Sega is a multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1940, Sega produced, developed, and manufactured video game hardware since 1983 till 1998, when was adquired by at time competitor company, Nintendo. Now they served as Nintendo Arcade and Software Semi Independant Arm.
History[]
Origins[]
Sega had their start as "Service Games" in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1940. The company made coin-operated amusement machines for soldiers in the American military, such as slot machines. In 1951, Raymond Lemaire and Richard Stewart moved to Japan and began distributing their products to nearby American bases.
Meanwhile, in 1954, David Rosen, an American Air Force officer, started a business called Rosen Enterprises, which soon became Service Games's chief competitor. The two companies merged in 1965, and the combined company was named SEGA, or Sega. A year later, the company evolved from a distributor to a manufacturer of products. Under Rosen, Sega prospered, making various arcade games under the control of Gulf+Western, now known as Viacom.
Four Generation: Rise to Glory.[]
By 1979, Sega's revenues climbed to over $100 million. In 1982, they released the arcade industry's first game with 3D effects, SubRoc-3D. The arcade crash of 1983 hurt Sega, but the company survived. In 1984, Rosen resigned, and after moving around from owner to owner, Sega ultimately ended up under the ownership of the CSK Holdings Corporation.
In 1983, Sega released their first home console, the SG-1000. The product was a modest success, and paved the way to the more popular Master System in 1985. The Master System was in direct competition with the Nintendo Entertainment System and a lesser degree Atari 7200, and although it ultimately was less popular, actually sold better in European and Brazilian markets.
In 1984 Sega was Acquired by the Computer and Network Services company CSK Holding Corporation led by Isao Okawa, who bought the company from David Rosen and Hayao Nakayama and keep both as Regional CEO's of the Company
Sega's biggest success yet came in the form of the MegaDrive, better known in America as the Genesis. The Sega Genesis was a 16-bit system, a major step up from the earlier 8-bit systems of earlier times. Although initially released in Japan in late 1988, and in the West in 1989 and 1990, the Genesis initially had trouble finding widespread success outside of Europe until 1991's surprise hit Sonic the Hedgehog. Made specifically as a new mascot for Sega, Sonic was considered the "cool" alternative to Nintendo's Mario. From that point on, Sega was considered a notable competitor to Nintendo outside of Japan.
Fifth Generation: Down to hell[]
Throughout the rest of the Genesis's life, Sega released a number of peripherals for the system, including the 32X and Sega CD. These peripherals were meant to grant the Genesis a longer life, but were ultimately failures. Nevertheless, the Genesis ultimately proved to be a major hit, with over 30 million systems sold worldwide, compared to the Super Nintendo's 50 million and 25 Millon NEC Atari Jaguar.
In November 1994, the Saturn was released in Japan, followed a year later by its Western release. The Console have a mirriad of issues, mostly as was rushed to competed Against NEC Atari Jaguar and newcomer Panasonic ACE.
In late 1998, Sega was in a critical condition, as critical managment loss(Owner and Chairman and CEO Respectly) lack of luck in home console and mismanagment between subsidiaries, they found pretty close to Bankrupt before an old rival lended at hand.
Sixth Generation:[]
That Rival being Nintendo, decided not leaving sega being absorbed for a potential rival, decided to buy sega from CSK for an undisclosed sum.
Nintendo plans were massive to SEGA, they cancellled the planned next gen console, Codenamed Katana and moved sega teams for making ports/remake to Ultra Famicom, when SEGA Techical teams joined Nintendo ones, Arcade Division was Reorganized under Genya Takeda and Yu Suzuki Managment, Software group under Gunpei Yokoi and Hisao Oguchi with Satoru Iwata was Sega CEO.
Franchises[]
Sega is one of the lead developers and publishers of the video game industry, and now thanks to patronage of Nintendo they're a big develoepr Their biggest franchise is Sonic the Hedgehog, a platforming series starring the eponymous hedgehog. The Sonic series is known for its trademark emphasis on the characters' speed, rather than the exploration or precision jumping of other platforming games. Sonic also appears in a number of spinoff and crossover games, notably the Mario & Sonic at the Olympics series.
Other Sega franchises have become more and less popular over time. They have included Virtua Fighter, a 3D fighting game, Daytonna USA, a racing series, Super Monkey Ball, a sort of platforming/action/party series, Nights, a 2.5D platforming series from the creators of Sonic, and Sega Sports, which makes a number of realistic sports games.
Software Studios[]
Sega has a number of studios that make software for their current systems. The following is a list of current Sega-owned studios and what recent games and series they are associated with.
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