More fodder from the rag's
mad2
Copyright 1999 Phillips Business Information, Inc.
MMWIRE
September 10, 1999
SECTION: Vol. 6, No. 175
LENGTH: 558 words
HEADLINE:
Hardcore Gamers Line Up for Dreamcast Launch
BODY:
After months of waiting, hardcore gamers across North America
rushed to retailers, some of which opened at midnight, to pick up
their pre-ordered Dreamcasts.
We managed to roll out of bed early to visit a Baltimore-area
Electronics Boutique [ELBO] store at its 7.30am opening. About 30
weary gamers lined up at the store's checkout counter to plunk down
their cash for the system, games and accessories. Not all of the
expected 18 launch titles were available at the store, most notably
Namco's Soul Calibur, which many reviewers are calling the "system
seller." Another title due for the launch date that was missing from
EB's shelf was Red Storm Entertainment's Rainbow Six. One gamer
expressed his disappointment at the fact that there are no RPG titles
at launch, but did say he was looking forward to Shen Mue, due this
fall. An EB employee told us the rest of the launch titles would
arrive today.
However, most customers were excited to pick up their machines.
The majority of the people we spoke with said they did not purchase
Saturn when it launched, due to the $400 price tag and few launch
titles. Most agreed this launch is Sega's best, with the problems of
the Saturn launch nonexistent yesterday.
Shortly after noon, we paid a visit to a Washington, DC suburban
mall. There, EB and Babbage's had long since run out of available
units (this EB's 255 units were all spoken for in August, while
Babbage's reserved the last of its 146-unit allocation last Saturday).
EB promised mmWire a unit in the next shipment, due Sept. 24, while
Babbage's was unable to promise a delivery date. Additionally,
Babbage's had not received a single copy of Sega's NFL 2K, but had
sold 40 copies of Soul Calibur, its best-selling title of the day. EB
did receive copies of the NFL title, and had sold a copy for almost
every one of the 110 DC pre-ordered units it had sold by noon. It
expected to sell out of Soul Calibur by day's end.
We fared somewhat better at KB Toys (sold out of units, but
promising more within 7 days) and Sears (it had only seven units to
begin with, and had not sold a single one by early afternoon).
While the lines at game stores might please the Sega brass, in
the end it's the mass market consumer that makes or breaks the success
of a console, says Fairfield Research President Gary Gabelhouse. His
July survey of 4k consumers showed only 13% were aware of Dreamcast.
Additionally, the survey showed a 47% and 29% brand awareness for
PlayStation 2 and Dolphin, respectively. Additionally, the survey
showed only 1.1m people intend to purchase Dreamcast in its first
year.
"Sega has to clearly differentiate and give gamers a reason to
purchase a new system, when in all likelihood gamers are content to
play the quality titles on PSX and N64," Gabelhouse says.
We got our hands on NFL 2K yesterday. On the evidence of a 20-
minute test, it's a Madden-killer. We especially liked the play
selection option on the VMU, and the seamless play-by-play. However,
our Web browser experience was slooow, although we set it up without
problems (a keyboard is a must, though). However, a few worrying
messages are emanating from newsgroups about defective browser
discs...(Fairfield, Gary Gabelhouse, 402/441-3370)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 1999
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