Battle lines are being drawn in the PlayStation vs Dreamcast war, judging by the front pages of the two big trade papers.

CTW lead with details of Sega’s £60 million European marketing campaign, consisting of a series of TV and cinema adverts. The ads were first shown on July 16 at the launch of Star Wars Episode I and feature music by the ever-present Robbie Williams. The two versions, one called ‘Shave’and the other called ‘Buoy’, are supposed to highlight the social aspects of gaming.

Sega Europe’s CEO, Jean-Francois Cecillon, told CTW: “Dreamcast is a revolutionary gaming product, which not only offers more power to gamers, but also includes Internet access and an online capability. We sought to capture this message in our advertising. I believe we have done just that and in doing so have taken advertising for computer games to a new level.”

MCV hint at a further PlayStation price cut - it's believed Sony are applying the final touches to an aggressive new promotional strategy. This wouldn’t come as much of a surprise, especially in light of the news that PlayStation sales have slowed dramatically since Easter. This is probably due to the fact that we’ve all now got (at least) one.

“Hardware sales really are tired at the moment; something needs to be done to give them a bit of a boost,” one key high street buyer told MCV. “If Sony are to achieve their targets this year, then surely a price drop to £70 has to be on the cards.”

Sega’s Dreamcast will be released on September 23 at £199.