History of Sega in Spain

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History of Sega in Spain
Official Sega distributor(s): Proein (1987-1989), Erbe (1989-1991), Sega Consumer Products S.A. (1991-2001) , Big Ben Interactive (2001-2005), Atari Espana (2005-2010), Sega Spain (2010-2012), Koch Media (2012-present)

In the 70s Spain was one of the countries where Sega imported its game machines.

Rumors say that the SC-3000 was distributed in Spain.

Proein released the Sega Master System in Spain in June 1987, after Germany, Italy and The Netherlands but before the UK and France. The sales were not satisfactional for Sega, so in October 1989 Erbe became distributors for Sega consoles in Spain.

Erbe distributed in conjunction with Virgin Mastertronic Mega Drive from 1990, Master System II and Game Gear from 1991 with a slogan Hazme un favor, conéctame a un Sega, until when they started distributing rival Nintendo's Game Boy. Virgin Mastertronic briefly distributed on their own, before their European Sega distribution business including Spain was bought out by Sega later in 1991, with the new company named Sega Europe.

The Spanish division then became Sega Consumer Products S.A. They manage to promote new systems with marketing campaign like Vive Una Aventura Sega, Una nueva dimension en videojuegos, La ley del Mas Fuerte which resulted in higher sales of Mega Drive and Master System II. The 16-bit Sega dominated video game market in Spain and sold at least twice more units than SNES. Master System also manage to sell slightly more units than NES. Under the wave of popularity, Ecofilmes exported Master System III model to Spain in 1996 (same box with the original text in Portuguese, the Garantia Sega Portugal seal, but with the console's specifications printed in Spanish on the right side of the box), which was sold there by Toys"R"Us. Game Gear wasn't as successful and was beaten by Game Boy.

Realising the potential rift of releasing the same hardware in two different designs and price points over a short period of time, Sega España deliberately chose to delay releasing the Mega-CD until Mega-CD II models would be available for distribution. Mega CD II was released before Mega Drive II and got other box than rest of the Europe. Despite adverts from Canal Pirata Sega system was not successful due to high price. Mega Drive 32X advertised with Bienve Nidoal Proxim Onivel also was not success. In January 1996, TCI's technology group got the rights to distribute Sega Channel in Spain, but it isn't known that the service was launched there.Sega Saturn was released on 7th July 1995 but it seems that it sells were not satisfying.

Dreamcast was released at the same time as rest of Europe, with Spain as one of the key markets. Dreamcast internet was supposed to be carried on by BT.

In 2001, after the break in Dreamcast production, Sega Europe suffered severe cuts in their production and publishing operations, closing all their European branches and including the one in Spain. To keep the distribution of their games in Europe (and therefore in Spain), Sega chose Big Ben Interactive as distributor of their last Dreamcast releases between late 2001 and early 2002, while several other companies like Sony, Microsoft, Acclaim, Infogrames, THQ and Empire (through their respective subsidiaries in Spain) published their games for other platforms, under the new third party policy. Since 2005, and with the reestablishment of Sega Europe as European publisher of Sega, the distribution of all their games in Spain was carried out by the Spanish branch of Atari. In 2010, Sega Europe returned, their Spanish division this time being known as Sega Spain.

Following restructuring in 2012 Sega Europe closed down its Spanish operations, handing over distribution to Koch Media.

External References

• Unboxing video, of Portuguese Master System III Compact console sold in Spain by Toys"R"Us (exported to Spain by Ecofilmes)