Sega

Compilation of GameSpot's History of Sega and WikiPedia's definition:

Full credit goes to GameSpot and WikiPedia

The Early Years

Sega was originally founded in 1940 as Standard 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. Soon after the administrative changes, Sega began producing its own coin-op titles, which were going up against the already established American companies from which Rosen had been buying when he was in the import business. After about five years of this, Gulf &Western purchased Sega, and the Sega name remained intact.

Sega opened up new possibilities in the late '70s by expanding from just coin-op game development to creating both arcade and home console games. Primitive machines such as the Atari 2600 and ColecoVision were the systems for which Sega started developing. Sega made a small name for itself through the minor success of its Turbo, Zaxxon, and Frogger games.

Sega's success prompted the opening of an American division - Sega Enterprises - in the early '80s. This section of the company primarily dealt with the development of console software. However, Sega Enterprises was sold to Bally (a large pinball and arcade producer) in 1983. Soon after this, the rest of Sega - which then consisted wholly of Sega of Japan - was sold to an outside group of investors. After this purchase, Sega as a whole, which was still doing what it had been before the changes, officially became Sega Enterprises Ltd.

From then on, Sega earned greater recognition in the West and became more and more successful. Arcade hits Out Run, Shinobi, and After Burner were the reasons for this movement, as well as another creation. In the early '80s, Sega expanded yet again. Where to? Read on...

The Master Plan

Because of the infamous downscaling of the popularity of home consoles, which occurred around 1984, it was make-it or break-it time for the video game industry in America. Consumers were choosing computers over the more expensive and singularly focused consoles, and major video game companies - including Atari and Mattel - were beginning to quit the business. Something big had to happen - something very, very big.

screenshot the Sega Master System in all its glory

While the video game decline in America rapidly grew worse, the Japanese were having the time of their lives. The rather large Game &Watch (and card) company, which later became a game/console developer, released its first home console: the Nintendo Famicom (short for family computer). The success that the system saw was remarkable, and the situation did not look likely to change. Who was the competition for this thriving company known as Nintendo? Sega, with its Mark III console. Unfortunately, in the face of the opposition, the Mark III had no chance. That, however, didn't stop Sega from following Nintendo around the world. When the Famicom, which Nintendo dubbed the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in the US, was released in the States in early 1986, Sega chose to take its machine there as well, albeit three months after the release of its rival's system.

The NES was released at a paltry $159, while the Master System cost a bit more at $200. Unfortunatel y, the Master System fared poorly yet again, despite its technical proficiency. While both were labeled as 8-bit machines, the Master System had four times as much RAM (8KB), eight times as much video RAM (16KB), an impressive audio system, and a processor twice as fast (3.5MHz) as the Famicom's - with some impressive software and a slick system design. Furthermore, the Master System was notable for its ability to play two software formats: cartridges, which were similar to the ones Nintendo used; and the tiny "card" format, which was no bigger than your hand and inexpensive to produce. The latter media failed to catch on, and cartridges were soon dominant. The main reason Sega was unable to gain customers was to the shrewd, wise, and powerful business decisions of one man: Hiroshi Yamauchi, CEO of Nintendo. Because of the success of the NES in Japan, third-party developers had nowhere else to turn if they were to stay in the business. Yamauchi knew this and took advantage when possible. For third parties to produce games for the Famicom, they had to sign a contract with Nintendo. This document required developers to develop only for the NES. Almost all companies had signed this agreement, which left Sega with only itself and two others developing for the system. Because of this, it's little wonder why Nintendo had a 90 percent market share during the NES period.

The Games

Despite the lack of third-party support for the Master System, there were some excellent games for the system - some that, to this day, are furnishing sequels.

Phantasy Star

screenshot the Phantasy Star title screen Sega proved to be a jack-of-all-trades with games like Phantasy Star. A feature that was particularly outstanding in Phantasy Star 1 was that it had 3D dungeons. These dungeons both added to the atmosphere and exhibited what the Master System could do. A great story and innovative battle system ensured Phantasy Star a place in video game history. It also featured a heroine rather than another hero. The title was a relative hit when launched and was recognized by the gaming public as a superb RPG - one that could stand up in the face of Square's Final Fantasy series.

The battle system seemed to have taken inspiration from other games in the genre at the time. The view was from behind the characters you controlled, while a task bar along the bottom revealed health, magic points, and other statistics. Combat was turn-based, and wide ranges of attacks were at your disposal. Although the Master System was hardly the RPG fan's choice, Phantasy Star was adequate for most owners of the machine.

Wonder Boy

screenshot Wonder Boy about to defeat an enemy - he showed no mercy Eight evil monsters are seriously trying to take over the land you love. What do you do? Wonder Boy took it upon himself to defeat these baddies. Ah, the classic plots of the last century's 2D platformers.

Wonder Boy would travel around the eight islands on which the monsters were situated. Each island was divided into four levels that contained a rather hard-end boss. A wide array of weapons and powers were at Wonder Boy's disposal while he kept his own energy to a sufficient level, which involved eating various fruits. Bonus stages were there for those who could find them, and this proved to be very challenging.

The same cute, cartoonesque graphics were employed in this game, as were on all titles of the genre. But where the game shone was through its simple controls. Hours of enjoyment could be had in one session, but it would take many sessions to get through the whole game.

In 1990, after Phantasy Star and Wonder Boy, a new Sega system was released. Again, it came with little public recognition and saw only minor success. This new machine was the Game Gear, a cartridge-based handheld that used Master System technology. It could achieve color, and it offered ports of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games - Shinobi, Columns, and plenty of other enjoyable titles. The problem was that it wore out batteries quickly. Add to that Sega's tarnis hed reputation due to the company's previous consoles, and the Game Gear had little chance of succeeding. Oh, and there was some competition. Something called a Game Boy?

Genesis

In 1989, Sega tried a second time to take control of the home video game market with the Sega Genesis. This time, the story would be different, as Sega was keen to ensure. Nintendo's contractual grip on third-party developers was lifted in a court setting, and Sega's machine was quickly becoming heavily supported. Major companies like Electronic Arts strongly supported the machine, as well as many newer, lesser-known developers. Sega also advertised the Genesis aggressively and extensively. screenshot The Sega Genesis The superb timing of the release (well before Nintendo's next effort in the console market, the SNES or Super Nintendo Entertainment System, known as Super Famicom in Japan) was another major factor in its original success, as well as the attractive price: $190. Another important factor, however, was that the Genesis had a superb catalog of games that could attract anyone. It was the first machine to boast backward compatibility (in the Genesis' case with its predecessor, the Master System), too, which was made possible through the Power Base Converter, which was released at the same time as the system. The system boasted a 7.6MHz processor (more than twice that of the Master System), a color palette of 512, audio ability that was superior to other consoles of the time, and, perhaps most importantly, a 16-bit CPU - twice that of the Master System and NES.

Competition was practically nonexistent (NEC's TurboGrafx-16 being the closest rival to the Genesis upon release), and it left consumers with little question as to what to buy when looking for a console. The NES was aging, and Nintendo knew it. This brought about the making of the Super NES. Sega realized that it had a serious competitor in this new system. The Genesis' already well-established user base gave Nintendo a hard time when it tried to gain customers upon release of the SNES, and Sega's machine outsold Nintendo's for some time.

In 1991, the Genesis, and thus, Sega created a mascot. This little character's first game hit a chord with the masses and established him as a legend in gaming. Of course, we are talking about Sonic the Hedgehog (which was later ported to the Master System and Game Gear). Kids around the globe bought all they could of what bore the little rodent's image. Sonic had added to Sega's popularity immeasurably, and rightly so. The original remains a classic.

After years of virtually no mistakes, Sega finally began to slip up here and there - only to fall flat on its face later. The downfall began in 1992. The SNES was becoming more and more popular, and Sega was gradually being left behind. Late in the year, the long-awaited and far-overhyped - but very nice-looking - Sega CD Genesis add-on was released. The Sega CD hardware unit upgraded the Genesis, and it could even play its own software, albeit on CD media. The software catalog was entirely separate from the Genesis', so, in essence, the add-on was a separate game machine, but it worked in conjunction with the Genesis. A lack of software - particularly that of the decent nature - was a huge deterrent, and even more so was the huge price of $299, which was almost twice the asking price of the Genesis upon its release.

screenshot click to enlarge

Although the Sega CD, when added to the Sega Master System, drastically increased the power of what the two systems combined could achieve, few developers bothered to make use of these technical capabilities. A few years later, Sega again tried to upgrade the Genesis. The add-on this time was the 32X. The 32X was, in every sense of the word, an upgrade of the Genesis and Sega CD. You could work the add-on by inserting it into the Genesis' cartridge slot and then putting your software into the 32X. screenshot click to enlarge While it couldn't play its own software, the software developed for it - throu gh either the Genesis or Sega CD - had far greater technology at its fingertips: a color palette of 32,000, a 32-bit CPU, and the ability to texture map, amongst other tasks. Despite initial sales that gave off the impression that Sega had done something right, things quickly took a turn for the worse, and the 32X's popularity dropped considerably. The reason for this downfall, yet again, was a lack of decent software. Also, the industry was getting ready for a real step forward - full-blown 32-bit CD-based consoles.

The Genesis was much better supported in software terms than the Master System, and because of this - amidst many losers there turned out to be many classics.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sega's closest rival, Nintendo, had created a mascot whose games would sell millions upon millions and become synonymous with the company. Does the name Mario mean anything to you? Sega, on the other hand, had no such character until the release of this title. Sonic the Hedgehog was Sega's Mario.

screenshot the classic Sonic the Hedgehog

In the first Sonic game, the object was to travel through the levels in hopes of reaching the end, where the evil Dr. Robotnik trapped numerous animals inside a container. Dr. Robotnik was the bad guy who needed a lesson - and he came back at the end of every world for another beating.

Speed was what Sonic was all about. In fact, he tried very hard to be the opposite of Mario.

screenshot Sonic the Hedgehog

Instead of being a small, fat Italian plumber living in America, Sonic was a "dude with attitude." No red dungarees for Sonic - just his metallic blue hedgehog hair (a feature found on most hedgehogs) and a mean pair of sneakers. In his games, Mario slowly made his way through the level, stopping for warp pipes containing those man-eating flowers. Sonic stopped for nothing, except maybe a chilidog. Yes, my friends, Sega tried to make Sonic both a mascot for Sega and the youth of yesterday. And for a while, this worked. Sonic was the name on everyone's lips around the school playground. Unfortunately, the phenomenon didn't last. The next two installments in the series were, by many accounts, identical copies of the original. The phenomenon wore down for a bit, and spin-off after spin-off was released to rekindle Sonic's fire. It didn't happen for a while.

Shining Force

screenshot the superb battle system that was featured throughout the series

Most RPGs of the day were using the same battle systems that had been used since the dawn of the genre: the turn-based combat system, found in most Squaresoft RPGs. But Sega came up with something fresh and original for its new RPG - a very strategic method. Although it was still turn-based, it was vastly different from anything before it. Battles were fought as if your team were an army. You would be situated at one end of a large field, or any other terrain, and would have to move to meet your opponent on the other side of the "arena." This isn't as easy, because it sounds as if your character can move only a certain distance each go. And, of course, if you move to an area and then your enemy takes his turn, if he can get to you, you're going to be attacked. It's all very, very strategic. Fortunately, the battles were surprisingly enjoyable - perhaps more so than the more commonly used turn-based method of the time.

screenshot Shining Force

Shining Force's plot was a little poor compared with what was being put out by other developers. It was easily the weakest point of the game; a little work on it would have gone down well and saved it from being all too much like a children's story. Instead, a familiar plot of hero-defeats-the-bad-guy emerged.

The SNES was always the RPG fan's choice - Square made sure of that by offering such titles as Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and many others that hold up the RPG mantle to this day. The original Shining Force and its successors were all worthwhile titles, though, and they satisfied most Genesis owners who were looking for a solid RPG.

Rings of Saturn

Sega's

reputation was torn and frayed after the fiasco with Genesis add-ons. Despite this, few predicted the outcome of the succeeding battle of the consoles. Until the Saturn era, Sega's only rival had been Nintendo, as well as the other way around. Then a new company entered the scene. A giant electronics firm: Sony. Sony had already established itself with such devices as the Walkman, Discman, and its range of TV, hi-fi, and other electronic goods. Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation wasn't its first taste of the video game industry, though. A few years earlier, the company had been codeveloping a Super Nintendo add-on, as was the fashion at the time - creating add-ons to power up a system instead of creating a better system. It was a CD-based affair, but the deal between Nintendo and Sony fell through, and the add-on was never released. But Sony had learned a lot in the time it had been working with the Big N. This knowledge was put to use on the new console, and the result was quite pleasing. The outcome was the PlayStation - which today still holds the top spot in the video game market. The system was a stroll for developers, and top companies such as Psygnosis, Square, and Namco all focused on PlayStation development.

Meanwhile, Sega was having problems. The market was looking for movement; Sony offered it in the form of 3D games - now an industry standard. However, Sega's new system, the 32-bit Saturn, was primarily designed for 2D games, as could be seen in the level of quality found in the many 2D titles by Capcom, Treasure, and SNK. Unfortunately, the consumers wanted 3D games, and the developers wanted to make them. As a result of the pressure that was put on Sega, the company quickly put the technology for 3D capability into the Saturn, which led to the insides of the Saturn being something of a mess. Further, developers had problems getting to grips with Sega's machine, and they found it to be a difficult task to develop for. Sony, however, had created a machine that was surprisingly easy for developers to handle, and the smaller companies knew straight away which machine to aim for. Most of the larger developers also took this view and left Sega with only a handful of third parties developing for the Saturn. Fortunately, a few stayed with Sega, noticeably the aforementioned Capcom, Treasure, and SNK. These strongly supported the machine, and, along with Sega's many arcade conversions, defined the Saturn as the ultimate hard-core gamer's machine. Capcom and SNK's support for the Saturn in the West was not quite so strong, and few of the hits that were recognized as the Saturn's greatest in Japan were converted for US release.

A high price and poor marketing left the Saturn unable to cope with the competition. Its mess of a release was quite the opposite that of its rival, the PlayStation. Upon release, the Saturn weighed in at a massive $399, while the PlayStation was more affordable at $299. The extra $100 that Sega asked for its machine crossed the line of affordability for most American consumers. Generally, only hard-core Sega fans went straight for the machine on launch. As well as this high price, Sega's marketing of the system was dangerously poor compared with Sony's aggressive advertising. The PlayStation was regularly seen on TV advertisements, as well as ads in posters and game magazines.

screenshot the Saturn's rival and destroyer, the PlayStation

Sony also advertised in a place that other video game companies had not tried before - mature magazines. Sony aimed its console toward, amongst other age groups, 20-somethings and believed its machine would attract this audience through more mature games such as Resident Evil, WipEout and Tomb Raider. Fortunately for Sony, it worked - to some degree. The newcomers to the market had straight-away succeeded in changing the face of video games from the nerdy kid alone in his bedroom playing Dungeons &Dragons to a form of entertainment accepted by society and, more importantly, enjoyed by most age groups. Namco had the driving game Ridge Racer and th e now-popular fighter Tekken ready for the PlayStation's launch in September of 1995, while Psygnosis offered the very popular racer WipEout - which contributed massively to the PlayStation's "cool" appearance. WipEout also attracted teens and those desirable 20-somethings to the system through the soundtrack that featured well-known techno and electronic acts such as Underworld, Chemical Brothers, and The Prodigy. Meanwhile, Sega did little in the way of advertising.

While Sony's machine was popularizing video games, Sega was providing hard-core gamers - the very people that cause the industry's anoraklike image, bless them - with what they wanted: plenty of very Japanese games, games with perhaps less flash and more dedication to serious gameplay. Indeed, the whole situation of the system (nonmass market, quite popular in the East, and strong software support in the land of the rising sun) ensured the machine to be the definition of a hard-core gamer's system.

Arcade conversions for Sega's latest system were coming through often, but almost always well done in spite of the quantity. Among the first generation of Saturn titles, Sega Rally was a foremost example of what Sega's machine could achieve. Visually, Sega Rally Championship was on par with its arcade cousin, and on a playability level, quite faithful to the real thing, particularly when in use with the Arcade Racer Stick. Titles like this came through continually throughout the Saturn's life, including Dead or Alive, Fighters Megamix, X-men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Superheroes, King of Fighters '95, Fighting Vipers 2, and many others. In Japan, there were far too many to mention, since third-party support is much more wholehearted overseas.

Despite the hordes of superb software that the Saturn had, Sony could not be beaten. The marketing of the PlayStation was too strong for Sega to contend with, support for the machine from developers was always growing, and the people wanted quantity over quality. Sega was down and out. The life and times of the Saturn were strangely similar to that of Sega's first home console, the Master System, which unfortunately ended in the loss of Sega's popularity in a massive, massive way. For the release of its next machine, Sega had some serious work to do in the PR as well as the R&D departments.

For the arcade fan, there has never been a better system than the Saturn. Support from Capcom, SNK, and Sega was strong, and many, many arcade-converted titles were released. However, western releases were nothing in the face of the amount of superb titles available for the Saturn in Japan.

Sega Rally Championship

screenshot Sega Rally on the Saturn was a major hit at its launch

Sega Rally had made quite a name for itself in arcades by the time the Saturn was released. The playability and visuals were amazing on the arcade version, and questions arose as to whether or not Sega would be able to faithfully convert Sega Rally to its new system. All fears were put to rest when the game was seen or played. The thrills and speed of the arcade remained, as did the sublime graphics. The Saturn's controller didn't really seem suited to such a game at first, but again, few people had problems with the handling - although the experience was amplified by the Arcade Racer Stick.

Replay value reigned, rather than number of tracks. The ability to beat your own best times and to aim for the championship one level higher, as well as the infallible two-player mode all added much depth, ensuring Sega Rally to be more than just an arcade conversion. Basically, if you haven't got this game, get it.

Panzer Dragoon Saga

screenshot Much-overlooked adventure RPG, Panzer Dragoon Saga from Team Andromeda

As one of the later releases on the Saturn, Panzer Dragoon Saga was much overlooked by the masses - and undeservedly so. The four-disc game was absolutely amazing - it was an epic. The storyline was like nothing before it, and as for the battles, the real-time sequences that focused on specific strike points were top of the line. As of r ecent, few games in the RPG genre have innovated as much as Panzer Dragoon Saga has. Couple the enjoyable, action-based battles with an incredible storyline and tens of hours of playing time, and you have quite a modern classic.

Along with Shining Force 3, Panzer Dragoon Saga could have been the Saturn's saving grace. However, a lack of marketing and the fact that few people cared about the machine at that point stopped both games from gaining the recognition they should have received.

Dreams Are Cast

The console that succeeded the Saturn had a tough job ahead of it. Again, Sega's reputation was in pieces, and with the PlayStation still going strong when the Dreamcast was due to be released in 1999, the company once again had to go up against the mighty Sony. Sega had continued to release superb arcade titles throughout the Saturn's downfall and onward. The astonishing visuals of Virtua Fighter 3 and other titles around that period gave a glimpse of what Sega's new machine would achieve. By most accounts, the Dreamcast lived up to people's expectations.

screenshot The Dreamcast boasts a futuristic and compact design - and it's white!

Upon its release in September of 1999, the biggest threat to the Dreamcast was the PlayStation. In technical performance, there's nothing in it; the Dreamcast far outperforms Sony's machine. Compared with Sony's now-considered-weak 32-bit CPU, Sega has an impressive 128-bit central processor. It also has a 128-bit graphics chip, that can achieve 3 million polygons a second (the pinnacle of its product so far being the amazingly lifelike 3D adventure game Shenmue). The Dreamcast also boasts a 56K modem, superintelligent sound processor with 32-bit RISC CPU (64-channel ADPCM), and a 16.77 million color palette.

A number of accessories are available for the system; some go hand in hand with its online capabilities. For example, a Dreamcast keyboard is available, as is a mouse. The Dreamcast memory card, called a VMU, features a small LCD screen in the style of Tamagotchi handhelds as well as the ability to store up to 128K of information. The small accessory is slotted into the port on the back of the Dreamcast control pad, which makes the data you've stored on it available for use. Not quite as improvisational is the Dreamcast Jump Pack, which was inspired by Nintendo's Rumble Pack. The Jump Pack does a job similar to Nintendo's product; it provides a rumble, or feedback, when the feature is available in the game that you happen to be playing. For example, when you are hit in Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram, you receive a solid dose of rumbling from the Jump Pack. The experience of playing a game is often amplified extensively by this little device, and it provides a simulation of what it feels like onscreen.

Sega has also launched SegaNet, its own Internet Service Provider for the Dreamcast. This ISP is built specifically for online gameplay. SegaNet also lets users play 3D multiplayer games, send e-mail, chat, find codes, or browse the Internet, and it offers game players a community built specifically with them in mind. Brad Huang, president and CEO of Sega.com, told GameSpot, "SegaNet is building the first online console gaming network for gamers across the country and will permanently change the face of the gaming industry." Whether his hopes and aspirations will be realized is something we look forward to seeing in the near future.

Since it's launch, NFL2K1 has been the most popular title that uses SegaNet. If the amount of success online that this game has enjoyed can be seen from other games with online components, SegaNet will be a huge success for Sega and will also confirm that the ability to play online games on a console is something that people actually want.

Another game with a notable online component is NBA 2K1. The distinctly Japanese puzzle game Chu Chu Rocket pioneered the online ability of the Dreamcast, and it is one of the more notable games to feature only multiplayer modes - although it isn't exactly the best repre sentation of online gaming's potential, due to its limited playability. Both Quake III Arena, the popular first-person shooter, and Phantasy Star Online, Sega's online role-playing game, are now available for Dreamcast online and offline play; and another high-profile shooter, Unreal Tournament, is on the way. And other Dreamcast games, like Daytona USA and the recently announced Phantasy Star Online sequel will make further use of the Dreamcast's online capabilities.

The Future

By most accounts, 2001 will be a monumental year for the games industry. Aside from the imminent launch of two major industry-shaking console systems--Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube--Sega, a company whose very name (to some) is synonymous with gaming, has gone through a radical metamorphosis. Many may mourn Sega's withdrawal from the hardware market, and with good reason: Those gamers invariably grew up with Sega being almost a household name, with its consoles and games seeming inextricably linked. The thought of a Virtua Fighter game running on a non-Sega box seems nearly blasphemous to the dedicated fan. Couple this with the Dreamcast's splendid software library, which really did much to inspire faith in many of those whose allegiance to the company was flagging, and the vexation of the fans seems perfectly justified.

Unfortunately, the writing's been on the wall for a while. Sega's division of its internal development groups into semiautonomous studios was a really big hint. Also, who could forget the "rumors" throughout the industry regarding Acclaim's alleged plans to publish a PS2 version of Crazy Taxi? And the recent, wholly ungrounded, to-do about Nintendo's buying out Sega? With rumors like that in the air, many canny industry watchers were simply awaiting the fateful announcement.

And come it did. Peter Moore, Sega's president and CEO, officially dropped the bomb, to no one's surprise, in the early morning of Wednesday, January 31, 2001. While Sega of Japan indirectly confirmed much during a press conference the previous week, many were waiting to hear it directly from the US horse's mouth. After all, compared to the dismal sales that the Dreamcast experienced in Japan, its stateside prospects seemed comparatively bright.

At any rate, Sega cited the growing costs of supporting a hardware platform as the chief motivation for its restructuring. To quote Peter Moore, "The real truth about the video game industry is that it is becoming harder and harder to turn a profit with a hardware platform. The average loss on a piece of video game hardware is between $50 and $200. By the time the system hits shelves, most hardware companies are in the hole due to warehousing, shipping, and marketing costs. With increased development costs, someone is going to have to pay, but it certainly won't be the consumer." Moore also cited the large coffers enjoyed by console-market newcomers (relatively speaking) Sony and Microsoft as a reason for the restructure: "With the hardware game becoming increasingly competitive--especially for companies like Sega, whose pockets are not as deep as our competitors'--we've chosen to place our bets on our software, our heritage, and our proven track record." In fewer words, Sega considers the Dreamcast to be the deadweight that is keeping it from realizing profitability--which it hopes the strength of its games will help it achieve.

Not that any of this should disappoint Sega's legions of fans. Quite the opposite: by focusing on its games, Sega is letting itself do what it does best, unfettered by the labor of supporting a flagging console platform. This is a very exciting time for Sega and the games industry as a whole. We've gained yet another mover and shaker, whose influence will ultimately yield what we love best: great games.

Consoles

   * 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 Syste

m III - less-expensive and less popular retooled successors to the Master System. The Master System III was only available in Brazil.

   * 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 Neptune - A Sega Megadrive/32X hybrid. It never passed the prototype stage.
   * 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.

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 - Known for the Jet Set Radio series
   * AM7 became OverWorks -
   * AM8 became Sonic Team - renamed 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. Later, following a reshuffle Sega merged some of these teams together. Sammy has expressed an interest in merging the above teams back into Sega, and did so on July 1st, 2004.

Historical Legal Cases

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.

Links

http://www.sega.com