Sega's top cheese gives the lowdown on the battle with Sony

In a recent interview with Japanese trade paper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Sega President Shoichiro Irimajiri talked about the company's upcoming strategy for taking gamers online and duelling with PlayStation 2.

Irimajiri first took a stab at explaining the widely different sales stories in Japan and overseas. Regarding the system's brisk sales in America and Europe, he stated that 1.65 million Dreamcasts have been sold in America and an additional 650,000 in Europe. The American figure puts the system beyond Sega's initial target of 1.5 million units by March 2000. In Japan, according to Irimajiri, the system has also sold 1.65 million units, but it will likely fall short of the company's planned two million units sold by March 2000. Irimajiri attributes the shortfall to Japanese players being "fed up" with conventional software, citing the strong sales of Seaman as an indicator of what an unconventional game can do in the marketplace.

Regarding Sega's upcoming battle with Sony, Irimajiri stated that despite Dreamcast being priced more competitively than PlayStation2, he recognises that Japanese consumers prefer brand names to monetary value. "Our medium-term marketing strategy for Dreamcast will thus place more priority on network-related functions and less on games," he said. "A domestic subsidiary focusing on network strategies will begin in May working on a system enabling players to enjoy games and chat online."

When asked about the difference between Sega and Sony's policies towards network strategies, Irimajiri revealed his belief that Sony are emphasising content distribution while Sega will be promoting fee-based online forums. "Our approach will make for tough going in the first year, but should contribute to profits from 2001." In order to ensure the strategy will work, Sega will be outlaying plenty of cash, with the cost of servers alone running at 2-3 billion yen.

"Our financial condition is totally different from what it was a year ago," Irimajiri said.


Courtesy of IGN.com