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Launch 7800 sales/First year sales


Red Ray

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A lot of "historical" modern articles state the 7800 flopped on release, which amkes no sense because the 7800 did turn a profit. Anyone have any link for first year or launch sales compared to the NES and SMS which release same year?

 

It sold pretty well for a little bit, but the caveat is that it sold along with a lot of 2600 liquidation. (Retailers also had trouble distinguishing between 2600 and 7800 titles). The momentum wasn't with Atari, though, as you can tell by the release lineup and how quickly the company 'put it in the bin' the second time. Unfortunate, of course, if Atari had really focused on the 7800 (along with a few relatively minor improvements) rather than split their own part of the market in several directions, they may have at least SURVIVED the NES's dominance.

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  • 1 year later...

Does anyonme have any actual UK sales figurs for the 7800?

 

Atari (i believe) moften used to quote a Mintel Report saying the 7800 along with the 2600, accounted for around 50% of the UK console market (this in late 1980's).

 

But..just what was this report? and did Atari break down that 50% claim into how much was due to 2600, remainder being 7800 etc?

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Did they sell the 7800 worldwide? And what aboutthe 5200. Never seen one in Canada in a store.. Only way is wait 25 years and google/ebay. Did see the game screenshots on 2600 catalog books.

 

Never seen the 7800 or 5200 in the stores in Canada? I bought mine in Ottawa (K-Mart circa 1987 or 8) and saw them there, at Toy City and Toys R Us. Not heavily distributed compared to the 2600jr, but more common than the XEGS, which I only ever saw at Zellers briefly.

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Never seen the 7800 or 5200 in the stores in Canada? I bought mine in Ottawa (K-Mart circa 1987 or 8) and saw them there, at Toy City and Toys R Us. Not heavily distributed compared to the 2600jr, but more common than the XEGS, which I only ever saw at Zellers briefly.

Ok one location in Canada. We just had a woolco in a very small city 35 miles from us that had atari 2600 stuff. Never seen anything else atari ever in stores. Seen sega, nintendo, and tandy in woolco and radio shack. I think everything else like commodore was only seen in the sears catolog. And yes I looked. Every weekend on a saturday we would take a trip for groceries or a military style haircut which I hated cause I wanted long hair to be a rock star in a band I was playing in, but all I could think about was checking out the atari games. Which ranged from 20-40 dollars like expensive games like battlezone, dig dug, and moon patrol.

We would have to travel 160 miles to toys r us which we went maybe once a year. My dad was too busy working to travel. Now amd them would go to the states to toys r us which was only 140 miles to the nearest city. I only seen 2600 stuff there too. But I may possibly not have looked hard enough as was always in a hurry cause games were a waste of time and money(according to my parents)

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Ok one location in Canada. We just had a woolco in a very small city 35 miles from us that had atari 2600 stuff.

 

That would make sense. Even in Ottawa (which is of decent size), it wasn't super easy to find. Lots of places carried Nintendo but only a fraction carried anything Atari and a fraction of those carried the 7800. Also, the game selection varied from store to store. K-Mart had the original Tramiel launch titles but nothing else. If you wanted any of the Activision or Absolute titles, you had to go to Toys R Us. The later Tramiel titles through about Tower Toppler, Crossbow and Dark Chambers you had to go to Toy City for. And any of the subsequent goodies like Scrapyard Dog, you had to buy in the US and bring back.

 

Not easy for a kid on a bike. :-)

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