Sega’s having serious production problems with its new Dreamcast console, and will only be able to deliver 50% of its original target number for sales the month and during the all-important holiday season.

Full production will not be possible until February, says president Shoichiro Irimajiri. The game console, which is powered by a 128-bit chip, is critical to Sega’s survival after its previous-generation product, the Sega Saturn, lost out big to Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64. For the past five months, Sega has been priming Japanese consumers with ads that show children telling senior Sega officials: “Sega sucks. We prefer the Playstation,” with the implied point being that Sega officials have heard the message and responded. Mr.Irimajiri says: “Sega may have sucked in the past. But Dreamcast outperforms everything on the market.” Sega Dreamcast will be available in the U.S. and Europe next year.

http://www.sega.com

(? FT)