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Hardware: Online Arena

2002 video game

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ5656370 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hardware: Online Arena was a 2003 online multiplayer vehicular combat video game developed by London Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It was released alongside the launch of online play for the console and was thus the first online game for PlayStation 2. Gameplay was focused on vehicular destruction using varying means such as missiles, lasers and machine guns. The game's commercial performance was initially modest until it was added onto the network access disk that came with the purchase of the network adaptor and, as a result, the game had become one of the three most popular games played online in 2003, having over 200 users online at any time. GamesMaster said the game was, "A great indicator of the shape of things to come for PS2 online."

A spin-off game on the PlayStation Portable was released in 2005 under the name Fired Up. A PlayStation 4 game based on the original called Hardware: Rivals was released as a PlayStation Plus exclusive beta on the PlayStation Network on 29 September 2015.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Hardware: Online Arena” is 2002 video game. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Hardware, Online and Arena, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2003, 2005, 2015—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2002-11-07. For this dossier, Hardware, Online and Arena is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2002 video game” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5656370. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2005 and 2015.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hardware: Online Arena”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hardware: Online Arena primary sources, Hardware: Online Arena archive and Hardware research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hardware: Online Arena”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hardware: Online Arena” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.