History of Sega in Czechia

Nissho Iwai (to do)

Nissho Iwai was involved in Eastern Europe distribution and I think that they might also be responsible for most of the countries from that region, also Czechoslovakia and Czechia/Slovakia until 1996:
1. Nissho Iwai always chose authorized distributors and the same was here.
2. Distribution network was split apart in early 1996 at the same time when Nissho Iwai go away.-Geti3220 (talk) 07:22, 29 March 2023 (EDT)

Yes, from late 1993 Sega took Eastern European distribution from Sega Europe and gave it to Nissho Iwai with a two year contract. Nissho Iwai would in turn award non-exclusive "sub-distributors", so in Czech Republic Nissho Iwai made both Ito and Datart sub-distributors. This meant there wasn't much incentive for the sub-distributors to market their products as they would be paying for free marketing for their rivals. Due to this Sega didn't renew Nissho Iwai's contract for Eastern Europe (they also had distribution rights for some other regions where Sega didn't distribute directly, such as non-TecToy Latin American countries), and distribution returned to Sega Europe in 1995. I think they then appointed Datart as the exclusive distributor, or technically a sub-distributor. I can't find that specific article right now though.Pirate Dragon (talk) 13:29, 30 March 2023 (EDT)

First thanks for answer, second you missed some important stuff. Nissho Iwai marketed Sega from 1991 in Hungary, 1992 in Poland (I discover it lately by accident and added promotional materials for this page the same day as I started this discussion) and Russia/CIS etc. in 1993. I asked about the period between 1990-1992 for Czechoslovakia because this article (which I only can see small part of it) say that Sega established its office in 1990. Analyzing these markets, Nissho Iwai was replaced in late 1995/early 1996, but some of the distributors that collaborated with them, got contract renew by Sega Europe (Al-Step kft in Hungary, BobMark in Poland, Buka in Russia/CIS) but they also signed a new one (Bitman in Russia/CIS as distributor no.1). They also seemed to be still using the same manuals made by Nissho Iwai but divided into parts instead of trilingual ones. As for Czechia, DDC Agency took duties in mid-1996 for Czechia and Slovakia. I also don't have data for Slovakia in 1993-1996 (maybe IBEA and ITO Slovakia ???).-Geti3220 (talk)

Nissho Iwai also distributed SMS in Russia ~1990. Anyway, for Czech Republic Sega consoles first became officially available in October 1992 via Datart. Ito started distribution in mid-1993. In early 1994 Datart estimated 8,000 SMS, 8,000 MD, and 3,000 GG in Czech Republic. Nissho Iwai was targeting 20,000 hardware units across all Sega formats for 1994. Slovakia was also covered by Nissho Iwai at this time, but the article doesn't say anything more about Slovakia apart from that. For Hungary it says that Nissho Iwai has been in the market for 3 years (matches your 1991 date), they started with Videoton, but didn't have much success. It's sales improved in 1993, and the biggest "sub-distributors" for Hungary at the time of the article were "Al Step", "Primex", "Novotrade", and "Videoton". Hungary was 1% of Sega's European business, they were forecasting sales of 30,000 - 50,000 hardware units for 1994. From May 1996 article as Sega was planning to release Saturn in Eastern Europe, their distributors are listed; Russia: "Buka", "R-Style", "Bitman"; Poland: "Bobmark"; Czech Republic: "Datart"; Hungary: "Al Step", "EBM"; Slovenia: "Active Magic"; Croatia: "Magma". I will try to scan those shortly.Pirate Dragon (talk) 15:17, 31 March 2023 (EDT)

You have collected very great info about it. I really wait to see it myself. So for comparison with info that already is on Sega Retro:

• Hungary: Scans also say about Videoton in 1991 but in 1992 also mention second distributor Sinus 1 2. Rest of distributors are nearly the same as you said it.
• Russia: Bitman and R-Style worked in the same retail chain so everything is the same here. This 1990 release make sense now but I wonder if SMS 1 released by them in 1993 is the same as this in 1990 (in Sonic show, SMS 1 is the prise to win)
• Czech Republic: In September according to "Sony na ceskem trhu", Saturn would be releasd. I think DDC Agency took Sega sales in that moment, they also distributed Sega News (Czechia) and (manuals also mention them), I only seen Datart once in that time.
• Slovenia: Active Magic is also mentioned in Serbia/Montenegro so I knewn that Beosoft/Digitech/Biosfera/Kontiki were sub-distributors but Slovenia is new one so Mladinska Knjiga/Elektronexport are also sub-distributors. I also don't known the date, Active Magic work with Sega from 1988/1989, but first distribution of SMS by retailers was started in 1990 but they aren't mention until late 1995/early 1996 (again they could took over from Nissho Iwai). I wonder if they also cover Macedonia.
• Croatia: I didn't heard about Magma so Europatrade and VTI were sub-distributors. Europatrade had distributors in Bosnia
• A bit off topic, I've been wondering if Nissho Iwai or Brio Finland had cover Baltic countries. The order of the sources is Estonia-1993, Latvia-1994, Lithuania-1995. I asked people living in Lithuania and they confirmed the date and the distributor, the Estonian confirmed the date but didn't know the distributor and in Latvia I have this article. Sony and Nintendo was distributed from Finland. From other countries, there is no Romania distributor yet, although I have seen post from people that seen Master System from round 1992 and a few other clues from this site, as well as Albania and Macedonia.-Geti3220 (talk) 05:17, 1 April 2023 (EDT)

Do you have access to more articles from that site for example this ? -Geti3220 (talk) 17:35, 10 April 2023 (EDT)