Steepler

https://segaretro.org/images/a/a9/Steepler_logo.jpg

Steepler
Founded: 1991
Defunct: 1996
Headquarters: Russia

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Steepler was video game distributor in former USSR countries.

History

1991-1992

The company was established by Andrey Cheglakov, Maxim Selivanov, Vladislav Undeyev and Rustem Ahiyarov in 1991. Become an official HP distributor in the country.

In 1991, Victor Savyuk heard about the existence of Nintendo which was the leading video game producer in the world. He decided to import counterfeit consoles from Asia and start marketing them in Russia. In 1992 he started looking for a company in Moscow that would be able to do so. He came across Steepler, whose founders he once knew. The company was doing well then and had the money for such a risky venture. At that time, the first Famicom clones in Russia could be found along with the original NES consoles at local distributors, which is why Savyuk wanted to invent, register and promote his own brand. The new console was named Dendy and the logo was created by Ivan Maximov. At the end of the year, console sales began and its TV advertising began.

1993-1994

Sales from December and January confirmed expectations and the console sells well, however, in the following months it did worse. The main problem was that the models imported by Steepler were already outdated. That is why a new model was presented, which was much better accepted. Expansion into other territories of the former USSR began and in autumn 1993 Steepler celebrated the great success of the company. The growing popularity of the console contributed to the creation of Video Ace Dendy magazine.

At that time, the company got an offer to promote Sega consoles, provided they resigned from selling Dendy clones. Seeing the popularity of the Dendy, Steepler refused.

At the beginning of 1994, Steepler had already sold 1 million consoles in Russia. They decided that they should move all production to Russia to save costs, which meant that they purchased the Tenzor instrument engineering plant, located in Dubna.

Later the company separated with antoher one name Lamport. In the same year, the competition appeared: Kenga (created by Kenga, imported by Kenmaster and distributed by Lamport), Bitman (by Bitman) and Subor. No one was able to beat Dendy. The sale of Mega Drive (some from an official source, some clones) was also started

Another success was the gaming program called New Reality (later renamed to Dendy: New Reality). The program was broadcast from 1994 on 2x2 and later on ORT.

At the end, the company signed a contract with Nintendo to distribute their products in all states of the former USSR countries.The products were imported from Germany. Super Nintendo and Game Boy were released. Steepler also had the right to sell the original NES console but it did not do that because Nintendo allowed for further distribution of the Dendy console.

1995-1996

Also in this year, Video Ace Dendy split into Great Dragon (independent) and Dendy: New Reality (supported by Steepler.)

In 1996, a new television program called Mir Dendy was created, but it was not as popular as the predecessor.

In mid-1996 Steepler went out of business. The exact reasons were never given. One of many cited are:

1. Problems with sells of Nintendo products.

2. In 1995, the prices of oil fell in which the company invested and many companies broke contracts with Steepler.

3. Problems related to the automation of the Russian State Duma.

Dendy (company)

https://segaretro.org/images/d/d4/Dendy_label_1996.jpg

Steepler
Founded: 1994
Defunct: 1998
Headquarters: Russia

Dendy was establish in August 1994 by Incombank and Steepler. Viktor Savyuk became its general director.

Dendy was the exclusive distributor of Nintendo, Konami, Ocean, Acclaim in Russia and CIS.

In 1995 Dendy became Subor representative in Russia and CIS.

Steepler's fall in 1996 paralyzed Dendy. Most of the time, prices were constantly raised. Despite the fact that there were new products such as Bonza, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Pocket and in some months the sale of the expected amount of goods was successful, the company did not operate the same way as it used to. Of the many dealers in Russia and the CIS, at the very end remained only a few stores in Moscow. It was decided to suspend operations in 1998 during the crisis.

Dom Dendy

Dom Dendy was establish in 1993. At the beginning it was a small retailer shop of Steepler and Dendy. It exist in Russia to this day and sells modern consoles like PlayStation 4 and also some clones of Sega and Dendy/Famicom.