Sega expects to sell 6 million by March 2001

NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Sega Enterprises Ltd. expects to sell six million Dreamcast video game consoles in North America by March 2001, as the company prepares for a new generation of video games from Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. to challenge it, a company spokesman said.

``This will be a fully sustainable business model and provide for a healthy revenue stream,'' said Charles Bellfield, director of marketing communications for Sega of America's Dreamcast.

As of the end of December Sega had sold more than 1.5 million Dreamcast consoles in North America since its launch on Sept. 9, 1999.

Sega struggled in the mid-to-late 1990s as its Sega Saturn console lagged behind Sony's Playstation and Nintendo 64. Sega scored a success in the early 1990s with its Sega Genesis video game console.

Sony is introducing PlayStation 2 in Japan in March and will introduce it in the United States in September.

``We'll be very aggressive in protecting our market share,'' Bellfield said.

When asked if it would mean that Sega would cut prices, Bellfield responded that the company would maintain its share through ``programs and marketing.''

After Sega introduced Dreamcast in September 1999, Sony and Nintendo responded by cutting prices on their video game consoles.

Bellfield said one of Sega's advantages is that Dreamcastgames will be able to let players compete from separate locations over the Internet, since Dreamcast is equipped with a 56K (kilobytes per second) modem.

Initially, the modem offered gamers a chance to share e-mail with other players and get game tips from the Internet, but Bellfield said the company expects its online multiplayer function to be widely available by fall.

Sega's Chu Chu Rocket game is the first video game console to offer online multi-player gaming.

Other Sega games include Space Channel 5, a game directed at girls; Seaman, which features a half-man, half-fish character that gamers can communicate with via microphone; and Shenmue, an adventure game that has almost film-like qualities with over 500 characters and a mystery/revenge-based story line.

Sega is also releasing auto-racing based games and a hockey game to supplement its football and basketball sports games.

News by: Ryoni Schouten

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