Biggest Entertainment Launch Ever?

Sega of America announced on Monday that it has surpassed the 300,000-units presale mark for its Dreamcast console. And according to the company, the system's launch will be the biggest of any console ever. If all goes according to plan, Sega could indeed push 300,000 consoles - probably even more - at launch.

Sega continually alludes to the presale and launch figures of the PlayStation system (which were significantly lower than what Sega is promoting for the Dreamcast) in order to prove how well its launch plan is moving along. However, the company has been decidedly silent about one other recent hardware launch, the Nintendo 64. Nintendo claims that for the launch of its system in September of 1996 it sold 350,000 units in three days - all the hardware it had available at the time (and judging from the insanity of trying to track down systems at the N64's launch, Nintendo could have no doubt sold plenty more). Sega claims it will sell 400,000 units in the first 30 days. So how many does this mean right at the start? If it isn't more than 350,000, then it wouldn't exactly be the best launch, would it?

Nintendo would have sold most of its 350,000 Nintendo 64 units on the first day of launch, but some stores sold early, and some later - the launch was spread out. In fact, that's something that Sega is not taking into account - the DC launch will be similar because it too will feature some stores selling earlier than others. Not only that, but not everyone will pick the system up on the first day. The DC launch will likely also span two to three days as the N64 did.

We'll have to wait and see what the exact figures are when the system launches in ten days.