9 Video Game Innovations That Happened Earlier Than You Think

8. Online Multiplayer - NOT Xbox Live

Actually: Sega's Dreamcast

Xbox don't get anywhere near enough praise for fundamentally and systematically moving video games along. Xbox Live took console gamers online essentially overnight, gave us the likes of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow's Spies vs Mercs mode, and proved that online gaming was not only here to stay, but could become the reason for scores of franchises to exist.

That said, Microsoft weren't the first console company to try proper online multiplayer, and going even further back than Sony's half-baked efforts with the PS2, it was Sega's Dreamcast that tried to change everything.

With a modem built into every system, all you needed was a phone line to play the likes of Jet Set Radio and Phantasy Star Online, online. The game selection was small, but absolute titans of the first-person shooter scene, Quake 3: Arena AND Unreal Tournament, could both be played against others online.

Sadly the Dreamcast didn't catch on and all this was largely for nought. Mainstream console players even caring about first-person shooters didn't happen until Halo in 2001, further highlighting just how ahead of the curve the Dreamcast and some its games were.