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300,000 Pre-orders And Counting!
The
demand for Dreamcast keeps climbing. Can Sega Keep up?
August 30, 1999
Earlier
today, Sega America announced the latest pre-sale numbers for the
Dreamcast, which have now climbed to over 300,000 units! While
expected, we here at IGNDC are amazed by this astonishing
achievement. Set to bring in almost $45 million during the first 24
hours at retail, the Dreamcast will easily surpass the current
record holder Star Wars: The Phantom Menace at $28 million.
Speaking on behalf of SOA, senior vice president of sales Chris
Gilbert stated, "Consumer demand for Sega Dreamcast continues to
accelerate at an astounding pace. The unprecedented 300,000 pre-sell
order solidly positions Sega Dreamcast to break every sales record
in entertainment history on 9-9-99."
Retailers such as Ames, Babbages, Bust Buy, CompUSA, Electronics
Boutique, FuncoLand, KB Toys and Toys 'R Us have all helped Sega in
their quest for success by promoting the machine earlier on in the
year. Available at more than 15,000 storefronts across the country
at launch, Sega expects to sell more than 400,000 systems in the
first 30 days, one million by December 31st and 1.5 million by March
31st, 2000.
This can be seen as nothing but good news to Sega fanatics
looking for signs towards a positive future for the Dreamcast. Over
at Sony and Nintendo however, this piece of news will hardly
brighten their day. In fact, we've no doubt they're planning
something of their own to try and prevent consumers from splashing
out on the 128bit console. In all honesty though, it may be too
little, too late with recent price drops doing little to stop Sega's
momentum going in to launch.
The question remains, however, as to whether or not Sega
themselves can continue to withstand the high level of consumer
demand, as many specialty retailers have refused to take additional
pre-orders for the system for fear of the inability to fulfill them
come September 9th. Regardless, we'll keep you posted on all the
latest regarding the launch, so be sure to check back for full
coverage starting early next week.
-- Matthew Langan,
IGNDC
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