Press release: 2000-03-15: Sega Sports to Sponsor Sixth Annual NHL Breakout 2000 Tour

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English third-party Original source: The Free Library

Sega Sports to Sponsor Sixth Annual NHL Breakout 2000 Tour; More Than a Quarter of a Million Fans Expected to Attend and Compete in Tour.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2000

It's that time of the year again -- put your winter coat in the closet and your ice-skates in a locker -- NHL Breakout(R) 2000 Tour is back and, along with Sega Sports(TM), is coming to a town near you.

This highly anticipated National Hockey League(R) amateur street and in-line hockey skating competition kicked off February 26 in South Florida, home of the NHL's Florida Panthers(R). The tour will hit 22 NHL cities around North America through September and culminate with a championship round in January of 2001 at Downtown Disney, part of the Disney World(R) Resort in Florida.

Fans longing for traditional ice-hockey while at NHL Breakout 2000 Tour can find all they're missing in the Sega Sports tent with "Sega Sports(TM) NHL(R) 2K" for the 128-bit, Internet-ready Sega Dreamcast(TM). This all-new Sega Sports game will whisk fans away to their favorite NHL arena, immersing them in a true-to-life hockey game environment.

Everything from the cheers of the crowd, the reflections on ice and the occasional friendly scuffle make this game as realistic as it gets. Six interactive Sega Dreamcast game kiosks will travel with the NHL Breakout 2000 Tour, bringing the most life-like hockey videogame ever created to more than a quarter of a million people throughout North America.

NHL Breakout(R) 2000 will be played in NHL CoolAir(TM) state-of-the-art inflatable rinks surrounded by instructional and interactive hockey exhibits. The tour runs through September 2000. For a complete tour schedule and more information on related activities, visit www.nhl.com/hockeyu/breakout.

About Sega Dreamcast

Sega Dreamcast is available in the US with a built in 56K modem, allowing for full Internet functionality through the Sega Dreamcast Network, including chat, e-mail, web browsing and online gaming. Content for the Sega Dreamcast Network is provided by Sega, Excite@Home and IGN.

The system's preferred Internet service provider is AT&T WorldNet Services, the quickest and easiest way to take the system online. Sega Dreamcast currently has more than 40 titles available. Third-party titles currently in the works will bring the total Sega Dreamcast game library count to more than 200 in the year 2000.

Sega Dreamcast's advanced 128-bit architecture makes it the first console with evolutionary capabilities, allowing it to grow and change to match advances in technology and the needs and desires of the consumer. Sega Dreamcast is also the most powerful video game console ever created. It is 15 times more powerful than a Sony PlayStation(TM), ten times more powerful than a Nintendo(R) 64 and has four times the graphics processing power of the fastest Pentium II processor.

In the first 24 hours of availability, Sega Dreamcast netted over $97 million at retail, more than tripling the past entertainment industry record set by Star Wars: The Phantom Menace at $28 million on its first day. In its initial four days, Sega sold a total of 372,000 Sega Dreamcast systems, easily surpassing the previous industry record holder, Nintendo 64, which took six days to hit 350,000 when it launched in 1996. In the first 13 days at retail, Sega Dreamcast sold more than 514,000 units. Since it launched, Sega Dreamcast has sold more than 1.5 million units, beating sales milestones set by other high-profile consumer and electronics products such as Tickle Me Elmo(TM) and Apple's iMac. Sega estimates that the company will sell 2 million units by the end of March 2000.

About Sega

Sega of America Dreamcast, Inc. is the arm of Tokyo, Japan-based Sega Enterprises, Ltd. responsible for the development, marketing and distribution of Sega videogame systems and videogames in the Americas. Sega Enterprises, Ltd. is a nearly $2.5 billion company recognized as the industry leader in interactive digital entertainment media, offering interactive entertainment experiences both inside and outside the home. Sega of America's World Wide Web site is located at www.sega.com.

Note to Editors: The NHL and NHL Breakout are registered trademarks and NHL COOLAir is a trademark of the National Hockey League. NHL and team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams.

For more information about the National Hockey League, visit www.nhl.com

Officially Licensed Product of the NHLPA. NHLPA, National Hockey League Players' Association and the NHLPA logo are trademarks of the NHLPA and are used, under license, by Sega of America.

For more information about the National Hockey League Players' Association, visit www.nhlpa.com

Screen shots of Sega Sports NHL 2K are available at ftp://ftp.accesspr.com/public/sega
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