Trade paper MCV (Market for Home Computing and Video Games) lists some of the pre-order offers for Dreamcast that retailers have been offering. Loyalty Card bonus points and vouchers are one thing, but nobody can match Woolies' offer of a free inflatable chair. Wahey! Some retailers were nervous about demand for Dreamcast outweighing supply. As one senior buyer told MCV, "There won't be many consoles actually on the shelves. More worrying is the peripherals side. There's one controller for every two machines, while the steering wheel is like gold dust." However, a Future Gamer sortie to Dixons revealed that joypads, keyboards and Vibration Units were available in abundance. Couldn't find a bloody console, mind.

"The response from retail has been fantastic." Not a spokesperson from Sega, but SNK's marketing bod Robbie Phillips. He's referring to NeoGeo Pocket which, MCV report, has the support of some 1,500 retail outlets. MCV also report that Nintendo's profits have dipped. Losses are due to exchange rates and the Pokémon delay. Still, another Mario game might perk things up a tad.

CTW (Computer Trade Weekly) lead with the news that Rage have bought DID (Digital Image Design) from Infogrames for Ł5.5 million. In football terms, that's Aston Villa midfielder Steve Stone. DID will remain in Warrington (31 people walked out of DID after Infogrames said the office was moving to Manchester a couple of weeks ago), but could be renamed Rage Warrington. Which has a ring to it. In a funny sort of way...

Take 2 are to take issue with the Video Standard Council's age rating of the Game Boy version of Grand Theft Auto, according to CTW. The VSC reckon it warrants a 15 rating, while Take 2 are adamant it should be in the 11-14 age bracket. "We've tamed the game to enable us to achieve a 12 rating," Take 2's Kelly Sumner told CTW. Clearly, the VSC are concerned that GTA caused such a furore when it was first released.