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Master Gamer's Editor in Chief Ivan Trembow recently spoke with Sega's Jennifer Walker about the Dreamcast and its competition. Here's what was said. Ivan Trembow: Do you think Bernie Stolar's departure will hurt Sega in any way, or do you think everything is pretty much in its place now with the launch? Jennifer Walker: I think at this point everything is completely locked and loaded. Retail is ready to go, all of our marketing is in place, our pre- sell orders look good, and right now we're just in the mode of fulfilling all the plans we've already made. Bernie did an excellent job in turning the company around and getting everything in place, and he's a big reason why we're going to have such a successful launch. But right now I think everything is locked and loaded and ready to go, and his departure is not going to affect that at all. IT: Will the US version of Shenmue have subtitles since there would be a lot of Japanese text to translate? JW: That's something that we're talking about right now. There hasn't been a final decision made yet. I know some hardcore gamers like the subtitles, like in Panzer Dragoon Saga, whereas some others don't. We're just trying to weigh what the possibilities are, and we want to make sure the title gets out on time, so we're still figuring that out. IT: Do you think the PlayStation 2 will actually be released by the end of next year, or is that an overly optimistic release date? JW: We'll just have to take a wait-and-see approach. We're just going to keep moving forward with our plans. We already have all our plans in place for next year. If they're able to join us next year in the competition, great. If not, we're just going to keep moving forward with what we've already planned. IT: Is Sega going to be more aggressive with its ads when the PlayStation 2 launches like Sony was when the N64 launched? JW: We're going to focus on Dreamcast and what Dreamcast's capabilities are and what our differentiating points are. If we're going to buy an ad, we're not going to spend all our ad buys knocking the competition. IT: The PlayStation 2 is going to have a lot of technological advantages over the Dreamcast, but what do you think are the advantages that the Dreamcast will have over the PlayStation 2? JW: The fact that we're going to have the modem and online games next year. The fact that we have the Visual Memory Unit, which even more developers are going to start exploiting in the next year. Our games are going to be second-generation games by next year. I mean, they're going to be killer games with online components. There's nothing more you could ask for. IT: Do you think the new $99 price points of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 are going to cut into the Dreamcast's sales? JW: I think it's a different kind of gamer (that Sega is targeting). There's a big difference between someone who's looking for a cheap system and someone who wants the best machine for gaming. If you look at our pre- sells, they're just over 200,000 now. We feel very comfortable that we're going to meet all of our expectations, and we've already pretty much filled the hardcore gaming audience. That's who we're going after this year and through Christmas. IT: Sony and Nintendo could have easily cut their prices around E3 time, but they clearly wanted to wait until closer to the Dreamcast's launch. Do you think this shows that both companies are more concerned about the Dreamcast than they would like to lead on publicly? JW: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. It's very interesting timing (laughs). And in fact, a lot of media including wire news services and Bloomberg and all of the TV coverage I've seen have said that because Dreamcast is gaining so much momentum, they (Sony and Nintendo) decided to cut their prices. IT: There's been a lot of mixed reaction to the Dreamcast commercials. How would you respond to claims that the first wave of commercials were too vague and cryptic and someone who isn't already in the know about the Dreamcast really wouldn't even know what product was being advertised? JW: That was exactly our purpose. I mean, our first wave of advertising is for hardcore gamers, so they already know what the swirl means and they already understand that. The first wave of ads is really targeted towards them, and it's kind of a cryptic thing where they can kind of wink to each other like they're in the know. They already know what that swirl is. I mean, if your mom or your grandma knew what they meant, it would mean that a hardcore gamer probably wouldn't want to get a system because it just wouldn't be cool. The ads we'll be showing around launch and Christmas, they're going to show game footage, they're going to be a little more consumer-friendly, so everyone will get what it is. IT: What do you think it is about the newer Dreamcast commercials that makes them shine over other video game commercials? JW: They're being created by the company that created the movie Antz, so you're going to technological advances in there that have never been seen before in commercials. All of the commercials are being made using models from the actual games. You're going to see all the characters coming to life in these commercials. IT: Why was the decision made to delay the introduction of online gaming on the Dreamcast to next year? JW: It was always a planned decision. We wanted to do the online service in stages, so our first stage is to do e-mail, chat, web browsing, getting a one-stop shop and getting information about the Sega Dreamcast. Within the next 12 months, we're going to be phasing in online games. IT: Electronic Arts was a big part of Sega's success with the Genesis. How much is it going to hurt to not have EA supporting the Dreamcast? Are you confident that they'll sign in the future? JW: We are in constant discussions with EA. Their biggest strength is in sports, and although it is unfortunate they won't be there at launch, we still have the best sports games on the market coming to Dreamcast with NFL 2K and NBA 2K. IT: How much do you think it hurts Sega to have Square to firmly behind Sony and so un-supportive of the Dreamcast? JW: Well, (Sega's) third-party (department) is in constant discussions with all publishers and developers, so I think for now we have an awesome lineup. We're going to have more than 100 games in our library by the holidays of 2000. So at this point we're just completely focused on the games we have and the killer library we're going to be offering on September 9th. We're going to have more games than any other system that's ever launched, not to mention the fact that pretty much all of them are AAA titles. We're in discussions with all publishers and developers, so we'll see what develops next year. IT: No system has a 100% chance of succeeding in the marketplace. Now, I don't think this is going to happen, but if the Dreamcast ends up failing, will Sega get out of the hardware business and make games for other consoles? JW (slightly perturbed): We are far too busy right now getting ready for the launch of this console, and far too dedicated to making sure everything goes right, and dealing with the retailers that call us every day begging for more systems, and the third parties that contact us wanting to develop for the system. I don't think that's a thought that has crossed anyone's mind at this point. Send your thoughts on this interview to ivan@mastergamer.com
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com