Dreamarena

The Dream Arena was the free online service for Sega's final game console Dreamcast and the European counterpart to SEGANet. The Dream Arena was next to the SEGANet also the first coherent online network on a game console, and already existed years before Xbox Live or the Playstation Network. The Dreamcast console was standard with a 33.6k modem and so the legend arena was therefore optimized for modem users. There was a private DreamArena ISP, Viag Intercom over which DreamArena users had to dial automatically. It was opened with the release of the Dreamcast on 14 October 1999 and met with great interest, so that in the early days even the servers were overloaded.

The users were offered on the Internet portal DreamArena own e- mail address, there were competitions, discussion forums, a chat and latest Dreamcast info. Only in mid- 2000 appeared the first online playable game, ChuChu Rocket, which was free for all DreamArena users. This was followed by many other online games, including Quake III Arena and Phantasy Star Online, which were the most popular online games on the Dream Arena. A total of 10 online games were released in Europe. By October 2000, the DreamArena recorded about 400,000 user accounts. Until it closed in early 2003 it reached almost 600,000 registered users. By setting the Dreamcast production in early 2001, the DreamArena lost constant active users. Many NTSC games were therefore no longer even released in Europe, so that DreamArena also lacked powerful new online title. The new edition of Phantasy Star Online in early 2002 could not change the situation. On 28 February 2003, the Dream Arena was closed. Previously, the DreamKey - Browser 3.0 has been released, could finally be selected with a separate ISP and so the online features of the Dreamcast console remained. Although the closure was not the end for all Dreamcast games online, over the course of time the server from almost all games have been switched off. The server of the PAL game, Phantasy Star Online, which was still running on official servers were shut down on April 1, 2007. However, there are many games or private servers where still play some fans.

DCArena.de in the German area and online Consoles: Dreamcast in the English room in which is still organize forums some fans regular online game nights.