Was the Satellaview the precursor to Xbox Live and PSN?

[migo]

The mention of limited # of boot ups for some Satellaview games got me to actually check it out on Wikipedia, and the impression I get is that it's pretty much the same thing, but for the SNES. Is that correct?

[buzz_n64]

Not really, it was more like a radio. You downloaded the games from a broadcast over radio waves, but there was no online game-play until Band X, but that's a different service for the SNES. Most of the Satellaview titles were distributed a piece or chapter at a time. Sega Channel for the Genesis felt more like LIVE, offering full games, but still no on-line game-play.

[mattimeo310]

i would say that the best example of a precurser to psn and xbla would be the dreamcasts online feature think PSO and Unreal tournament.

[garagesaleking!!]

what about the snes xband

[Baloo]

First online playing was through the Xband service, then through Saturn's Netlink, then Dreamcast Online, THEN you get to Xbox live.

The Megadrive Modem and Satellaview weren't really online gaming.

[Kiddo]

When you really think about it, none of the old networking services are quite as "comprehensive" as Xbox Live. While most people in the thread are focusing on the netplay functions, remember that download content is another major part of XBL, and XBand didn't provide downloads, while neither Satellaview or Sega Channel provided netplay. On top of the that, the ease of communication between players XBL has is something only the Dreamcast got close to replicating beforehand.

Basically, it's hard to name any one "Precursor" for Xbox Live, as it's a combination of many network-based services from gaming gens before.

[jb143]

Go back even farther and you you'll find the Intellivision PlayCable Modem which let you download games from your cable service. Still no online play though.