|
SEGA is a
video game
software and
hardware developer and a former
console manufacturer. It is one of the best known and loved video game
brands in the world. The company has had success in both
arcades and the home console market, but as of late 2001, they are out
of the consumer console business.
SEGA's main offices, as well as the main offices of its domestic
division, Sega of Japan, are located in
Tokyo, Japan. SEGA's
North American division, Sega of America, is headquartered in
San Francisco,
California,
United States. It had moved from
Redwood City, California in
1999. SEGA's
European division, Sega of Europe, is headquartered in the
Chiswick area of
London,
England,
United Kingdom.
History
Sega was originally founded in
1940 as
Service Games in
Honolulu,
Hawaii, by
Martin Bromely,
Irving Bromberg, and
James Humpert to provide coin-operated amusements for American
servicemen on military bases. Bromely suggested that the company move to
Tokyo in
1951, and "Service Games of Japan" (SeGa)
became registered in
Japan in
May of
1952.
In
1954, another American businessman
David Rosen fell in love with Tokyo and established his own company,
Rosen Enterprises, Inc., in Japan to export art. When the company
imported coin-operated instant photo booths, it stumbled on a surprise
hit: The booths were very popular in Japan. Business was booming, and
Rosen Enterprises expanded by importing coin-operated electro-mechanical
games.
Rosen Enterprises and Service Games merged in
1965 to become Sega Enterprises. Within a year, the new company
released a submarine-simulator game called "Periscope" that became a smash
worldwide.
In
1969,
Gulf & Western Industries purchased Sega, and Rosen was allowed to
remain
CEO of the Sega division. Sega continued to grow and prosper. In the
videogame arcades, Sega was known for creating
Frogger and
Zaxxon, and soon Sega split into two divisions, Sega of Japan and a
North American division called Sega Enterprises Ltd., to handle the
workload. In 1982, the two Sega divisions reaped a combined total of $214
million in revenue.
Then came the
video game crash of 1983. Hemorrhaging money, Gulf & Western sold the
assets of the North American Sega division to
Bally Manufacturing Corporation. Sega of Japan was purchased for $38
million by a group of investors led by Rosen and
Hayao Nakayama, a Japanese businesman who owned a distribution company
that had been acquired by Rosen in
1979. Nakayama became the new CEO of Sega, and Rosen became head of
its subsidiary in the United States. In
1984, the multi-billion dollar Japanese conglomerate
CSK bought Sega, and renamed it to Sega Enterprises Ltd., based in
Japan, and two years later, shares of its stock were being traded on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange. In
1986, Sega released the first
Alex Kidd game. He would be their mascot until
1991, when they would replace him with
Sonic the Hedgehog.
Consoles
Sega would become famous for manufacturing a number of consoles over
the years:
- Sega
SG-1000 Sega's first game console, which was adadpted from the Sega
SC-3000, a computer similar to the
MSX
-
Sega Master System aka
Sega Mark III
- Sega Master System II and Master System III - less-expensive and
less popular retooled successors to the Master System
-
Sega Megadrive - Sega's most successful console worldwide. It did
not do that well in
Japan, but it did great in
Brazil,
Europe,
Australasia.
-
Sega Genesis - The
North American version of the Megadrive. It was very successful in
the
United States and
Canada.
-
Game Gear - a portable Master System, it could play Master System
games with an adapter
-
Sega Meganet - a
modem for the Sega Megadrive that was only released in Japan
-
Sega Mega-CD - a
CD-ROM peripheral for the Megadrive. The high cost prevented some
units from being sold in Japan, and the cost prevented very many at all
from being sold in Europe.
-
Sega CD - a
CD-ROM peripheral for the Genesis. It was the North American
equivalent of the Sega Mega-CD. Was known to have a lot of FMV games.
-
Sega Genesis 32X - hardware upgrade peripheral for the Genesis,
extremely disappointing console
-
Sega Super 32X - Japanese Megadrive version of Genesis 32X
-
Sega Mega 32X - European and Australian version of Genesis 32X
-
Sega Mega Jet - A portable Megadrive released for use on
Japan Airlines aircraft. Only released in
Japan
-
Sega Pico - an educational computer.
-
Sega Nomad - a portable Genesis that played the same cartridges.
Only released in
North America.
-
Sega Saturn - a CD-based console that was largely unsuccessful
outside Japan. In Japan, this console was more popular than the
Megadrive.
-
Dreamcast - the last Sega console.
Unfortunately Sega has fallen on hard times recently and is moving out
of hardware manufacturing, at least in the home console market; the arcade
SEGA Naomi units are still being produced. Fortunately the company has
knowledge acquired over several decades and hundreds of talented
developers to realize its vision, and has evolved primarily into a
platform-agnostic software company that creates games that will work on a
variety of game consoles produced by other companies, including the
Microsoft
XBox, the
Nintendo
GameCube, and the
Sony
PlayStation 2.
Internal Structure
Internally, the company is actually made up of various research and
development teams, originally named AM1, AM2, AM3, etc. They now have more
memorable monikers:
-
AM1 became
Wow Entertainment -
-
AM2 kept its name, so well known amongst gamers for the
Virtua Fighter series of arcade games
-
AM3 became
Hitmaker -
-
AM4 became
Amusement Vision - Known for
Super Monkey Ball
-
AM5 became
Sega Rosso
-
AM6 became
Smilebit -
-
AM7 became
OverWorks -
-
Sonic Team - renamed themselves from
AM8 many years ago, funnily enough, soon after they completed
Sonic the Hedgehog
-
AM9 became
United Game Artists -
-
Digital Media became
Wave Master -
There is a healthy sense of competition between the various teams which
has resulted in some of the most remarkable and innovative gaming events.
Historical legal case
Sega lost the
Sega v. Accolade case, which involved independently produced software
for the
Sega Genesis console that copied a small amount of Sega's code. The
verdict set a precedent that
copyrights do not extend to non-expressive content in software that is
required by another system to be present in order for that system to run
the software. The case in question stems from the nature of the console
video game market. Hardware companies often sell their systems at or below
cost, and rely on other revenue streams such as in this case, game
licensing. Sega was attempting to "lock out" game companies from making
Genesis games unless they paid Sega a fee (ostensibly to maintain a
consistent level of quality of games for their system.) Their strategy was
to make the hardware reject any catridge that did not include a sega
trademark. If an unlicensed company included this trademark in their game
(which they had to, if they wanted the game to work) Sega could sue the
company for trademark infringment. Though Sega lost this lawsuit, the
Sega Dreamcast seemed to incorporate a similar hardware requirement.
Several webcomics have been produced starring the Sega characters, one
of the more popular ones being
That's My Sonic!
|
