Sony Computer Entertainment is working hard to strengthen its game development capabilities, and Sega has not been idle during this time, and the withdrawal plan of the Dreamcast console has been rejected, and Shoichiro Iri has to continue with it. It's just that the form is now clear, and there is little hope of simply selling the Dreamcast console directly to increase popularity, and even without the DreamBox128 console, the PS2 from Sony Computer Entertainment alone is enough for Sega to drink a pot.

Since there is little hope of directly selling the Dreamcast console, Shoichiro has to arrange for his subordinates to find a way out, as long as he can seize the last glimmer of hope to expand the market share of the Dreamcast console, he has to try anything. Not to mention, after such efforts, Sega has really found a new way of development - cable TV network.

Previously, more than 1 million users used Dreamcast hosts to access the Internet, including 520,000 in Japan, 280,000 in the United States, and 200,000 in Europe. However, due to the fact that the global sales of Dreamcast consoles are only 4.5 million units (1.79 million units in Japan, 1.85 million units in North America, and 760,000 units in Europe), the potential for further development is not high, and the possibility of driving Dreamcast console sales through network services is not very large.

As one of the countries that developed cable TV earlier, Japan's CATV market competition at this time is still very fierce, but it has a network that is more widespread than Nippon Telecom's Internet, and more importantly, this network also has a faster Internet speed than ordinary telephone networks, as well as a large number of subscribers, such as the 30 CATV companies contacted by Sega, which has 6.5 million users in its hands.

This is 6.5 million users, and there is a convenient network to use, if it can be successfully assimilated into the users of the Dreamcast host, then the popularity of the Dreamcast host is not immediately able to break through 10 million units, if the North American market is more than enough to sell more, and then think of some other way out, as long as the number of global popularity can be more than 30 million units, maybe the Dreamcast host will come back to life, even if it can't grab the first place or something, at least it is invincible。

In order to get the strong support of those CATV clubs, Sega company can be said to have invested a lot of money, not only paid out of its own pocket to build an experimental site for Dreamcast hosts to access the Internet through the CATV network, but also provided 2,000 Dreamcast hosts for free to these 30 CATV clubs, hoping to attract home users to accept the service agreement of Dreamcast hosts and become new Dreamcast host users.

Of course, Sega has a lot more than that, and in addition to arranging for a dedicated CATV connection to the Dreamcast console, they are also working hard to enhance the Internet service of the Dreamcast console. To this end, at the behest of President Shoichiro Irito, Sega launched a strategic plan called "DreamEye".

The so-called "DreamEye" plan is actually a dedicated camera DE for the Dreamcast host, which can realize functions such as video mail, picture mail, and TV phone with the support of dedicated software. When not connected to a Dreamcast host, the DE camera can act as a 310,000-pixel digital camera, and the photos captured can be processed and edited by the dedicated software DreamPhotoun. In addition to features such as video email and image email, Sega is also planning to introduce DE cameras into the game in order to develop games with special gameplay, which is still just an idea.

In order to promote the DE camera, President Shoichiro Iriko also personally went out to perform a live TV call with Shoichiro Sato on the other side of the venue at the product launch conference through a Dreamcast host equipped with a DE camera, although in fact the distance between the two people is not too far, and you don't even need to stand up to see each other if you want, but President Shoichiro Iriko still pretends to perform a "long-distance" video call. To enhance the appeal, he occasionally shows off the special features of the TV and telephone system, such as the ability to zoom in and out of the two sides, the ability to adjust the brightness and volume, the display of the status of the telephone line, and additional features such as mini-games and exclusive message boards to use while waiting.

The performance of President Shoichiro Iriko attracted a lot of people's attention, after all, the TV phone is still relatively novel these days, you can talk directly, you can see each other's faces, and it's also active, which is really rare. Many media reporters took photos while looking at the DE camera placed above the Dreamcast console, and to be honest, they were also curious about this novel technological gadget.

At this time, Nintendo seemed to have fallen into adjustment, and huge changes occurred in terms of personnel, first of all, Howard Lincoln, an old friend of Minoru Arakawa, left Nintendo North America, although Minoru Arakawa took advantage of this to fully control Nintendo North America, but it became lonely, and the position of managing director that he had been holding before was removed by Yamauchi Pu. Yamauchi's explanation for this is that "for the president, the seat of the director does not seem to be important...", which sounds very high-sounding, but Minoru Arakawa sniffs a hint of threat.

"Could it be that it has something to do with that proposal some time ago?" Looking at the appointment notice in his hand, Arakawa really thought: "If you don't do something, maybe there won't be any maybe!"

After adjusting the personnel of the North American branch, Yamauchi began to promote a young man who had only been in the company for two years, and promoted him to the position of Nintendo's executive director, management planning director, and director, and since then he has entered the decision-making circle, and this young man is Satoshi Iwata, who has just been 41 years old.

For the surging network, Nintendo has not been left behind, and they have also launched corresponding network services, but unlike the Internet plan of the Sega Dreamcast console, the relatively conservative Nintendo has launched a membership-based exclusive network service plan, which provides game downloads, online battles and other services, but it is not possible to browse the Internet at will like the Dreamcast console, let alone any novelties such as TV and telephone.

Sony, Sega and Nintendo are not idle, and there are plans for the network in their vision, Zhang Lexing is naturally not far behind, at the end of the second month after the arrival of the new millennium, Oriental Industrial Group and VisualSystem Group jointly launched the DreamBox128 game console exclusive service based on GameLiveNetwork - "DreamBoxLive".

Craig Smallwood is a new generation of gamers, to be precise, he has been playing for less than two years, he started from the computer platform at first, and the most played games are "Thor's Hammer", "Tomb Raider", "Adventure King" and other games, last year he bought a DreamBox128 game console by chance and went home, and has lived a happier life since then, because the game effect on the DreamBox128 platform is far better than that on the computer platform, and he plays more "Tomb Raider" and " King of Adventure is also available on it, and playing with the controller that comes with the console itself, it's a different feeling, especially when pushing the mechanism, sweeping the enemy with a weapon or fist, the vibration feedback from the controller is as if you really touched it.

One day in February 2000, when Craig Smallwood went to the door to check his mailbox in the morning, he found a letter from GameLiveNetwork inside, and when he opened it, it turned out to be a new service launched by GameLiveNetwork, "DreamBoxLive" for DreamBox128 game console users.

According to the letter, the so-called "DreamBoxLive" is actually an Internet-based, exclusive to DreamBox128 game console users, providing a variety of services including game battles, email management, online music, electronic photo albums, etc., among which the game battle also has a unique matchmaking service, that is, the server automatically selects opponents for users, so that users can find partners to play together anytime and anywhere.

"DreamBoxLive" users are divided into two identities: Silver and Gold members, Silver membership is free, anyone who owns a DreamBox128 game console can apply to register as a Silver member. After becoming a Silver member, you can create your own profile and codename, you can create and manage your own friend list, you can communicate with friends through text and voice, you can enter the DreamBoxLive store, from which you can download a lot of paid or free things, including full games, demo games, new game levels, new game characters, new themes for consoles, etc., and even maybe find a lot of classic old games. In addition, the letter mentions that in the future it is possible to use "DreamBoxLive" to enter large online games, such as large online games such as "Cyber Genesis", although these games usually require additional payment.

Gold membership is not free, you need to pay $50 per year (the standard in North America) as a membership fee, in addition to enjoying all the services of Silver members, you can also enjoy some additional services, including access to DreamBoxLive store gold member exclusive resources, you can use the player matching service to find players of the same level to play with, you can use the more functional communication system and friend list system, etc.

Back at home, Craig Smallwood threw the letter in his hand on the table in his workshop, then sat down on the sofa in the corner and began to calculate: "Well, according to my conditions, it must be no problem to apply for silver membership, but do you want to spend some money to upgrade to gold membership? The introduction looks pretty good, and you can use the player matching function, but I don't know if $50 is worth it......"

After thinking for a while, Craig Smallwood made up his mind: "Well, let's try the gold membership first, it's only $50 a year anyway, if not, I won't renew it next year!"

With this decision in mind, Craig Smallwood got up and took the letter, intending to delve into more information about "DreamBoxLive", such as how to sign up for a gold membership, and how playing games on "DreamBoxLive" differs.

Reading it carefully from beginning to end, it really allowed Craig Smallwood to find what he was looking for. Registering as a Gold Member is very simple, you can register by mail, or you can directly log in to the official website of "DreamBoxLive" to register, and then pay $50 by credit card to upgrade your account to the Gold membership level, and finally log in to "DreamBoxLive" through the DreamBox128 game console, activate the Gold member account and the game console online, and then you can enjoy all the services of the Gold Member.

As for playing the game through "DreamBoxLive", it's also very simple. All games that support "DreamBoxLive" are divided into two modes, "full-featured" and "compatible". The "full-featured" game will support all the features of the "DreamBoxLive" platform, allowing players to play against other users, participate in tournaments, and participate in public point rankings. "Compatible" games cannot be played against other users, and only some games allow you to receive chat messages or post leaderboards when you log in to the "DreamBoxLive" system while playing.

At the end of the letter, there is a special reminder that the "DreamBoxLive" account allows you to bind to the most popular chat software ICQ and Hotmail emails, once the binding is completed, "DreamBoxLive" users can send messages directly to friends on ICQ or friends in the Hotmail address book, when someone else leaves a message to you in the "DreamBoxLive" system, even if you can't log in" DreamBoxLive", you can also check the message information through ICQ or Hotmail.

After reading the letter again, Craig Smallwood took out his credit card, turned on the computer, entered the address of the official website of "DreamBoxLive" mentioned in the letter into the address bar of the browser, and called up the "DreamBoxLive" account registration page to start registering......

At about the same time, some major manufacturers on the DreamBox128 platform also held press conferences to announce that they would join "DreamBoxLive". For example, Square Enix unveiled its "PlayonLine" network service plan based on "DreamBoxLive" in front of 10,000 attendees at the "Square Millennium Programme" conference held in Yokohama, Japan.

Square Enix's "PlayonLine" initiative, which is jointly developed by VisualSystem Group and NTT Group, will include online games, as well as music, comics, sports, and even the possibility of in-progress games in related games. The most striking part of this program is the dedicated section of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series, where you can always see the latest game development information and have the opportunity to play the latest demo version. For example, "Final Fantasy 9", which is expected to be released this summer, will release a demo version on "PlayonLine", and the next generation of "Dragon Quest", which is under development, will also release some information such as character design and scene settings at any time.

This is what Hikadahara values most when he learns about the "PlayonLine" plan through the newspaper, and if he wants to know the news of "Dragon Quest" in the past, he can only pay more attention to those game magazines, although he can also see some true and false news, but after all, it is not so timely, and now with "PlayonLine", he believes that he no longer has to worry about it. For this reason, he decided on a membership fee of 6,000 yen a year, and even if it was just to see the latest development information of "Dragon Quest" at any time, he felt that it was worth the ticket price.

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