Sega tell owners: you're going to have to pay for your online gaming in future

The handful of Dreamcast owners that live in Japan received a setback today. Sega of Japan have announced that they will discontinue the free Dreamcast Internet service on April 29, and will be offering a fee-based Internet service instead.

The move is unlikely to boost flagging Dreamcast sales in Japan. The machine has failed to grab much market share back from Sony, even way before PlayStation2 was launched.

Maybe Sega have given up on the enthusiasm of their own country completely - after all, Dreamcast's online capability was one of the features the company flagged so vigorously.

Mind you, UK gamers can't get online gaming on their Dreamcast at all yet...