This has some numbers in it from Sega. assuuming elbo got 80 of the 300, presold (26%) that comes to the 26mil you figured.
Copyright 1999 The Deseret News Publishing Co.
The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT)
September 11, 1999, Saturday
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. WEB
LENGTH: 428 words
HEADLINE: Sega says some games for new Dreamcast console don't work
BODY:
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Sega Enterprises Ltd. acknowledged Friday that some of the software for its new Dreamcast video-game system doesn't work, only a day after the much-hyped system hit store shelves.
Sega spokeswoman Jennifer Walker said that only a small quantity of some of the new Dreamcast games were affected, blaming it on a manufacturing problem.
The games affected were Blue Stinger, Sonic the Hedgehog, Hydro Thunder and Ready to Rumble. The company emphasized the problems were not related to the Dreamcast console.
Struggling Sega has been counting on Dreamcast to vault it back to the top of the U.S. video-game market, and analysts had warned that any problems could be devastating to the company.
Retailers said, however, that glitches weren't immediately impacting sales, which were going quite well. Toys R Us said that all of its 705 stores nationwide sold out of the Dreamcast console on Thursday.
Sega said late Friday that it had recorded $97 million in initial sales of equipment and games on Thursday, easily surpassing the company's expectations.
Sam Kennedy, news editor of the San Francisco-based videogames.com Web site, said that even a minor glitch could be a big problem for Sega.
"They had a lot of hype for this system and they had a great launch up until now," he said. "This may not seem like a big deal, but they can't really afford any problems right now."
Customers quickly noticed that some of their games weren't working, retailers said.
"We started hearing stuff from some of the consumers who had come in at midnight. Their games weren't loading properly. We started making Sega aware of what we were hearing," said Peter Roithmayr, vice president of merchandising of video games at the Electronics Boutique chain, based in West Chester, Pa.
Roithmayr said customers were not very upset.
"It is certainly not a panic thing. We have a small problem and it isn't a hardware issue -- which is good because a hardware problem is a lot tougher to fix."
At Software Etc. in New York City, manager Charles Stanley said several customers have come in to complain.
"We've been fortunate, though. I've heard about lot of problems from people on the Internet and they aren't happy."
Sega said the affected software amounts to less than 1 percent of the games and 1 percent of the WebBrowser CDs, used to help connect Dreamcast users to the Internet. The company said it would send out all new WebBrowser CDs on Monday.
Sega said customers with problems can send e-mail to support@sega.com or call 1-877-383-3291.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 11, 1999
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