History of Sega in Portugal
From Sega Retro
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| History of Sega in Portugal |
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| Official Sega distributor(s): Ecoplay (1991-present) |
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In the 70s Portugal was one of the countries where Sega imported its game machines.[1]
Ecofilmes began distributing Sega consoles in Portugal in 1991, starting with the release of Mega Drive, Master System II and Game Gear with every game and console having Garantia Sega Portugal logo to distinguish original from clones and imports. An advertising campaign was launched under the name of É mais forte que tu! and in 1992, Ecofilmes created Clube Sega. In later years, they also distributed the Mega CD and Mega Drive 32X. On the Azores islands, distribution was handled by DisRego[2].
Sega consoles (especially the Mega Drive) were popular in Portugal. Ecofilmes has started importing some titles from outside of Europe such as Mega Man (Game Gear), Jungle Strike (Game Gear), F1 (NTSC Mega Drive) and Dragon Ball Z: Buyuu Retsuden (Mega Drive). They also seem to be the only officially licensed company to provide regional converters for Dragon Ball Z: Buyuu Retsuden's distribution in the region before the French release came out.
Tectoy Master System III Compact was sold in Portugal along with two exclusive Tectoy products not released elsewhere in Europe; Sapo Xule - S.O.S Lagoa Poluida and Game Box Série Esportes. Ecofilmes also exported the same Master System model to Spain. In May 1996, Sega also announced that it would support Mega Drive sales in Portugal.[3] In January 1996, TCI's technology group got the rights to distribute Sega Channel in Portugal, but it isn't known that the service was launched there.[4]
From 1995, Ecofilmes distributed Sega Saturn which got pretty well sells results, beating Playstation and Nintendo 64 in the country. From December 1995 to April 1997, they sponsored CyberMaster TV show. In 1997, due to discontinue of Mega Drive in Europe, Ecoplay released a clone called Mega Game II. The longer life of the Saturn and Mega Drive meant that Ecoplay imported unsold stocks of games from many places of the world, e.g. some later re-releases for the Saturn have the Australian stickers.
They also distributed Sega Dreamcast in Portugal from late 1999. Dreamcast Internet was announced for the year 2000.
Ecofilmes changed name to Ecoplay and continue to sell Sega games until this day.
References
- ↑ File:Sega_Company_Profile_1970.pdf
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKpKNh5MqNc
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210126133559/https://www.cbronline.com/news/despite_runaway_success_of_sony_playstation_sega_still_sees_mileage_in_the_16bit_games_machine/
- ↑ https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/more-sega-channel-prototypes-dumped.25935/page-11#post-833889