To find out, let's take a peek at Sega's attitude towards ports from a historical perspective. Obviously, with a system as friendly to PC developers as the Dreamcast, the desire and the ability to open the floodgates for a host of titles is tempting, but thankfully, Sega has their sights set on a bigger piece of the gaming pie. At first, it appeared as if Sega would avoid direct ports of PC titles all-together, but the announcement of popular titles such as of Red Storm's Rainbow Six and Interplay's Baldur's Gate making the jump to the Dreamcast seem to indicate a change in policy. To help clear up the confusion, we had a chat with Charles Bellfield, Director of Marketing Communications for Sega of America (formerly of NEC), and he shed quite a bit of light on he subject of Sega and PC ports. Sega is going after big PC titles, but not in the sense that you'd think:

" We're not looking to do direct ports, but rather enable developers to bring content to Dreamcast as quickly as possible. We want original aspects that take advantage of DC hardware."

"Baldur's Gate, for example, is a great example, because of its compulsive network gameplay, and in the genre it is one of the leading titles available today. Offers gamers something new on DC."

"Slave Zero is also an excellent example. It's a situation where a simultaneous development environment that has paid off for both parties. Accolade may have developed a title at the same time, but DC allows them to reach a new market."

Basically, we'll be seeing a ton of key PC licenses on the Dreamcast, but not unless they are significantly enhanced from their parent version, or they bring something significantly unique to the Dreamcast gaming environment.

Bellfield also stated that they are currently looking at lots of titles as a possible candidate for the Dreamcast, and had some interesting thoughts on key contenders.

" We're looking at every major PC title being brought out over the next 12-18 months. The key things we're evaluating are the demographic and success of the license. Key examples are Quake titles, Unreal titles, and network titles. On an acquisition basis, we want to be very aggressive. If you look at what we currently have in development, you'll see that 60-70% is third party."

But will we see the big games? More importantly, will they be worth having on Dreamcast? When asked to comment on the likes of Quake 3 and Valve's Half-Life, Bellfield was both optimistic and informative.

"A game can look and play very differently on a console. I.e., more deathmatch modes, etc, are much easier to implement. Such is the case with Valve and Half-Life. Dreamcast development would allow them to optimize on the platform, and offer a new experience for the console consumer.

In looking at Quake 3, the most important aspect of the title for us is the marketability of the franchise. Sega has brought Quake over in the past. Obviously, we're interested in bringing titles over that have a pull-trough in the market."

So, what does the future hold for Sega and the PC port market? The ease of development and Sega's aggressive stance could result in a ton of great conversions. Additionally, situations like Baldur's Gate, where Sega is actually handling the port for Interplay in-house, are certainly a step in the right direction. But will they secure the huge titles? We sure hope so. And apparently, does Sega.

According to Bellfield, " We can't be break-through on every title and we know that. At the same time, if we can work with directly with the development studio during development so that we can incorporate new features, then we'd go after those titles."

The PC Predicament: An In-Depth Look at PC Ports on the Dreamcast

Will we see the likes of Quake 3 on DC? We've got the info, as well as interviews and even a contest