its first launched at $400. but you are right, its was too late. they lost most of their loyal fans because of sega\'s past mistakes.
The next reason why PS2 is successful is because of DVD-Video playback. Sure, the picture quality is below average, but most consumers doesn\'t care and its convenient to play DVD via a game machine so gamers don\'t need to buy a stand a lone dvd player at that time which cost them more money. Sega DC lack the DVD-Video playback to lure gamers because they use their own GD-ROM format which is cheaper.
-backward compatible with their previous games. With a large and popular games from PSOne, its a smart move Sony make to lure buyer to get PS2 so even if PS2 is a failed console, gamers won\'t feel as disappointed because gamers can use the ps2 to play PSOne games or use it to watch DVD Video. I gave away my PSOne when I bought my PS2. I thought about giving it away to my cousin but i let my sister borrowed it because she wanted it for her kids.
of course the obvious reason for PS2 success is videogames. Lots of 3rd party supports and lots of great games were made for PS2 than its competitor. yeah, hype does play a role in it and i shamely admit that I was one of those gamers that actually buy the hype.