On September 9, 1999, the months of "It's Thinking" ads wound down as the Sega Dreamcast was released in North America. This was truly a launch done right, as even the usually quiet local Babbage's had people lined up out the door. I got out of school at 3:30, and by 4:00 I had my system, along with Sonic Adventure and Power Stone.
This writeup, however, is not about my personal experience. Needless to say, I played a lot of Sonic Adventure and Power Stone. It is about the incredible Dreamcast launch. As poor as Sega's marketing was afterwards, they managed to generate plenty of buzz for the Dreamcast's launch, which was a complete success. The day was pretty easy to remember too, unlike, say, 9/26/96. The Dreamcast also had plenty of games at launch, unlike the afore-mentioned Nintendo 64. 19 games were available at launch.
- Sonic Adventure
- Sega Sports Flag to Flag
- House of the Dead 2
- Hydro Thunder
- Mortal Kombat Gold
- Pen Pen TriIcelon
- Power Stone
- Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
- Sega Sports NFL 2K
- Soul Calibur
- Blue Stinger
- Speed Devils
- Tokyo Xtreme Racer
- Trickstyle
- NFL Blitz 2000
- AirForce Delta
- Expendable
- Monaco Grand Prix
- TNN Hardcore Heat
Of these games, Soul Calibur, NFL 2K, and Sonic Adventure were regarded as outstanding games when they came out, and Power Stone, Tokyo Xtreme Racer and House of the Dead 2 came out to very good reviews. Hydro Thunder, HotD 2, Power Stone and NFL Blitz 2000 were all popular arcade titles who had, to that point, not been ported well until the Dreamcast came out. Lots of racers.
The Playstation 2's launch was, of course, more lucrative, but in my opinion it was of a lower quality. I mean, the Bouncer!?