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Originally posted by PuPPeT
OOnline console gaming. Sega saw it as the USP destined to fend off the competition when the Dreamcast arrived on the scene back in 1998.
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1999, actually.
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The company's Dreamarena would provide Net access to millions of gamers for the price of a local call, while the machine's 32K modem gave owners a taste of online gaming that had previously only been the enclave of the PC fraternity.
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I don't recall it being called a Dreamarena. And online gaming with consoles existed, it just wasn't popular.
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Or so the dream went. In reality the machine simply didn't do the numbers, while the 32K modem ? which was actually (surprise, surprise) a 56K modem in disguise ? still couldn't handle the demands placed upon it by the likes of Quake III Arena.
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It was 32K in Japan. Q3A supported the BBA. And this was still at a time when very very few people even knew what the hell ethernet was. It was bigger in Japan than it was here.
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The result? The console quickly faded in a cloud of rival brand loyalty and PS2 stole the limelight.
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I wouldn't say online gaming caused DC's death. I was there at the launch of DC, and there wasn't a word about PS2's online strategy. Online gaming still wasn't very popular, not for DC owners, and not for those waiting for PS2. Broadband has grown from next to nothing since 1999.