Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future is the fourth title in the Ecco the Dolphin series. It was released in 2000 for the Dreamcast. Defender of the Future is an entirely new game universe with a story that has no ties to the original Mega Drive/Genesis titles, hence a reboot. Despite being developed by Appaloosa Interactive (the company formerly known as Novotrade International), the team working on Defender of the Future was not the same team that worked on the Ecco games. After the Dreamcast was discontinued in the USA, the game was re-released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2.