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But what impresses this gamer most about the PlayStation 2 is what he hears from other game developers. "Everything I know from the industry says the number of games for the PS2 will be astounding," he says. It's going to get "a lot of support," he confides, far more, he suspects, than what the Dreamcast has now.

Still, Sega is not without prospects. In fact, something at Sega is working -- be it the marketing blitz, the gorgeous screenshots of new Dreamcast games like Sega Sports NFL 2K, or the recently hired executives. Sega announced that it has more than 200,000 pre-release orders for the system.

"These are among the strongest pre-sell results we've ever seen, and they do indicate a very high level of demand for the system for this holiday season," says Sean McGowan, an analyst at market research firm Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. And Sega is, at the moment, on track to meet its goals of selling 1.5 million Dreamcast units by March 31, having surpassed its pre-order targets.

"They're doing some things very differently," says McGowan, who credits Sega with having a "dramatically better product than anything else on the market." By going after a broad swath of retailers, rather than the few it targeted with the Saturn, and launching in September rather than May, when kids are getting ready for camp and outdoor activities, he says, Sega is showing that it has changed. Beyond all that, "the price is terrific," he says. "For $199, buyers get the best deal ever on a new system at launch, as measured in 'power per dollar.' And a modem. Finally, the number of titles available at launch and within three months of launch is, perhaps, the best ever."

Yet McGowan sounds a note of caution. "I think the 500,000 to 1 million buyers of Dreamcast in the next six months are people who have been waiting four years for a new video game system, so even if they plan to buy the PlayStation 2, they don't want to wait another year. And they may be just as likely to buy [Dreamcast, and also] PlayStation 2 and Dolphin when they are launched. The real battle is not for the hearts and minds of the first million. It's the next 30 million that matter, and that battle comes after Christmas 2000."

But right now, the next-generation systems from Sony and Nintendo are basically still on paper, and Sega is looking to get hold of gamers early and hook them, long before next year's releases of other systems. "I'd rather be where I am right now," says Moore, "than having the promise of where Sony might be a year from now. The ball's in our court; if we screw it up, drop it, fumble it, it's our own fault."

Sega's marketing campaign and attempted seduction of gamers will continue into the coming months, and will receive a helping hand from the Dreamcast itself. Dreamcast users will be able to connect to Sega-sponsored community areas, which will build loyalty, and also keep Sega in touch with who its users are and what they are looking for. "The great thing is that everyone who is a part of the [Dreamcast] network is 100 percent a consumer," says Moore, "because they need to own the hardware to be on the network"

"I like to say I get to boys in their bedrooms," Moore jokes, "but my PR department says that's not the right thing to say."

It's this sort of edginess, Moore's impulse to talk about boys in their bedrooms, that Sega is shooting for -- a hip, xtreme, raw image that harkens back to the days when the Genesis was king and cool. Sega is aware that this is its last chance; it's lost so much money and market share in past years that it simply can't withstand another failure.

It's not clear whether Stolar's reported ouster was related to this drive to change, and it will be months before the effectiveness of any of the company's changes can be measured. But many gamers sound hopeful about the Dreamcast's chances of success. Says gamer Adam Richardson, who has been playing on a Dreamcast console imported from Japan, "I am looking very much forward to [the U.S. Dreamcast] launch. I have played the system and many of its games extensively and I feel it is something that has been a long time coming." A long time coming indeed.
salon.com | August 16, 1999

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