PAL launch delay: what impact did it have?

[rjay63]

I've just downloaded a scan from a Dreamcast magazine (circa Oct 1999) that mentioned the PAL launch had been delayed. Now this reminded me that when I first heard news of the hold-up, I thought to myself "the UK Dreamcast is already dead". While I may have been overreacting, my thinking was that due to past errors with Saturn, Sega Europe needed to make sure the DC launch was perfect to keep retailers and potential customer's happy. So when the delay was announced I felt they had already blown their chance of success. The magazine even states "This delay is a serious loss of face for Sega Europe, particularly as Dreamcast launched on time in the US, and will not help the company's reputation amongst publishers and retailers"

It would be interesting to hear other people's views on how significant this delay actually was.

Many thanks

[CD AGES]

This is one really good topic! Always wondered this myself considering that the US launch was quite successful in its own rite. As a matter of fact, it seems that the system only had a great launch in the US as the launch in its native japan was also a disaster due to a lack of good software and major console shortages!

[Neohound]

I think the delay was only a couple of weeks? I think it involved trying to get the network stuff sorted in readiness for launch.....although I'm not sure how, as it was non-existent at the time ! lol But maybe not a disaster in itself. There were PLENTY more cock-ups by Sega Europe that overshadowed the launch delay.

[DCUltrapro]

it was literally 2 weeks, I remember because I had been waiting for the Dreamcast for 18 months and when it finally came to the release day it was still an absolute success, the store I went to to pick mine up was rammed out the door and round the corner. It was pretty upsetting having to wait another 10 days or more but I don't think it had MASSIVE impact, still back then I wasn't all that aware of things like that on the internet, I just wnated my little white box!! cool topic

[mazonemayu]

still back then I wasn't all that aware of things like that on the internet, I just wnated my little white box!! cool topic

there was no internet back then

well, there was; but most folks couldn't afford it or there was no cable
besides, I never liked the idea of having to wait 2 days for a single mp3 download to finish

[DCUltrapro]

lol, back in those days we only had my dads crappy pcs that he would bring home from work which were about 4-5 years old or more, I remember we had what you call an Apricot, back when the processors were messaged by "_86" I think his computer was a 286? And on dial up internet... well, lets just say it took an incredible amount of time to download my cindy crawford topless pics!! Needless to say I eventually started earning my own money and bought a pc for myself which was new but I was into the whole info about what was going on out there, I only became aware of the community for consoles and DC in particular after it died.

I'll never forget the first day I got my little white box.... great days

[elmagicochrisg]

still back then I wasn't all that aware of things like that on the internet, I just wnated my little white box!! cool topic

there was no internet back then

well, there was; but most folks couldn't afford it or there was no cable
besides, I never liked the idea of having to wait 2 days for a single mp3 download to finish

Let's see, what movie do I wanna watch next weekend?...

Better start downloading. It's already tuesday...

* 5 days later *

That's not Predator II. That's a fucking low quality porn movie.

Nooooo !!!

[DCUltrapro]

lol, its amazing HOW bad the internet was back in the early-late 90's, I remember first getting to use it on my dads old pc, it would LITERALLY take 10 minutes to download a photo, I used to sit there watching the picture spool and it would literally be a case of each line loading, and the picture would get a bit bigger and... eventually... I would see a nipple!! lol

anyway I think in terms of the consoles face in the EU it probably didn't do much no, but I don't think the public noticed much on the whole , the ones that wanted it badly enough were happy to wait and the rest, the majority as it seems, didn't care as they were waiting for the PoS2

[cloofoofoo]

lol, its amazing HOW bad the internet was back in the early-late 90's, I remember first getting to use it on my dads old pc, it would LITERALLY take 10 minutes to download a photo, I used to sit there watching the picture spool and it would literally be a case of each line loading, and the picture would get a bit bigger and... eventually... I would see a nipple!! lol

Try playing a mmo with a celeron 700 with 64 mb ram on dial up.Thank god once 2001/2002 came around I was able to get a pentium 4 with 512 mb ram(or was it 256? I cant recall) with a radeon 9250.Not to mention mci dsl which was also a god send.I dont think even the pc version of PSO v2 would even run on the celeron pc lol.

[DCUltrapro]

lol yeah I remember my first machine came with a PATHETIC 256mb ram out of the box!! I was well pissed at Dell when I found I could upgrade it to 2gb, I spent 600+ quid on that machine and even had to pay the interest on finance. Before I got my dell I had an old Compaq Deskpro with a whooping 2gb harddrive and windows 98se lol, god those were bad days