Dreamcast - thanks a million

Sega have announced that their Dreamcast console has now sold over a million units across Europe, with 2.5 million software sales and 400,000 users signed up for their online service DreamArena. Apparently this exceeded their first year sales targets, and with games like "Half-Life", "Quake III Arena" and "Black & White" due over the next few months, the console could see something of a renaissance. Having patted themselves on the back, Sega proceeded to lay into rivals Sony, who are about to launch their own next generation console, the imaginatively named Playstation 2.

"Our timing is perfect, we have a stack of top quality games and new peripherals launching in the next two months, and Sega are poised to take advantage of short supply by the competition", Sega Europe's CEO JF Cecillon told trade mag CTW. "Retailers can be confident that they will have plenty of Dreamcasts and top quality titles for customers throughout the Christmas sales period."

Let's put this into perspective though - Sony are shipping half a million units of their Playstation 2 in Europe ready for its launch day, most of which have already been pre-ordered by eager gamers. Another half million of the consoles are due to arrive in Europe before the end of the year, with two million expected to be in circulation by Spring 2001. But, as Sega themselves point out, although Sony are shipping as many consoles in two months as Sega have in an entire year, this is still likely to leave retailers in short supply and unable to meet the massive demand for the Playstation 2. Which puts something of a dampener on Sega's party...