We’re discussing console play multiplayer, which generally involves things like signing into servers for matchmaking

The Dreamcast allowed point to point networking, which is radically different.

This isn’t some weird definition I made up, this is the context of the thread. I don’t know why it’s so important to you keep to flailing toward being right here but this is just a meaningless discussion at this point

Dreamcast had no servers to play from. It has an internal modem. So yes, that’s not what we’re talking about and doesn’t count

Do you understand the difference in that technology? Genuinely asking here - do you know what a modem is?

Xbox live was absolutely a paid service

At E3 2002 Microsoft unveiled its plans to establish an online gaming service for the Xbox called Xbox Live. The membership fee was set at $49.99 a year, which is what it still costs today. Microsoft was adamant about getting users online quickly and easily

Dreamcast doesn’t really count as it was more of just a modem, and PS2 initially had no online capabilities. I still get wistful over what Dreamcast could have been.

Nevertheless, due to lack of widespread broadband adoption at the time, the Dreamcast shipped with only a dial-up modem while a later-released broadband adapter was neither widely supported nor widely available. Downloadable content was available, though limited in size due to the narrowband connection and the size limitations of a memory card.[23] The PlayStation 2 did not initially ship with built-in networking capabilities

You’re fuckin weird man.

I assumed that someone reading this conversation would apply context and thus understand what I was talking about.

The issue there is that the game co-op always goes through their servers.

Games that don’t run their multiplayer that way don’t have this issue, but as multiplayer continues to transition to remote play rather than couch co-op it will likely continue to spread.

This came to be because people would hand discs to their friends who would then copy the disc and hand it back, resulting in widespread stealing of the game.

People don’t generally photocopy books to give to others

Apparently I hadn’t realized what a golden age I had lived in when something like free multiplayer gaming was just a standard thing

This was literally never a thing on consoles, so maybe that’s the issue?

Multiplayer gaming was and generally still is totally free on PC, but consoles don’t have the infrastructure to pull from and have charged since they launched the feature.