History of Sega in the United Kingdom

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As a highly developed country with a significantly long history on the world stage (not least within the field of science, with the works of Alan Turing and his collegues at Bletchley Park effectively inventing the modern computer), it is perhaps to be expected that the United Kingdom would be an important market for video games.

1960s-1980s

In around 1960, the United Kingdom became the first export market for Sega outside the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean. A distribution chain was created allowing the firm to sell Sega Bell machines, modified to accept 6d (sixpence) coins, followed by a number of more modern products, including the UK-specific Copper Sega in 1963. The situation is currently unclear - distributors (or retailers) may have included T.A. Pecker and Ruffler & Walker.

Faced with local competitors and potentially high manufacturing costs, Sega's presence from around 1965 seems to have been more subdued. Sega themselves would not take a commanding role in the UK market until the late 1980s - it cannot currently be confirmed if any Sega product reached UK shores between the mid-1960s and early 1980s.

1980s

In 1978 the Atari 2600 (then Atari VCS) arrived in the UK, and by the early 80s Sega began to create a presence with (limited) distribution of both stand-alone arcade games and the occasional 2600 release. The arcade "boom" of North America was mirrored in much of the developed world, albeit to a smaller scale - the likes of Zaxxon and Frogger made it to the UK, but are perhaps not remembered as fondly as the culture never hit the same dizzying heights as in the US.

Instead, the UK focused its efforts on the home computer market, of which many companies, some home grown, offered a wide a range of affordable microcomputers which captured hearts and minds. While it is debatable whether any of the early efforts from Commodore, Sinclair, Acorn or Amstrad could offer the superior spreadsheet package, many were fully capable of running video games, and did so, partly in conjunction with low-price software stored on easy-to-produce compact cassettes.

The 1989 Commodore 64 release of Turbo OutRun was a huge success for U.S. Gold.

While Nintendo's Famicom was in a position to dominate the Japanese market, and the Nintendo Entertainment System could revitalise a North American video game industry just by existing, the response to this style of dedicated cartridge-based video game machines received a much more muted response from British consumers. Exceptionally poor planning on Nintendo's UK distributor, Mattel, saw NES cartridges retail for upwards of £60 or £70, while Commodore 64 software could be purchased for as little as £1.99. However, problems with the NES can also be traced back to its 1987 release date (a full four years after Japan) and Nintendo's opinion that the European market was but an afterthought.

Sega also released its Sega Master System, the first Sega console to arrive on British shores, in August 1987. Again, Sega took a back seat, allowing distribution to be handled by Mastertronic, who marketed the system aggressively. At £99.95 the system was able to under-cut much of the competition, and while the games were still comparitively expensive to those of home computers, the £30-£40 price range still put them comfortably below the demands of Nintendo and its distributors.

Master System games were being released as late as 1994.

The Master System was allowed to survive as a budget option, for those unwilling to shell out £400+ for a 16-bit Amiga or Atari ST, but were equally not convinced by the now-aging technology of the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum or Amstrad CPC ranges. The Master System sold well, and while it was rarely a focus of the gaming press of the day, it built a reputation for its reliability, both in the quality of software and it lacking the shortcomings of cassettes or floppy disks.

By the end of 1988, however, the PC Engine and Sega Mega Drive had emerged in Japan, and a great deal of excitement surrounded the concept of what had become affordable, 16-bit gaming devices. Many systems were imported - the Mega Drive's install base already being quite significant before the console had even officially launched in 1990

2010s

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Master System

The concept of home video game consoles didn't really kick off in the UK until the mid-1980s. The country already had a booming home computer market, established primarily by efforts from Sinclair, Commodore and Acorn, but dedicated systems were far less common. Many second-generation consoles were available, but the Atari 2600, for example, was far less popular in the UK than it was in the US. The majority of UK developers were focused on home computers.

, popular throughout Japan and the US, initially struggled to make an impact in the UK. When Sega showed up in early 1987 with the Sega Master System, they were quickly able to make inroads, establishing the SMS as the most popular console of its generation in the country.

The Master System was distributed by . Their actions caused Sega to give them distribution rights in France and Germany, effectively establishing Sega Europe. By 1991 nearly all of Mastertronic's turnover was a result of Sega products, and this is often cited as the reason the Virgin Group invested heavily in the company (eventually buying it out-right). Sega would eventually take over the distribution wing of Mastertronic from Virgin, giving its top executives control over Sega Europe and the smaller UK operations, Sega UK.

Home Computers

Despite a transition between hobbiest and home computers to video game consoles towards the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, Sega's success in the arcade business prompted various companies to bring these games to the home on non-Sega platforms. U.S. Gold, Elite Systems and Activision all played their part in bringing popular arcade games to home computers, starting with the likes of Zaxxon and Congo Bongo in the early 80s and ending with more advanced games such as After Burner and Turbo OutRun.

Many of these home conversions were top-sellers - even more popular than their Master System counterparts in some cases. For the most part, these ports were created by small teams dotted around the country, and several would later be shipped to the US to accomodate for the home computer market there.

Early 90s Boom

File:SegaPirate.jpg

Sega had a plethora of bizarre-yet-iconic advertising strategies in the 90s.

With limited competition to deal with, the launch of the Sega Mega Drive in the UK was equally successful, if not more so than the Master System's launch. The Mega Drive largely dominated the market up until the mid-1990s, and though Nintendo had begun to make more of an effort with its SNES console, Sega were far more successful, running an iconic Sega Pirate advertising campaign and releasing extremely successful games such as Sonic the Hedgehog.

As well as catering for the Mega Drive, Sega Europe chose to keep caring for the Master System. The Sega Game Gear was also a reasonable success, though not as popular as Nintendo's Game Boy. Experiments such as the Sega Mega-CD and Sega 32X were less successful - the Mega CD being outsold by systems such as the Amiga CD32, a direct decendant of the Amiga computer range by Commodore.

There were a large range of Sega-related magazines (Sega Power, Sega Pro, Mean Machines Sega, etc.) launched around the early 90s - more than most other countries in the world.

Saturn Era

Sega were top of their game until the mid-to-late 90s, after the launch of the Sony PlayStation. Sega's rival console, the Sega Saturn was an initial success, but suffered a similar fate to that of North America, with a game library unable to compete with Sony's. Like its North American cousin in 1996, Sega had to end support for their other consoles (though the Game Gear had died in 1997, and 1998 was the year the Mega Drive was officially discontinued) to focus on their 32-bit console. The Saturn was never wiped off the map completely, though played a distant third after the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. The N64 in turn was a great deal less popular than the original PlayStation - Sony would go on to dominate the industry for more than a decade.

Sega opened a London attraction, SegaWorld London in 1996.

Dreamcast

File:SSM UK 36.pdf The Sega Dreamcast was launched in the UK in late 1999, and like most of the rest of the world, appeared to be quite successful in the first few months of sales. Inevitably the PlayStation 2 forced it into second place.

AtGames Presence

In the mid 2000s AtGames, with the rights to produce Sega-related hardware, started selling products in the UK through their distributor, Blaze Europe.

Sega Europe's head offices are situated in the UK.