Google killed help for the Dreamcast net browser after 25 years
I do not know something about you, reader. You and I are good strangers. Besides, I do know one factor about you: you didn’t get to this text from a Google search utilizing the PlanetWeb 3.0 browser on a Sega Dreamcast, the best console ever manufactured, as a result of that is not attainable as of this week.
The browser, which launched in 2001 and got here with the console as a pack-in, was in all probability not a well-liked solution to browse Google. I assume it was largely a novelty even when the Dreamcast launched, although it was the uncommon console with an official keyboard peripheral (how else are you going to play The Typing of the Lifeless?) and even a giant MMORPG in its first-party software program lineup.
Unhappy information guys. After over 25 years of help, Google has lastly discontinued help for Dreamcast net browsers. ☹️ pic.twitter.com/3FEKtNWtO1December 14, 2025
Whereas maybe unhappy, this is not the results of some anti-Dreamcast marketing campaign inside Google. As Tom’s {Hardware} put it, “Google closed a PlanetWeb browser compatibility window that had one way or the other remained ajar for a quarter-century.”
It is arduous to pinpoint precisely what occurred and when, although customers on-line are stating it is been like this for some time, and that it is impacted comparable console browsers (the New 3DS’s, for instance). Ultimately, that it labored for this lengthy is extra stunning than the information of it shutting down.
If you want to hook up with the web on a Dreamcast or play one among its on-line video games at this time, not one of the homebrew strategies for doing so are impacted by this modification. It is only a bit tougher to surf the online utilizing the console, however I do not see why you’d care about something the web has to give you as soon as video games like Shenmue and Area Channel 5 are on the desk.