Echelon (warez)

Echelon is a warez group which specializes in the release and distribution of console games, such as Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 2 ISO images.

Between September 4, 2000 to April 30, 2002, Echelon's Dreamcast division released 188 game titles and 34 other various fixes, tutorials, trainers, and loaders.

In January 2001, Sega announced that the Dreamcast was to be discontinued by the end of the year; this was the end of Sega's last foray into the home console business. Rampant piracy is often cited as one of the major reasons for the failure of the Dreamcast. Echelon was single-handedly responsible for the bulk of pirated games released for the Dreamcast console platform.

In 2004, Echelon was named as a target of Operation Fastlink by the United States Department of Justice.

On December 19, 2001, Echelon released their first of several hundred Playstation 2 titles: Final Fantasy X. As of 2005, Echelon continues to release games for the PS2 platform [1].

References

• Dreamcast
• Kalisto
• The iSO News [2]
• United States Department of Justice press release [3]

External links

• Echelon article on Everything2.