Samba de Amigo maracas to be produced in limited quantities?

[08.21.00] » Sega spares the plastic and spoils the game.

   According to import retailer NCS, Sega of America may be shorting eager Samba fans this October. Reports are coming in that Sega only plans to manufacture 30,000 copies of the game, which is disappointing but understandable. The truly criminal part is the production run for the maracas: 10,000 sets, no more, no less.

   If Sega intends for Samba de Amigo to act as a kind of test run for releasing other, quirkier games into U.S. market, they are only setting themselves up for disappointment. Many who buy the game will want to purchase more than one set of maracas, for two-player gaming. It would only take 5,000 of these customers to use up all of Sega's planned run. Everyone else would have to make do with the controller, a vastly inferior way of playing.

   The decision has been made, but it's not hard to see the self-fulfulling logic Sega is employing here. By underproducing the game and maracas, its resulting poor sales will justify their worst fears about releasing a music game in the first place. It's a short step from there to "Nobody buys those music games--we better not make too many of them." The next chance to vote for music games with your wallet may be the Konami's upcoming Dance Dance Revolution--pray that they don't fall victim to a similar line of thinking.