Sega Dreamcast

The Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト Dorīmukyasuto) was the last video game console made by Sega, and is the successor to the Sega Saturn. The Dreamcast is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles and was released in late 1998, before its contemporaries—the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox.

Sega discontinued the Dreamcast in North America in November 2001 and withdrew entirely from the console hardware business. However, support of the system continued in Europeand Oceania until 2002, as well as in Japan, where consoles were still sold until 2006 and new licensed games continued to be released. According to Bernie Stolar, former President and CEO of Sega of America, the Dreamcast was discontinued because the new chairman of Sega wanted the company to focus on software.

Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast was widely hailed as ahead of its time, and is still held in high regard for pioneering online console gaming—it was the first console to include a built-in modem and Internet support for online play. As of 2010, the console is still supported through various homebrew video game releases.