Sega Dreamcast Readies Cable

On Monday, Sega of Japan announced that it would provide cable modem connection service to Dreamcast users. Sega has acquired help from more than 30 cable TV companies in Japan, including Jupiter Telecom, Titus, Kansai Multimedia Service, and KDD Media Net - all of which cover more than 70 percent of the cable-TV market. Similar to acquiring a cable modem connection here in the United States, Dreamcast users will need to have cable TV wire connections set up in their home and purchase a cable modem and the Dreamcast CATV Adapter Set. These will only be available through Japanese cable companies in Japan at this point.

For modem Internet play in games such as Capcom's fighting series, there has been talk about future compatibility issues. With the release of the Dreamcast ZIP drive, digital camera, and Sega Genesis/Turbo Grafx-16 software-distribution service coming up, Sega is taking the initiative to implement network compatibility for console systems, while Square is still building up its own Play Online network in 2001.