What if Sega preferred Eternal Champions?/Sixth generation of video game consoles

In the history of video games, the sixth generation era (sometimes called the 128-bit era; see "bits and system power" below) is the era of computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming devices available at the turn of the 21st century, starting on November 27, 1998. Platforms in the sixth generation include consoles from five companies: the Sega Dreamcast (DC), Nintendo GameCube (GC), Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), the Atari Nuon and Microsoft Xbox Next. This era began on November 27, 1998, with the Japanese release of the Dreamcast, which was joined by the GameCube on September 17, 1999, the PlayStation 2 was later joined in March 4, 2000, the Nuon on July 2000 and the Xbox Next on November 15, 2001, respectively. In March 25, 2006, the Dreamcast was among the first to be discontinued. GameCube in 2007, Nuon in 2008, PlayStation 2 in 2013 and Xbox Next was the last, in March 2014. Meanwhile, the seventh generation of consoles started on November 22, 2005, with the launch of the Xbox 360.

The major innovation of this generation was of full utilization of the internet to allow a fully online gaming experience. While the prior generation had some systems with internet connectivity, such as the Apple Pippin, these had little market penetration and thus had limited success in the area. Services such as Microsoft's Xbox Live became industry standard in this, and future, generations. Another innovation of the Xbox was the first system to utilize an internal hard disk drive to store game data. This caused many improvements to the gaming experience, including the ability to store program data (rather than just save game data) that allowed for faster load times, as well as the ability to download games directly from the internet rather than to purchase physical media such as a disk or cartridge. Soon after its release other systems, like the Sony PlayStation 2, produced peripheral storage devices to allow similar capabilities, and by the next generation internal storage became industry standard.

Bit ratings (i.e. "64-bit" or "32-bit" for the previous generation) for most consoles largely fell by the wayside during this era, with the notable exceptions being promotions for the Dreamcast and PS2 that advertised "128-bit graphics" at the start of the generation. The number of "bits" cited in this way in console names refers to the CPU word size, and had been used by hardware marketing departments as a "show of power" for many years. However, there is little to be gained from increasing the word size much beyond 32 or 64 bits because, once this level is reached, performance depends on more varied factors, such as processor clock speed, bandwidth, and memory size.

The sixth generation of handhelds began with the release of the Apple's iPlay, launched in 1999. Nintendo maintained its dominant share of the handheld market with the release in 1999 of the Game Boy Advance, which featured many upgrades and new features over the Game Boy. The Game Boy Advance was discontinued in early 2010. The next generation of handheld consoles began in November 2004, with the North American introduction of the Nintendo DS.

The last official Dreamcast games were released in 2007. The last GameCube games were released in 2007. the last Nuon games were released in 2008. Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 was the last game for the Xbox Next, which was released in November 2013. The last PS2 game, Final Fantasy XI: Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, was released in May 2015, marking the end of this generation.

Home systems
The Sony PlayStation 2 achieved sales dominance in this generation, becoming the best-selling console in history, with over 150 million units sold as of February 2011. The Microsoft Xbox Next had sold over 44 million units as of May 2006, and the GameCube had sold 34 million units as of September 2010. The Sega Dreamcast, which arrived prior to all of the others and was discontinued in 2006, came in fourth with 19.13 million sold.

The sixth generation began to end when the Xbox Next was succeeded by the Xbox 360 in late 2005. GameCube hardware was still being produced when the Wii was released in late 2006, but as of June 2008 had also been ceased. PlayStation 2 sales continued to be strong through to the end of 2010, due to the system's large software library, continuing software support, and affordable price.

In February 2008, the PlayStation 2 outsold both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the United States. Games were still being produced for the PlayStation 2, Xbox Next, GameCube and Dreamcast as of 2008. The PlayStation 2 and Xbox Next were still being produced after the launch of the Wii U in 2012, making the sixth generation the second longest generation of all time.