This morning, Sega's president and COO, Bernie Stolar, called on the gaming community at the Sega Retail Summit to hear what Sega of America is planning to do when the Dreamcast launches on September 9.

　　Sega is definitely serious about making sure it keeps its head above the competition as E3 closes in. Stolar's first announcement during the event was that Sega of America has hired Charles Bellfield as its director of marketing communications. Bellfield is best known as the technology-savvy PowerVR frontman from NEC. The move will undoubtedly give SoA an active line of technical communication. Bellfield seems to know everything there is to know about the Dreamcast's 128-bit graphics engine. Given that Sony's next offering is hitting the console market with loads of technical information, Bellfield is the company's best chance at branching out and evangelizing the Dreamcast hardware.

　　Stolar and Sega will be launching a US$100 million marketing campaign directed toward gamers and mainstream consumers in a "rolling thunder strategy" encompassing print magazines, TV, cable, online, and movie trailers. He went on to say that the marketing campaign will be the biggest ever for Sega and North America.

　　Sega will begin taking official preorders for its upcoming console at retailers nationwide. GameSpot News has already reported that retailers like Toys R Us have been taking unofficial preorders for the Dreamcast. Stolar says this is proof that consumers are excited about the upcoming release - even before the official release date was announced. So far, Stolar says that more than 30,000 preorders for the Dreamcast have been taken, and the company is expecting 200,000 more by the time the device launches. Considering that Sega has yet to advertise to the mainstream gaming and consumer audience, and 30,000 gamers have already put money down for the first devices to hit the US - 200,000 might be a little conservative.

　　When the Dreamcast does arrive in the US for $199, there will be 10 to 12 games for gamers to choose from: Sonic Adventure, Virtua Fighter 3tb, SuperSpeed Racing, NFL Football (tentative title), NBA Basketball (tentative title), Geist Force, House of the Dead 2, Sega Rally 2, Power Stone (Capcom), Ready 2 Rumble (Midway), Castlevania (Konami) and Soul Calibur (Namco). As the months progress from the launch date, Sega plans to have about 30 games released (both first and third party) by Christmas. By the end of 2000, Sega plans to have more than 100 games released, to give gamers enough variety and scope to make their $199 investment pay for itself. With a claim of 100 third-party developers building games for the system, the estimated number of100 games by next year may be a little conservative, as well.

　　Stolar says that he's received every indication that Dreamcast will be a success in the US. An example of this was his receipt of about 500 positive e-mails he received after announcing his personal e-mail address to attendees of his keynote at the Game Developers Conference last month. To show that "gaming is the heart and soul of our business," he invited gamers to to write him at [email protected] and tell him what they think about the Dreamcast.

　　In preparation for the US market, some of Sega's games, like Sonic Adventure and VF3tb, will go through some changes, but Stolar gave no indications on what those changes might be. Regarding Internet connectivity with the Dreamcast's detachable 56k modem, Stolar would only say that Sega would be making announcements regarding its Internet strategy at E3 next month, but he did say that Sega wants to help build a sense of community" with gamers and the Dreamcast.

　　A community of 200,000 could grow into a healthy mob against Sega's competitors - Sony and Nintendo. One thing is for certain: Sega's newfound aggressive push is destined to make for a spectacular battle of the console titans, starting at E3 '99 and carrying all the way into E3 2000.