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| Dreamcast
Sega Rally 2 Status |
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It's rare for a publisher to delay a game so close to it's release date but perhaps we
should have expected it in the case of Sega Rally 2. Sega has officially
pushed the date for SR2 from January 11 to January 28. This gives us a bit more time to
collect pre-orders but it also slows down the Dreamcast train since the software pickings
remain sparse. The irony is that the DC Racing Controller will ship on
time next week but will be compatible with nothing. This does allow our company to bring
in the wheels with sea freight cargo to save a couple of thousand dollars on shipping. NCS
has updated our Dreamcast
pre-order schedule. |
| Pre-order
by simply e-mailing NCS
with your name, address, telephone number and a brief message. We'll confirm pre-orders a
few days before the item arrives. |
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| Final
Fantasy VIII |
| When Final Fantasy VII was released in the Japanese marketplace, it was made
exclusive to convenience stores such as Lawson. This year, the deal remains the same with
Final Fantasy VIII being shipped only to convenience stores. As such, NCS' price for the
game will be higher than normal since the tactic for acquiring quantities of FFVIII will
be hand carrying. This is the method where we contract with a vendor to go shopping at
Lawson for a couple of thousand copies of the game. This adds to the cost of the game and
limits the quantity that we can ultimately source in the critical first few days of the
game's release. Square will eventually supply FFVIII to regular distributors in Japan
during the months of March or April, which essentially kills their business for this
highly anticipated title. Demand for the game will be sated within the first few days of
it's release in Japan as rabid fans wait on long lines to grab their own copy. A stateside
parallel would be when Nintendo only ships Zelda 64 to chains stores such as Electronics
Boutique or Toys R' Us, leaving distributors such as SVG and VLM in the dust. NCS' price
for Final Fantasy VIII (Y7800) is expected to range between US$80 to US$88.
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| Pre-order
by simply e-mailing NCS
with your name, address, telephone number and a brief message. We'll confirm pre-orders a
few days before the item arrives. |
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| More
Best Series releases in February |
Sony has announced five new additions to their bargain priced Best
Series collection of games. The price for each game will be US$33.
| Cool Boarders 2 |
Snowboard |
02/04/99 |
| Rebus |
RPG |
02/04/99 |
| Tomb Raider 2 |
Action |
02/04/99 |
| Let's Make a
School |
Simulation |
02/18/99 |
| Wizardry Llylgamyn |
RPG |
02/18/99 |
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| Yen
Story Continues |
| As expected, dollar buying has come into the forex and the exchange
rate between dollar/yen has improved somewhat to 1/112. Our target remains 1/115 to 1/120
since nothing in today's markets go down forever, especially when politics and attendant
coordination are involved. |
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| Street
Fighter Zero 3 Mook |
| NCS has restocked a limited quantity of Gamest's superb SFZ3 mook.
The recent release of the Playstation version of Street Fighter Zero 3 should
make this mook a valuable tool for trainees who wish to become fighting masters. New
orders are welcome at US$25 per copy. |
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| Candy
Toys |
| We still have a large number of cartons of various Candy Toys
housed in storage. They sit underneath a crush of other cartons that were moved on top of
them when large quantities of Dreamcasts hit a few weeks back. NCS will bring back the CT
feature next week once we unearth the Pokemon and Hello Kitty toys. |
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| Postal
Delays Not Uncommon |
| NCS has noticed that some parcels shipped with USPS Priority Mail
and USPS Global Priority Mail are starting to arrive this week, after being dispatched
during the week of Christmas. If you have still not received a priority mail
package, please expect it this week since there are delays throughout the Postal system. |
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| New
Year, new shipping rates |
| Along with rate hikes from sea freight forwarders, both United
Parcel Service and the United States Postal Service have announced higher rates for 1999.
Every UPS shipping scale will go up about .25 in February and USPS Priority Mail will go
up by .10 next week. Fedex has not announced a hike yet but we fully expect it by
February. NCS will post the new rates when we receive them and are currently integrating
them into our work in progress - the on-line ordering system. . |
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| Capital
Markets |
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Cautiously long S&P futures in this overheated market where the money faucet is
on full thrust. No short positions at this point. It's difficult to be bearish on the
market in the face of massive flows of money buying into the Dow and the key members of
the S&P and Nasdaq. It will take a while to subside. |
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Send e-mail to ncs@escape.com
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