Dear Future Gamer

Having just read Louise Badcock's letter on the website, I have to say that I sympathise with her. The High Street stores are definitely getting favourable treatment. However, one of the reasons for this is that the High Street stores are selling the Dreamcast at the RRP. Nothing devalues a product more than seeing it discounted at launch, and Sega are as keen as anyone else to avoid this. Unfortunately, the independents need to be able to cost-cut to compete, which creates a vicious circle. Of course, Sega don't really care who sells their console, provided it's sold, so it may as well be the ones that help their image as much as possible. They can't actually actively discriminate as that would be against the law, but they can prioritise a limited supply to their best interests with only a minor bend in the legislation.

Also, it's a sad indication of how little trust there is with regard to things like launch dates. Trusted stores like Electronics Boutique and HMV get their stock in time to set up for midnight openings and the like. The carriers for the big delivery didn't even get the machines until gone midnight on October 13-14, never mind the shops, leaving some stores with small orders clicking their heels on the fateful morning, bereft of Dreamcasts. This is because Sega like their console sold only on or after the launch date and bitter experience shows that independents can't be trusted. This will almost certainly be another reason why the store you refer to has no Dreamcasts yet. The carriers will have to work through their backlog and they just happen to be low on the list.

These additional factors, coupled with the larger buying power of the big guys, means that small independents will always come off second best. That's life in the big bad world of business, I'm afraid.

Michael Foster

FG: It is indeed, Michael. Hopefully Louise would have managed to get hold of a Dreamcast by now.