Sega

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Sega

logo
legal form Kabushiki-gaisha (joint stock company)
founding Standard Games (1940)
Service Games (1952)
Seat Ōta , Tokyo , Japan
Number of employees 10,760
sales approx. 66.4 billion yen ( 2012 )
Branch Software development , hardware
Website Sega of America
Sega of Japan
Sega of Europe

Sega's headquarters in Ōta, Japan

KK Sega ( jap. 株式会社セガ , Kabushiki-gaisha Sega , Eng. Sega Corporation - derived from Se rvice Ga mes , natural notation : SEGA ) is a Japanese manufacturer of video games and arcade machines and a former manufacturer of game consoles . Sega's headquarters are in Ōta , Tokyo .

Company history

1940-1969

In 1940 the Americans Martin Bromley , Irving Bromberg and James Humpert founded the company "Standard Games" in Honolulu . In 1951, Bromley moved his colleagues to move to Tokyo and founded the company " SE rvice GA mes of Japan " there. A year later the company was officially registered in Japan. Sega's business area was the import of coin-operated machines for the US military stationed in Japan. SEGA quickly expanded to become an exporter. In 1965 Sega merged with the company "Rosen Enterprises" in Tokyo. This was founded in 1954 by an American named David Rosen. It dealt in everything from passport photo machines to mechanical arcade game machines . In 1966 Sega developed an electromechanical slot machine that appeared in 1968 and became a worldwide hit: "Periscope". This machine represented a turning point in the gaming machine sector. Even industry representatives from America and Europe traveled to Japan to import this slot machine to western countries. In 1969, Rosen and the other shareholders decided to sell Sega to Gulf & Western Industry Inc , a conglomerate specializing in automobiles, clothing, sugar and more. Rosen remained CEO .

1970-1989

In 1976, Sega made the first commercial Japanese video game: the arcade game Heavyweight Champ . In 1979 David Rosen took over the distribution company of the Japanese Hayao Nakayama. 1982 was an extremely successful year for Sega. Worldwide sales reached a turnover of more than 214 million US dollars . That year Sega introduced many breakthrough developments in Japan: the first laser disc game called Astro Belt and one of the first 3D games called SubRoc-3D . With the video game console SG-1000 Sega celebrated its debut in the living room at home and landed a hit in Japan. 1983 was a difficult year for Sega. The collapse of the American game industry not only brought competitor Atari to the brink of ruin, it also dealt a heavy blow to Sega. The company's once thriving US division was sold to Bally Manufacturing Corporation .

David Rosen, Hayao Nakayama and a few other investors got together and bought all Sega factories in Japan for 38 million US dollars. Hayao Nakayama became the new CEO, while David Rosen remained CEO in America despite the sale to Bally. In 1984 Sega (America) was bought up thanks to a merger between Sega Japan and the CSK Corporation . From now on, both companies operated under the name "Sega Enterprises Ltd." , with headquarters in Japan. Sega Europe Limited was launched and the SG 1000 II (Mark II) was launched for ¥ 15,000. The Mark III followed in 1985. In 1985 the Master System was released. It was Sega's fifth console and the first to be marketed worldwide. In October 1988, Sega released the Mega Drive console in Japan.

1990-1999

In 1990 Sega released its 16-bit Mega Drive console (called Genesis in the US) in Europe. So you entered into direct competition with Nintendo, but had no major problems establishing yourself in Europe. While the console was very unsuccessful in Japan, it initially sold slightly better in the US than Nintendo's 16-bit machine SNES , partly because Nintendo had been ahead of Nintendo with 16-bit technology. In Europe, however, Sega could never really hold its own against Nintendo, even though both consoles were selling well. In 1991 Sega bought the publisher "Deith Leisure" in order to achieve an even greater presence in the European market. 1992/93 led Sega the mega CD one, a CD-ROM - add-on offered for the Sega Mega Drive, which together with the higher data storage additional 3D capabilities. Sega could never achieve a real breakthrough with it. The price was set too high for most of the potential buyers, which made the device uninteresting for many developers, although a CD could hold more data and was cheaper to manufacture than a module. In 1994 Sega released two different hardware developments. While the development of the next generation of consoles called Saturn was undisputed, there was a conflict between Sega of America and the Japanese parent company. The latter wanted to release a new Mega-Drive version with a larger color palette. Joe Miller (head of the US development department) convinced the parent company to produce a mega-drive extension called 32X instead , which allowed polygon graphics . The extension flopped.

On November 22, 1994, the Saturn was finally released in Japan with initial success - Sony pushed the PlayStation on December 3, 1994. Already on the first day of sale, almost 200,000 Saturns were sold over the counter in Japan. By the end of December 1994 Sega had sold around 500,000 Saturns, while Sony had to be content with “only” 300,000 units. In 1995 Sega released its Saturn worldwide, but it didn't match the resounding success of Sony's PlayStation.

Towards the end of 1995, nVidia released one of the first 3D accelerator cards for the PC , which had connections for Saturn joypads. This cooperation with Sega was interesting for both sides: Sega was able to take the first steps towards PC implementation and nVidia sold a considerable number of these plug-in cards thanks to the popularity of the Sega titles. The bundle included the 3D Beat 'em Up Virtua Fighter game. In 1996 Sega decided to publish strategically important titles on the PC platform . In cooperation with "MCA" and Dreamworks Inc. Sega founded the company Sega Gameworks . This took care of the construction of the slot machine parks in the north of America. At times there were rumors that Sega would become a licensee of the M2 hardware developed by Matsushita / 3DO , since the latest in-house developments (Mega-CD, 32X and Saturn) did not meet with the corresponding response from customers due to the high price. This project was abandoned after the performance of the M2 hardware did not convince the Sega engineers and Matsushita was much more interested in a video game standard (similar to the VHS standard in the video sector). Sega could therefore not have held the license alone.

In the same year, Sega and Atlus launched the Purikura cabins on the market. In 1997, in the spring there have been rumors, according to which Sega on 1 October 1997 with the toy giant Bandai a fusion would like to. This merger of the two industry giants would then have operated under the company name (company) "Sega Bandai Ltd.". At that time, both companies had to accept enormous losses in sales of their 32-bit consoles - Sega with the Saturn and Bandai with their Pippin, a console based on Macintosh technology. Since Bandai was able to achieve global success with the Tamagotchi, a merger was no longer of interest to them. In 1997 Adeline Software International was bought and renamed No Cliché . On November 27, 1998, after long announcements, the "Dreamcast" was released in Japan. Sega declared war on all competitors again. On September 9, 1999, the Dreamcast was released in America. On October 14, 1999, after a three-week delay, the console was launched in Europe. Sega was able to sell 300,000 Dreamcasts to retailers before the start - three times as many as the PlayStation a few years earlier.

2000-2005

In the spring of 2001, Sega announced the production stop of the Dreamcast console and announced that it would withdraw completely from the video game console business and only manufacture software and arcade machines in the future . During the year, the first implementations of some Sega hits appeared on the PlayStation 2 , Xbox , GameCube and other consoles. On March 18, 2001, the CEO of Sega Isao Okawa passed away at the age of 74. Okawa bequeathed an amount of 700 million euros to his company, with which one of the largest console manufacturers should become one of the largest software manufacturers. In 2003 Sega and Sammy (the leading pachinko machine operator) announced plans to merge . In the Japanese newspaper " Nihon Keizai Shimbun ", however, it was said that Namco (Japan's second largest manufacturer of arcade machines ) was interested in a merger with Sega. On February 28, 2003, further rumors of interest from Microsoft and Electronic Arts followed . Sega denied all information. On May 1, 2003, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper wrote that Sammy President Hajime Satomi had reacted angrily to Namco's offer and was now no longer interested in an agreement with Sega. Meanwhile, Namco announced on its website that the documents required for a merger had been sent. On May 8, the merger talks with the pachinko manufacturer Sammy were officially over. In addition, Namco reported that its merger offer had been withdrawn because Sega had not responded to the proposal. Later merger talks are conceivable. On December 8, 2003, Sammy bought 22.4 percent of Sega's shares (39,148,600 shares) from CSK Corporation for 45.3 billion yen (about 346.06 million euros) and is now the largest shareholder in Sega. On May 18, 2004, Sammy and SEGA announced that they would merge into a joint group called Sega Sammy Holdings in October . Sammy President Hajime Satomi will take over the management of the new company. On September 1, 2005, Sega presented its Lindbergh hardware for gaming machines to the general public at the Amusement Machine Show in Japan. The first videos for the games developed for this hardware were presented, including Virtua Fighter 5, After Burner Climax and Power Smash 3. On September 9th, Sega presented to the press the new corporate strategy, which consists of entering into more partnerships, including with Chunsoft , Vivarium , and THQ , for which Sega will distribute games in Japan. The company's strategy included supporting next-generation consoles such as Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , and Nintendo's Wii with games, including famous developers such as Yuji Naka and the new Sonic the Hedgehog (Xbox 360, PS3). On October 5th, Sega confirmed that it had stopped work on the NAOMI 3 board in favor of the more powerful Lindbergh board. On December 6, 2005, Sega announced that it would merge with the Beijing Utahana Culture Development Group in China.

Since 2006

In February 2006, Sega Japan planned the construction of a cultural building complex in Yokohama , in which forms of entertainment such as theater, musicals and operas are planned. Sega is investing over 100 billion yen (around 709 million euros). Construction was completed before the 2009 Christmas season.

In April 2006 Sega Holdings USA bought the Secret Level . The studio was founded in 1999, is based in San Francisco and has so far developed games such as Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds or Star Wars Starfighter . Sega also takes over the British studio Sports Interactive . Sega began in June 2007, working with BioWare to a Sonic - RPG exclusively for Nintendo DS to develop. The game, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood , was released in 2008. In the same year, Sega Sammy rejected the plans for the construction of the cultural building complex in Yokohama. 22.6 billion yen (143.2 million euros / 226.4 USD) had already been invested. Sega Sammy closed the Korean office. One month later, in April 2008, Sega closed the Racing Studio founded in 2005.

In April 2011 the Three Rings Design developed and published by Sega MMORPGs Spiral Knights was presented to the public. The indoor amusement park SEGA Republic in the Dubai Marina Mall opened on March 19, 2012. Sega closed all branch offices in Europe in July 2012, with the exception of Sega UK.

In January 2013, after the bankruptcy of THQ , Sega took over the development studio Relic Entertainment . In February 2015 Sega invested in three mobile games developers. Sega bought Demiurge Studios completely. A majority stake was also acquired in the start-up Ignited Artists from San Francisco and in the English studio Space Ape Games. The investments go hand in hand with Sega's new market orientation towards mobile gaming.

In September 2016, Sega announced at the Tokyo Game Show that it had acquired the intellectual property and development rights for all games developed and published by Technosoft from its president, Kazue Matsuoka. The former Technosoft president was one of the factors that influenced the takeover. He announced that the only option to keep the Technosoft brand would be to transfer the intellectual property rights to Sega. Sega and Technosoft could already look back on a long-standing cooperation during the Mega Drive and Saturn era, which is why the already established relationship was another factor in the acquisition of the trademark rights to Technosoft games. Technosoft was particularly well known on Sega consoles because of the Thunder Force series.

In April 2017, Sega Sammy Holding announced a relocation of the main offices of the Sega Sammy Group and its main domestic subsidiaries in the greater Tokyo area to Shinagawa-ku in January 2018. The reasoning stated that cooperation between the companies as well as a more active exchange of ideas among employees while pursuing efficient group management through the consolidation of distributed main administrative functions within the group were sought. Companies that have moved to the headquarters include Sega Sammy Holdings, Sammy Corporation, Sega Holdings, Sega Games, Atlus, Sammy Network, and Dartslive.

On October 13, 2017, Sega of America announced its own online shop , the "Sega Shop" , which opened four days later on October 17, 2017.

Game consoles

year designation annotation
1983 SG-1000
1984 SG-1000 II
1985 Master System (SG-1000 III)
1988 Mega Drive (Genesis)
1991 Game Gear
1991 Sega mega CD Hardware extension to the Mega Drive
1993 Pico
1993 32X Hardware extension to the Mega Drive
1994 Saturn
1999 Dreamcast
2005 Advanced Pico Beena
2019 Mega Drive Mini

Well-known game series

Successful machines in amusement arcades

Most successful machines according to Sega

literature

Web links

Commons : Sega  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sega Sammy Holding: Operational Review 2012 (PDF; 650 kB), May 30, 2013.
  2. ↑ Alexander Laschewski-Voigt: SEGA is withdrawing from Germany! ( Memento from August 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Report to Areagames from June 28, 2012
  3. ↑ Tony Barthelmann: Sega is investing in three mobile games developers , message from jpgames.de on February 21, 2015.
  4. ↑ SEGA announces acquisition of Technosoft's IPs . In: SEGA announces acquisition of Technosoft's IPs . ( segabits.com [accessed March 13, 2018]).
  5. ↑ http://sega.co.jp/about/history/