The Saturn, while providing enough top-quality titles to please nearly any gaming enthusiast, was a miserable failure in the U.S. market. Though it had a huge array of wonderful titles, it was soundly beaten in sales figures by not only the newcomer Playstation, but by Nintendo's weakly supported console, the Doorstop 64. If the Dreamcast is to succeed in a market like this, it's going to need more than great titles. It's going to need the right titles and the right marketing.

I. Titles
    A. Sports Titles
While sports games have never been potent enough to rise to the top of any true gamer's favorites list, they are the most important category of game to have on a console in the American market. Specifically, football and basketball games. The Playstation ripped this edge from Sega and the Saturn early on, by garnering a cover of Next Generation magazine featuring a Madden game due near the launch of the system. While the game was eventually scrapped until the following season and replaced with Gameday, the damage had been done. Before the battle of the two systems had even truly begun, Sony collected thousands of former Genesis owners and made them Playstation men. Dreamcast will need some big name football and basketball titles early in its launch, and it will need for them to be of high quality and be well advertised.

    B. "Fantastic" Titles
Titles that evoke the imagination, and bring it to life in beautiful detail. Titles which are exciting and creative. Actual quality of gameplay takes a back seat to flash and charm when a system first arrives. Virtua Fighter and Daytona were squashed by Battle Arena Toshinden and Twisted Metal as a painful testament to this in the Saturn vs. Playstation opening. And while many gamers are looking forward to Virtua Fighter 3tb and Shen Mue on Dreamcast, the public as a whole finds titles such as these to be boring. Sonic Adventure is a great start, but there need to be other titles of similar imaginative quality to supplement this.

    C. Big Name Franchises
Firstly and fore mostly, Tekken 4 needs to come on Naomi and Dreamcast. While Sega fans can argue tooth and nail that the Virtua Fighter series is supreme, the U.S. market has clearly demonstrated a preference, nay, a love for Namco's brainchild. Tekken's fans are legion, and having the next episode in the series come to a Sega system would be an immediate coup that would send hundreds of thousands of Playstation owners to the Dreamcast.

Secondly, Sega needs to embrace the Star Wars franchise, and ensure that there will be plenty of exclusive, well hyped, fantastic looking and fantastic playing games from the films on Dreamcast. Sega's Model 3 game, Star Wars Trilogy, will be a decent start - but Nintendo already has Rogue SQuadron on the D64, and exclusive rights to the first releases of games based on the forthcoming Prequel movies.

And thirdly, Final Fantasy 9 needs to be on Dreamcast. Sega must do everything in its power to encourage Square to bring the series to Dreamcast; extortion, bribery and willing prostitution of Sega executives' spouses are encouraged as places to begin.

II. Marketing
    A. Establish the Console - Make Sure Everyone Knows Dreamcast
Most people still don't know what a Sega Saturn is, and this is a very sad commentary on Sega's ability to market in the last few years. One of the worst ideas Sega had was to advertise for Nights on the Saturn by depicting a Playstation being shown up close and hurled off a building. At the time, neither system was a household name, and the commercial was basically free advertising for Sony and their new console. It's vital that Sega have advertisements which feature shot after shot of the Dreamcast, and that the name be drilled into public memory past any reasonable point. They need ads that are as memorable as the damnable Ford commercials featuring Alan Jackson, wanting to go down and "buy me a truck or two" 'cause he's crazy 'bout a Ford Truck. This is war, boys and girls, and if Sega has to get Alan Jackson to discuss wishing to go down and buy him a Dreamcast or two, 'cause he's crazy 'bout a Dreamcast, so be it. Personally, I'd vote for say, Rage Against the Machine to do the honors, but whatever works.

    B. Demographics
One of the most important facets of an advertising campaign is who you are targeting; Nintendo has survived by keeping a lock on the very young with Diddy Kart et al, while leaving the vast majority of more mature gamers to the Playstation and BloodFightingShooterSport, the Director's Cut, etc. Sega needs to make sure that each ad is directed towards an age group, not all age groups. Recommended target: The mid-20's gamers. Kids look up to their older brothers and want to act like the cool kids in the grade above them do. Dave comes home from college and brings his much loved Dreamcast, chances are pretty good that little Johnnie will want one too.

    C. Re-Establish Sega
Why Sega ridded themselves of the advertising firm that invented the "Sega Scream" will forever elude me, but they need "Sega" to be on the mouths and in the minds of every gamer, always. It is widely recognized that Sega is the greatest single game creating entity in the world, and Sega should capitalize on this.