Good afternoon, friends. At the end of this weekend, we have an explanation of Thursday/Friday’s SHQ downtime, an explanation of the multiplatform rumors involving Sega, and an explanation of the PS2 launch compared to 9.9.99.
SHQ Downtime: As you may have noticed, late Thursday and nearly all of Friday, Sonic HQ, along with the rest of the Emulation Zone network of sites, was down for unknown reasons. Yesterday, Climax Media, SHQ/Emulation Zone’s parent site, issued a press release, which stated that essentially, the servers were active, but there was no Internet connection for users to access them. The problem was dealt with relatively quickly, and all sites, SHQ included, are back to normal, with no problems.
Sega NOT Going Multi-Platform: Charles Bellfield of SOA said at the Sega Executive Games Summit that he does not know of any first party development teams that are making games for other platforms (those other platforms being the PS2, N64, etc.) This should ease worries among Sega gamers that Sega would try and generate more of a profit by releasing games on rival consoles. Instead, DC technology might be sold to DVD manufacturers, or companies that make ultra-portable devices such as PDAs.
PS2 Launch Stats: Despite many, many problems that Sony had with the domestic PS2 launch, the company managed to nab $165 million the first weekend of release, twenty four percent higher compared to the DC’s $133 million the first weekend of release in 1999. However, Sony was expecting sales of $250 million, and it appears that only 400,000 consoles were sold October 26-29. And, in the TRST Top 20 Overall Software Sales for October 22-28, Madden 2001, the best-selling PS2 title, only managed to make it to #4, compared to Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask’s top spot. Sonic Adventure managed to take the #2 spot overall in the TRST sales charts for September 5-11, 1999.
And that’s your brief history lesson, with all the other news this week. Please join me again next week.