mad2,
From Reuters regarding Sega Launch.
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Sega Ready For Its Biggest Stakes Game
By Therese Poletti Sep 6 12:18pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Last month, Sega of America flew a plane with a banner advertising its Dreamcast console at tee time over a golf tournament sponsored by rival Sony Computer Entertainment America, while Sega's mascot Sonic the Hedgehog roamed the course in a golf cart.
Peter Moore, senior vice president of marketing for Sega of America tells the story with glee, adding that while the Sony executives smiled a little, the third party software developers and distributors loved Sega's brashness.
``We are no pushover,ïï Moore said in an interview at the U.S. arm of Sega Enterprises Ltd. in San Franciscoïs Multimedia Gulch. ``We are a smaller company, very focused on who we are ... They (No. 1 Sony) donït take us seriously. When you start dismissing people, the happier I am.ïï
Indeed, Sega the underdog -- with barely a No. 3 position in the $6.3 billion video game industry -- is aiming to prove it is a force to be reckoned with, as it prepares for its highest stakes game yet, with the launch of the Dreamcast.
On Sept. 9, the Dreamcast, Sega's next generation video game system, the first 128-bit console and the first to have built-in Internet access, will hit retail stores. Sega is spending $100 million on marketing, including sponsoring the MTV Video Music Awards and midnight madness events at retailers in five cities around the United States.
``I think itïs going to go very well,ïï said Sean McGowan, an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. ``They have certainly sold more than I thought they would ... Everything that could go right is going right. A year ago, you would have bet that Sega wouldnït get this far.ïï
Sega has received 300,000 pre-orders for Dreamcast, which will retail at $199, surpassing the initial pre-orders for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation. The company also now has 18 gaming titles at launch, a key ingredient that it hopes will help it prevent some of its past mistakes.
Its much-touted launch in Japan last year was lacking in software titles, and sales have underperformed. In April, Sega reported a $378 million loss for the year ended March 31. Sales of the Dreamcast in Japan fell short of expectations and were not enough to help the company out of the red.
But for now, the Dreamcast has a one-year head start before next generation systems come to the United States from both Sony and No. 2 console maker Nintendo Co. Ltd., in time for the holiday shopping season of 2000.
``The only thing that will draw attention away from it is when Sony announces the PlayStation 2 in Japan,ïï John Davison, editor-in-chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly, said.
Davison was referring to Sony's plans to make an announcement before a big Tokyo gaming show on Sept. 13, to unveil pricing, the availability date and the name of its new system, which is currently referred to as PlayStation 2.
Sony and Nintendo both cut the prices on their older systems to $99, as they prepared their own marketing attacks against the Dreamcast system, which boasts faster graphics and more lifelike movements, which can be seen by the players in the football game Sega NFL 2K and the basketball game, NBA 2K.
But even with 18 titles at launch, like Sonic Adventure, a super fast game that has the famous hedgehog racing through worlds of ice, mystic ruins and casinos, the Dreamcast faces formidable competition from the dominant Sony.
Sony is making its new system ``backwards compatibleïï so that all the current Sony games will run on its new system. And the new PlayStation, which has a chip called the Emotion Engine, has gotten rave reviews for its graphics, most recently after a demo for chip designers at a technical semiconductor conference at Stanford University last month.
While most analysts believe Sony will stay on top, a successful launch of Dreamcast in the United States could restore Sega and get it back in the video game market, where it has mostly been absent since the 1995 flop of the Sega Saturn.
``If Dreamcast fails miserably, it could really hurt the company,ïï McGowan said. ``If it succeeds wildly, it will give them something to compete with in the next few years.ïï
The feisty Sega, however, points out that a company in the gaming industry can easily jump from No. 1 to a has-been.
``You can be a leader one day and yesterdayïs news the next,ïï Moore said. ``We were once 50 percent of the market,ïï he added, referring to Segaïs reign with its Genesis system in the early 1990s.
``Sega is purely a gaming company,ïï Moore said. ``We donït have some dark plan to rule your living room ... We want to reconnect with the hard core gamer.ïï
``Their attitude is perfect,ïï Electronic Gaming Monthlyïs Davison said. ``They want the 17-year-old boys. That is the market to start with. They are not messing around with anyone else. Once they have got that market sewn up, they will look elsewhere.ïï
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I think Sega has a real winner here. Sony will be very hard pressed to come up with a better system without going outside the $200.00 price barrier. Should be interesting to watch the whole thing unfold...meanwhile, all this attention to the industry can only help Electronics Boutique to grow sales and earnings.
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