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While Sega of America execs were busy toasting their success, Sega of Europe employees were more likely to be found drowning their sorrows. The official line from Sega boss J.F. Cecillon is that the postponement of the Dreamcast's European launch three weeks until October 14th is "not an issue". Other opinions vary from low-level annoyance to taking the move as definitive proof that Sega are a bunch of incompetent also-rans. The truth is, the delay probably won't matter in the long-run (assuming that the rumors of further delays aren't true), but the whole business is rather puzzling. The reason for the delay is that the console's on-line system is not yet finished. However, the rumor in the UK is that British Telecom (which is responsible for the UK side of things, other European companies being involved in their respective territories) have been telling Sega for months that things would not be ready for September 23rd. What's more, allegedly some of the necessary Dreamcast Internet hardware was only delivered to BT a month ago. So apart from the fact that the whole fiasco may have been Sega's fault anyway, one is left to wonder why they are placing so much importance on the on-line side of things. This is truly puzzling, considering that none of the launch line-up of games are net-playable, and that the network to run that side of things won't be finished until April of next year anyhow. This only leaves sending e-mail and the Web, which, thanks to the lack of free local phone calls, has its own problems in Europe, and is in any case barely mentioned in the Euro-advertising. The only on-line element that is being pushed is the rather odd "6 billion players" slogan, which is nonsense for at least three pretty important reasons. To begin with, 6 billion people is the population of the entire planet, second, it's doubtful that even different European territories will be able to play together, and the network is certainly not compatible with those in either the US or Japan, and finally, as mentioned previously, the whole thing doesn't actually work yet.
Despite being one of the biggest consumers of video games in the world (CDs taste great with a little sauerkraut) Germany has only ever produced a handful of developers at any one time. German developer meets thus tend to be rather lonely affairs if they fail to attract anything less than the countries full compliment of professionals. The USF (Unterhaltungs Software Forum, Unterhaltungs meaning Entertainment) is therefore very keen on ensuring that its second annual developers conference gets as much attention as possible. Following up on last year's successful meet, this year's event is sponsored by Microsoft, AMD, Infogrames, and 3dfx, will include fourteen workshops and seminars, and will feature speakers from the likes of Acclaim and Creative Labs. More than 240 punters are expected to make it to this year's event (four times that of last year), and anyone interested in additional information should contact Alexander Jorias. USF '99 will be held on the 2nd of October at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Hotel in Frankfurt, Germany. |
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News
Analysis 
In
the weeks leading up to the event, it was no secret that 
With
all the hype surrounding next generation consoles, it would seem that
another new machine would be about as welcome as a swift kick to the solar
plexus. So of course, 
Speaking
of ECTS, it seems that its year-after-year growth in attendance figures
will maintain its unblemished record. This year's slightly more sedate
show attracted 21,474, which was slightly more than last year's figure
of 21,297. Of course, last year there were far more semi-naked women and
free booze, which may help you to view this year's figure in a more appreciative
light. According to organizer Miller Freeman, there were visitors from
67 different countries (compared to last year's 55), and everyone stayed
longer, many for the full three days. It was still too hot though.