Time to break out the party hats, balloons and whatnot – SEGA‘s final console celebrates its 16th birthday in Europe today.
Initially slated to drop on the 23rd of September, but delayed by three weeks to ensure its online components were up to scratch, the Dreamcast nevertheless had a stellar opening weekend on this side of the pond, shifting over 185,000 units. Back then, that was a pretty big deal.
SEGA significantly altered the Dreamcast’s aesthetic for the European market. Not only did they change its iconic swirl logo from orange to blue, but also packaged games in far bulkier proprietary cases, presumably to accommodate the region’s large, multi-lingual instruction manuals. Furthermore, our local marketing slogan was “up to 6 billion players”, as opposed to the “It’s thinking” favoured by SEGA of America.
We’d love to hear your Dreamcast European launch day stories. Were you queuing up at midnight? What launch games did you get? Did you (like me) cut your PlayStation loose in order to get one? Let us know in the comments below.
