| Square announced
the final shipping details for Final Fantasy VIII overnight. It has been delayed until
February 11th. The retail price clocks in at Y7800 yen or roughly NCS US$68. FF8 will
contain 4 CDs and will be compatible with the Pocket Station (PDA). Pre-orders are
welcome. |
|
| The Dreamcast is
slated to ship in about a week's time. Still no solid numbers but Sega issued a press
release overnight that stated their sales target of 500,000 shipped DC units before the
end of the year. The goal of 1,000,000 shipped units remains their target for the end of
the first quarter of 1999. The value of the Dreamcast sales are projected at 53.5 billion
yen ending 1Q99. What does this mean if Sega is on track with meeting their sales
estimates? |
| Our view is that
the debut of the Dreamcast will be a muted one, with short supply in the distribution
channel. No one appears to be able to supply in any great volume, regardless of their
relationship with Sega. Suppy will meet demand at stratospheric prices as fevered buying
grips the import market. However, if the debut ships with a meager
150,000 units, it is almost for certain that the second shipment will flood the market (if
it includes 350,000 units to meet the 1/2 million shipped units goal) and drive
prices down. The trick then, is to figure out when the second shipment arrives during
December. Many of our customers have stated that they will wait for the second shipment
since initial DC prices may be very high. More on this tomorrow since final pricing and
quantities for the DC debut will be announced by distributors in Japan tonight. Of course,
we've expected this information for months now but with the release in only a week's time,
we may finally have good news (or bad news, depending on your perspective)
tomorrow morning. |
|
|
Candy Toy
of the Day |
Pokemon
Mini Display $3.00 |
| Neat
little mini-display unit with removable shelves. Includes a
mini Pokemon creature that fits between the shelves for display purposes. A Pokemon
sticker is also included as well as the standard bag of itty-bitty candy. |
|
|
|
| In addition to
SONYPS R-Types Delta, Seven Stars Toushin Guyferd is
also expected tomorrow morning. Both are priced at US$51. |
|
| Please remove
the e-mail address ratnuts@panix.com from your NCS
contact list. The e-mail will go defunct next week and mail sent to that address will
bounce back to you. Our primary e-mail address remains ncs@escape.com.
If the need arises, we will post up our other active e-mail accounts. |
|
| As Zelda 64 nears it's release
date, Zelda merchandising is already being released by NOA: |
| 6" action figure (Link or
Gannon) |
US$7 |
| Bendable keychain |
US$3 |
| Black t-shirt |
US$12 |
| Black baseball cap |
US$10 |
| NCS will
have inventory of the Zelda items tomorrow morning |
|
|
