Sega's US Dreamcast sales beat forecasts

Sega says its Dreamcast console surpassed expectations in its first four days on the shelves in the US, with sales of nearly $133 million.

Sega sold 372,000 Dreamcast consoles in the US, compared to its estimate of around 300,000. Sega’s sales tills were up to a tune of $132.7 million.

The Japanese giant believes it is now well placed to grab a bigger share of the $6.3 billion games market from arch rivals Sony and Nintendo, who both have competing consoles out next year.

Sega is well placed to storm a lead on its competitors because Dreamcast, which for the first time boasts Internet access on a console, will be out well in time for the Christmas market.

Sony and Nintendo, however, have already slashed the price of their consoles to compete with the Dreamcast and try to keep sales buoyant until their new consoles debut in 2000.

Japanese sales have not reached Sega’s expectations. This has primarily been down to a shortage of chips for the console. Sega claims the situation has now been sorted out and says sales have picked up. Sega has sold 1.3 million consoles in Japan since November and wants to sell more than 4 million units globally by March.

Sony has sold about 70 million Playstation consoles since 1994 and plans to roll out its Playstation 2 in Japan in March. Nintendo has sold more than 25 million of its 64-bit console since 1996 and expects to have a new console out by the end of 2000.