200,000 sold to pre-order, and six weeks left until launch - life is good in Sega-land

We knew that the Dreamcast was selling in record numbers to pre-order, but this is downright ridiculous. Sega has announced that the system has pre-sold more than 200,000 units, crushing the previous leading benchmark of 100,000, held by Sony's PlayStation at its launch in 1995. This 200,000 figure comes six weeks before launch, with retailers currently taking an average of 14,000 pre-orders per week for the system.

Chris Gilbert, senior vice president of sales at Sega of America, was enthusiastic about this news, stating "We predicted in April that we would have 200,000 pre-sell orders for the Sega Dreamcast when it launched on September 9. The fact that we have reached that milestone six weeks before launch clearly shows that we have everything the consumer is looking for in their next videogame system - the right hardware, the right price at $199 and the right games to support it."

Sega expects to sell more than 400,000 systems in the first 30 days of release, one million by December 31, and 1.5 million by March 31, 2000. Given the fact that retailers plan to continue with the pre-order campaign up until the launch date, and that Sega's full marketing blitz has yet to begin, we're inclined to believe that the system may be able to meet the 400,000 figure in pre-orders alone. We'll know for sure by September 9th just how well Sega has fared.

Courtesy of IGN.com