History of Sega in Greece
From Sega Retro
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History of Sega in Greece |
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Official Sega distributor(s): Tenko (1989-1992), Zegetron A.E. (1992-present) |
The Sega Master System went to Greece for the first time in late 1989, with 30 games released as launch titles[1], distributed by Tenko. They launched a marketing campaign in video game magazines and consoles could be bought from few resellers like Third Wave, Omni Shop etc. The first Mega Drive consoles unofficially appeared in Greece in 1990. These were the Japanese versions sold by the Athens Club. The company advertised them in a few Greek magazines.[2]
In 1991, Tenko changed their name to Interia and formed the Sega Club.[3][4] In 1991, Sega competed in the Greek market with Nintendo, which entered the market thanks to Itochu Hellas, earlier, the NES and Game Boy consoles could be purchased from import. This year, Interia released new Sega consoles, such as Mega Drive, Master System II and Game Gear. In Summer 1992 first unofficiall Mega CD I appeard in Greece by Athens Club witha price of 120 000 GRD.
Zegetron has been the distributor of Sega since the end of 1992.[5] They launched many marketing campaigns such as Που είναι το Sega μου?, Ο κυριαρχος του παιχνιδιου and Ζητήστε τη Κριση Εγγύηση. Thanks to a successful ad, Mega Drive has become the most popular 16-bit console in Greece. In the spring of 1993, Amstrad Hellas released the Mega PC and in November 1993 the Mega CD II was released. The following year, another advertising campaign was launched called Απο σενα πιο δυνατο and the Multi Mega was released in October 1994 and Mega Drive 32X in December 1994. Zegetron also launched Greek version of Sega Hotline called Sega Power Line.
In December 1994, local importers began to distribute Sega Saturn with asking price of 290 000 GRD. Officialy Saturn was released in Autumn 1995. As before, various types of marketing campaigns were conducted, including Δεν Παίζεις, το ζεις. In Greece, the older Sega consoles were still very popular. Tectoy's Master System III Compact along with some Tectoy games were imported and sold here and Sega itself said in May 1996 that it would continue to support Mega Drive sales in Greece.[6] In 1997, the Sega Power magazine was launched for owners of Sega consoles. In Jaunary 1998, Pixel magazine published interview with Pantelís Spanós, who said that Sega is still popular in Greece and Zegetron sold in Christmas 12 000 units of Saturn, 8 000 units of Mega Drive and 5 000 units of Master System.
Sega Dreamcast also went on sale in Greece in late 1999.
Zegetron continues to sell Sega games in Greece.
References
- ↑ File:Pixel GR 060.pdf, page 81
- ↑ File:CG GR 3 Mega Drive advert.jpg
- ↑ File:Pixel GR 072.pdf, page 45
- ↑ File:User GR 19.pdf, page 93
- ↑ http://www.zegetron.gr/about/
- ↑ 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/