Here’s something interesting…In recent days, it has been no secret that Dreamcast has been enormously benefiting from Sony’s blunders in launching the PlayStation 2, with even Sega of America’s President speaking on the matter.
Recently however, Sega X says that theyve been receiving word that something is not right in the World of Gaming… at least in America, anyway.
Barnes & Noble, owners of Babbage’s Etc., Software Etc., Funcoland, Gamestop, and more, appear to be involved in what could be seen as blackmail. So what do they have to back this? Well, according to them theyve had numerous employees from stores owned by Barnes & Noble, reporting the news that the stores have been told to remove all X-Box advertising, and stop pushing Dreamcast as much. The rest from Sega X’s article:
Sound rather unlikely? Well, we’ve went as far as to quote an employee of Software Etc. on the situation:
When I asked my district manager (about the situation), she said: “It is a company-wide mandate that we are to take down X-Box promotion materials.” When I asked her why, she said that “we have obligations to other companies right now and we don’t need to be pushing the X-Box.” When I asked her if it was because of Sony, she said “That’s possible but I’m not totally sure.”
We’ve been hearing from other sources that Sony have indeed contacted Barnes & Noble regarding the situation.
So, is this Sony showing Microsoft-like bully boy tactics? We’d be surprised if this wasn’t true, after hearing it from so many sources, there has to be one common link. It would be interesting to see if the law comes into play, but until then, we can’t say any of this is concrete.
A good way to find out is to call your local store, or if you go in and see that most X-Box materials have been removed, then it is more than likely the case of Sony. As of this moment, Gamestop.com is still advertising X-box -KP
Source: Sega X