From Bergen county, NJ
Well, I guess that's enough....I think they sold em all. Anyone know what kind of allocation EB will get of the follow on supply. they got 26% of the preorder quanity, but I read somewhere 15000 stores nationwide will be selling and ELBO with they're 550 outlets represents 3.6%.
Mad2
Copyright 1999 Bergen Record Corp.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
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September 10, 1999, FRIDAY; ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A3
LENGTH: 692 words
HEADLINE: GRAB YOUR JOYSTICKS, 'DREAMCAST IS HERE
BYLINE: TERESA M. McALEAVY, Staff Writer
BODY:
"Frantic Quest"may as well have been among the 16 home video game
titles on sale with Thursday's launch of Sega's much-anticipated
Dreamcast console.
Just ask Joe DeSantis, who left his Hasbrouck Heights home about
5:30 a.m. to join more than 60 other electronic gaming enthusiasts on
line at the EBX (Electronics Boutique Express) store in the Garden State
Plaza.
"I just couldn't wait; it's just an awesome system with the latest
technology,"said DeSantis, an 18-year-old who began playing the likes
of Nintendo's"Mario"and Sega's"Sonic the Hedgehog"when he was 9.. He is one of the 300,000 people nationwide that Sega
representatives say paid $ 10 to pre-order Dreamcast, which costs $ 199.99
retail and boasts the most advanced graphics yet in a gaming console. It
beat the previous record of 100,000 pre-orders for the Sony PlayStation
unit.
By noon, DeSantis had picked up the Dreamcast system he has been
waiting for since last September and trekked back to Paramus, this time
visiting Toys"R"Us.
"I needed to get the two-player hookup,"said DeSantis, who figured
he had spent about $ 400 in all after also purchasing a few games at $ 49
apiece. "I'm finally ready to go home to set it up to my 60-inch TV."
Some stores in Passaic County, including Funcoland at the
Willowbrook Mall, opened Wednesday for a special Dreamcast midnight
sale.
"There's a lot of hype because this is Sega's third big system to
date and they did a lot of advertising for it,"said Funcoland manager
Frank Viturello."A lot of people wanted their Dreamcasts early."
Stephanie Mandelbaum's 14-year-old twins were among them. The Fair
Lawn resident began her quest for the unit when she reserved a console
in April. Matthew and Joshua sent her back to the store in May for first
dibs on some of the games designed for the new system.
"Matt put a note on the fridge," Mandelbaum said Thursday of her
latest directive:"Don't forget to go to Toys 'R Us today."
Representatives of the Tokyo-based Sega Enterprises are banking on
that enthusiasm. While the company enjoyed brisk sales when its Genesis
gaming console was released in the early Nineties, the Saturn system it
released four years ago was a flop. The company now holds a mere 1
percent of the U.S. video-gaming market.
"It's a really important launch," said Chase, a California-based
Sega spokesman who goes by one name."When a company's main bread and
butter is their video game systems, sure there's a lot weighing on it."
Chase predicted that Dreamcast would topple the entertainment
industry's record for earning the most money in a day, held by the Star
Wars hit, "Episode One: The Phantom Menace."
"Phantom Menace recorded $ 28.1 million in ticket sales in 24
hours,"Chase said."We're looking to bring in over $ 45 million today."
After spending $ 100 million on a Dreamcast marketing and
advertising campaign, the company, which reported a $ 400 million loss
in revenues at the close of its fiscal year in March, is hoping
consumers will continue to purchase the new 128-bit system long after
its launch.
"We're anticipating huge sales," said Chase, noting that Sega
advertisements would air during Thursday night's broadcast of the MTV
Awards."This system is sophisticated, it's for everyone."
Dreamcast is the first home gaming system with Internet
capabilities. It has a built-in modem so owners can e-mail, chat, cruise
the Web, and download game upgrades. After the start of the new year,
Chase said, they'll be able to play one another on line.
Those offerings, plus being four times as powerful as Sony's
PlayStation and twice as fast as the Nintendo 64 unit, prompted Joe
Dobosz of Wallington to start shopping early.
"I went to Willowbrook at midnight"to get a Dreamcast, said
Dobosz, who stood among a handful of video game fans outside the
Funcoland store in the Wayne mall.
First thing Thursday, the 20-year-old set out for Paramus to
purchase the system's"Ready 2 Rumble"boxing game.
"It's cheaper to play at home than in an arcade,"he said.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO - ED HILL / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER - Stephanie Mandelbaum of Fair Lawn at Toys"R" Us in Paramus buying a Dreamcast video game console for her twin 14-year-old sons.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 1999
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