Dear Future Gamer

The reason the DC is being delayed for three weeks is not to do with insufficient hardware, nor insufficient software; all of that is in place. The problem, as most people know, is the Internet access, which is being provided by BT. Now, for whatever reason, this has fallen behind schedule and left Sega with a choice: they can either release the console without Internet access, or delay the launch.

From watching the ads in the cinema, and from what we've all read of press releases and the like, it's obvious that the DC's Internet capabilities are being pushed as one if its major selling points - "up to six billion players" and all that.

Were the console to launch without Internet access, how would Sega let the DC-owning public know when they could use their modems? Not by email, that's for sure. The simple answer is that many people who might have been tempted to use their consoles to get online for the first time would never bother to do so. As you said yourself, they want "everything to be smooth at launch".

I hope this helps to clear the situation and calm the anti-DC factions.

James Dewis

FG: Good points well made, James. Clearly, the machine's Internet capabilities are its major attraction and to release the Dreamcast before last minute creases have been ironed out would be positively suicidal on the part of Sega. Heck, it's only a delay of 21 days.