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Megadude on 18 May 2009
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Zizzla_Rachet said:
Squilliam said:
For the people suggested that Sega invented online gaming, didn't Microsoft give/sell them the software for that online networking? If I recall correctly they designed much of the software and tools for the Sega Dreamcast.

Also the GPU in the PS3 wouldn't exist without the 3rd party collaboration between Microsoft, Nvidia and ATI in defining the direction of the graphics industry and unifying standards.

 

XBAND was an early online console gaming network for SNES and Sega Genesis systems. It was produced by the Cupertino, California software company Catapult Entertainment, and made its debut in late 1994 and 1995 in various areas of the United States. It is the precursor to modern online gaming social networks seen in the sixth and later generations of video games, such as seen with the Xbox Live service.

 

Initially, Catapult Entertainment had a very limited staff and virtually no advertising. Many avid gamers first learned of it via small news articles that were published in the popular console gaming magazines and strategy guides of the day. By January 1996, XBAND network playability had reached practically every metropolitan area in the country, and several rural areas, but there had only been a handful of advertisements published: the most well known of these such advertisements had appeared in gaming magazines, and were directed towards people wanting to be able to play their favorite videogames against anyone, anywhere, at anytime. The actual XBAND modems were carried by a handful of software and video rental chains across the United States. Internationally, the XBAND saw some limited expansion in the Japanese market, and Catapult was working on PC and Saturn based versions of the platform, when they were acquired by Mpath Interactive, and the focus shifted to the online PC Gaming service, Mplayer.com.

I remember XBand but never actually knew anyone who had it.

Personally I don't think online gaming- or many facits of the internet as we know it today- were really viable untill highspeed internet became a common houshold staple.