Difference between revisions of "Sega"

From Sega Retro

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==Business interests==
 
==Business interests==
 
===Amusement machines===
 
===Amusement machines===
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[[File:Ufocatcher9.jpg|thumb||''[[UFO Catcher 9]]'', one of the latest in the line of lucrative ''UFO Catcher'' machines.]]
 
For most of its existence, Sega has been catering for the amusement industry, and alongside [[Namco]] and [[Taito]], was seen as one of the major players in the Japanese market during the second half of the 20th century. While the sector has declined from its heights in the 1980s and early 1990s, Sega remains a prolific manufacturer of arcade machines, placing a specific emphasis on its home market of Japan.
 
For most of its existence, Sega has been catering for the amusement industry, and alongside [[Namco]] and [[Taito]], was seen as one of the major players in the Japanese market during the second half of the 20th century. While the sector has declined from its heights in the 1980s and early 1990s, Sega remains a prolific manufacturer of arcade machines, placing a specific emphasis on its home market of Japan.
  
 
The bulk of Sega's amusement machine business involves the creation of "rhythm" games and networked titles, sometimes relying on a physical component such as cards allowing players to save their progress or high scores.
 
The bulk of Sega's amusement machine business involves the creation of "rhythm" games and networked titles, sometimes relying on a physical component such as cards allowing players to save their progress or high scores.
 +
 +
In addition, since 1985 Sega has been producing ''[[:Category:UFO Catcher|UFO Catcher]]'' machines; popular "crane" games which have been a permanent fixture of Japanese game centres since the late 1980s. As well as constructing the cabinets themselves, Sega also distribute the prizes.
  
 
===Video games===
 
===Video games===
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===Entertainment venues===
 
===Entertainment venues===
[[File:Joypolis Tokyo.jpg|thumb|260px|[[Tokyo Joypolis]], the first indoor theme park opened by Sega.]]
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[[File:Joypolis Tokyo 3.jpg|thumb|[[Tokyo Joypolis]], the first indoor theme park opened by Sega.]]
 
In addition to producing amusement machines, Sega owns a large portfolio of properties in which consumers can access them. Sega opened the first of its many Japanese "game centers" in the late 1960s, likely peaking at 870 sites across Japan in 1999{{fileref|AnnualReport1999 English.pdf|page=14}}, including an array of [[Joypolis]] indoor amusement parts, [[Sega World]] and [[Club Sega]] amusement arcades, and a number of spa and leisure facilities. It also operates the [[Orbi]] indoor nature attraction, developed in conjunction with BBC Worldwide.
 
In addition to producing amusement machines, Sega owns a large portfolio of properties in which consumers can access them. Sega opened the first of its many Japanese "game centers" in the late 1960s, likely peaking at 870 sites across Japan in 1999{{fileref|AnnualReport1999 English.pdf|page=14}}, including an array of [[Joypolis]] indoor amusement parts, [[Sega World]] and [[Club Sega]] amusement arcades, and a number of spa and leisure facilities. It also operates the [[Orbi]] indoor nature attraction, developed in conjunction with BBC Worldwide.
  
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While Sega Toys continues to exist, it is currently managed as a separate entity within Sega Sammy Holdings.
 
While Sega Toys continues to exist, it is currently managed as a separate entity within Sega Sammy Holdings.
  
 
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==Notable products==
 
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<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
 
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SegaBellD SlotMachine.jpg|''[[Sega Bell]]'' (1957), rebranded ''High Top'' slot machines from Mills, and the first product to bear the "Sega" name.
 
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Sega1000 Jukebox.jpg|''[[Sega 1000]]'' (1960), Sega's first home-grown product. Cheap jukeboxes negating the need for imports in Japan.
 
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Periscope flyer1.jpg|''[[Periscope]]'' (1966), Sega's first successful electro-mechanical arcade machine.
{{cleanup}}
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Zaxxon Arcade US Cabinet.jpg|''[[Zaxxon]]'' (1982), a staple of US arcades in the early 1980s.
 
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UFOCatcher.jpg|''[[UFO Catcher]]'' (1985), the genesis of crane games in Japan.
==Arcades==
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MDAdd-ons.jpg|The [[Sega Mega Drive]] (1988), pictured here with its many add-ons: the [[Sega Mega-CD]], [[32X]], [[Mega Modem]] and [[Mega-CD Karaoke|Karaoke]].
 
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VirtuaRacing Arcade Cabinet Deluxe.jpg|''[[Virtua Racing]]'' (1992), milestone in the video game racing genre.
 
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PrintClub cabinet.jpg|''[[Print Club]]'' (1995), a phenomeon amongst Japanese teenagers in the late 1990s.
Sega has had a strong presence in the [[arcade]] industry since the 1960s. It initially produced [[:Category:Electro-mechanical games|electro-mechanical games]] in the 1960s and 1970s, before moving on to arcade video games in the 1970s.
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Dreamcast.jpg|The [[Dreamcast]] (1998), Sega's online-enabled "super console", and an end of an era.
 
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</gallery>
In the 1980s and 1990s arcade scene, Sega went from strength to strength, leading the market with hits such as ''[[Space Harrier]]'', ''[[OutRun]]'' and ''[[After Burner]]'' before becoming a driving force behind 3D gaming in ''[[Virtua Racing]]'' and the massively successful ''[[Virtua Fighter]]''. It also saw success in other areas - its ''[[UFO Catcher]]'' line of crane games continues to this day. In the 21th century its networked arcade franchises such as ''[[:Category:World Club Champion Football|World Club Champion Football]]'' and ''[[Border Break]]'' remain unrivalled. Western arcades began to declne with the arrival of home consoles. However in Japan, Sega's eleborate cabinets kept costumers interrested in going to arcades with experiences not avaible at home.{{ref|http://segabits.com/blog/2016/08/25/sega-retrospective-deeper-arcade-game-oxymoron-became-one-segas-pillars/}}
 
 
 
Since the 1960s, Sega has been opening its own arcade centres, peaking in the 1990s when hundreds of ''[[Hi-Tech Land Sega]]'', ''[[Sega World]]'' and ''[[Club Sega]]'' venues were spread across Japan. It also operates its own indoor [[Joypolis]] theme parks, and has claims to resorts and restaurants. Sega arcades have also operated (albeit at a much smaller scale) in the US and across Europe, peaking with its line of [[GameWorks]] arcades in the early 2000s.
 
 
 
As arcades began to decline in the late 1990s, so too did Sega focus in the arcade market. Forced to innovate to keep customers, Sega's sees itself in the position of keeping the Japanese arcade market alive. Equally many of its arcade hits such as ''[[Daytona USA]]'' and ''[[Sega Rally Championship]]'' remain in active service worlwide more than twenty years after release.
 
 
 
==Video game consoles==
 
1983 marked a turning point for Sega. after it entered an increasingly crowded Japanese video game console and home computer market with its latest invention, the [[SG-1000]] (and computer counterpart, the [[SC-3000]]). Between 1983 and 1985 many significant recruitments were made for this new "consumer products" division that would shape the company's image in the decades that followed, and while the SG-1000 was unable to unseat [[Nintendo]] and their Family Computer, support from its arcade business kept them firmly in the game. It was also one of the few Japanese systems to make it across the border, making a limited mark on Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Sweden and parts of Asia.
 
[[File:MDAdd-ons.jpg|thumb|260px|The [[Sega Mega Drive]] with it's many add-ons: the [[Sega Mega-CD]], [[32X]], [[Mega Modem]] and [[Mega-CD Karaoke|Karaoke]].]]
 
Next came the [[Sega Mark III]] in 1985, a more competitive system ready to take on Nintendo coupled with a plan to launch overseas. In its redesigned [[Sega Master System]] form, Sega started to become a household name, appearing in various guises not only in Japan, but across North America, Europe and Brazil. While a distant second in Japan and the US, the Master System triumphed in smaller markets, not least to its unique ties to Sega's industry-leading arcade divisions.
 
 
 
Sega entered perhaps its most successful period in the western market with the 16-bit [[Sega Mega Drive]] in 1988, capturing not only the lion's share of the market in Europe, but regularly unseating Nintendo's dominance in the US. The invention of company mascot [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] and [[Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)|his ground-breaking video game]] revolutionised the industry at large, but did little to impress its Japanese homeland. Extensions in the [[Sega Mega-CD]] and [[Sega 32X]] struggled to gain traction, but the company saw reasonable success through it's full colour portable handheld system, the [[Sega Game Gear]].
 
 
 
The early 1990s also saw Sega as a driving force behind video game content regulation, following the North American controversies surrounding ''[[Night Trap]]'' and ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''. Sega's contribution in the US was the [[Videogame Rating Council]] - a system to highlight potentially inapprorpate games for younger children. Sega of America were at the forefront of this debate, and [[Tom Kalinske]] was happy to accept the eventual establishment of the [[Entertainment Software Rating Board]], which has been the de-facto regulator of North American video games since 1994. Elsewhere Sega pushed its own ratings systems, and despite the creation of the Japanese [[Computer Entertainment Rating Organization]] 2002, continues to add extra warnings (entirely of its own accord) for violent content.  
 
[[File:GLocR360 Arcade Cabinet.jpg|thumb|right|260px|The [[R360]] cabinet can rotate 360 degrees on three axes.]]
 
With the 32-bit [[Sega Saturn]], Sega's console fortunes were reversed in Japan, unfortunately at the expense of everywhere else. While initially strong, the Saturn tore apart the firm in the US, and led to the company's first recorded loss for the year ending March 1998.
 
 
 
Attempts at revival were made with the internet-focused [[Sega Dreamcast]] the following November, but despite a strong selection of games and a devoted fanbase, the company found itself unwilling and unable to compete against its peers in the [[PlayStation 2]], [[Xbox]] and [[Nintendo GameCube]]. In January 2001 the firm abandoned its home console ambitions, focusing instead as a third-party developer and publisher.
 
 
 
==Merger with Sammy==
 
[[File:SegaHeads 2001.jpg|thumb|260px|Big names at Sega, circa 2001 (clockwise from top left): [[Rikiya Nakagawa]], [[Yu Suzuki]], [[Toshihiro Nagoshi]], [[Kenji Sasaki]], [[Shun Arai]], [[Tetsuya Mizuguchi]], [[Tetsu Kayama]], [[Yuji Naka]], [[Yukifumi Makino]], [[Hisao Oguchi]] and [[Noriyoshi Oba]].]]
 
The demise of the Dreamcast saw Sega focus its efforts as a third-party video game manufacturer, aiming to be the largest of its kind by March 2004{{fileref|Edge UK 104.pdf|page=7}}. But financial troubles eventually saw it merged with pachinko-firm [[Sammy]], leading it to operate under a collective [[Sega Sammy Holdings]] holding company.
 
 
 
In the third party era, Sega has had little mass market success in the western market, with the exception of the long-standing ''[[Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' franchise which has endured wide flunctations of quality. On the flip-end, Sega has been successfull at carving out niches with the western PC strategy market, as well mobile and arcade titles aimed at Asian audiences. Recently Sega also made an unpreecented move in completly replacing their former american branch in the San Francisco area, with that of video game localization experts [[Atlus USA]].
 
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
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==References==
 
==References==
 
<references />
 
<references />
 
  
 
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Revision as of 06:40, 14 May 2017

Sega (セガ) is an international digital entertainment and media company currently headquartered in Ota, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in the mid-1940s, Sega experienced rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s to become one of the dominant forces in its field. It remains to this day a major player in the worldwide video game industry, covering arcade, console, handheld, mobile and PC markets.

Since 2004, Sega operates under a collective holding company known as Sega Sammy Holdings, formed after a merger between what was then Sega Corporation and Sammy Corporation. In April 2015 the Sega side of the business was sub-divided into three; Sega Games, handling the video game consumer business, Sega Interactive, which deals with the development and production of arcade games, and Sega Entertainment, responsible for the running of commercial venues[1]. In practice, all divisions and groups within the company are generally referred to and known collectively as "Sega".

History

Main article: History of Sega.

Business interests

Amusement machines

UFO Catcher 9, one of the latest in the line of lucrative UFO Catcher machines.

For most of its existence, Sega has been catering for the amusement industry, and alongside Namco and Taito, was seen as one of the major players in the Japanese market during the second half of the 20th century. While the sector has declined from its heights in the 1980s and early 1990s, Sega remains a prolific manufacturer of arcade machines, placing a specific emphasis on its home market of Japan.

The bulk of Sega's amusement machine business involves the creation of "rhythm" games and networked titles, sometimes relying on a physical component such as cards allowing players to save their progress or high scores.

In addition, since 1985 Sega has been producing UFO Catcher machines; popular "crane" games which have been a permanent fixture of Japanese game centres since the late 1980s. As well as constructing the cabinets themselves, Sega also distribute the prizes.

Video games

Sega has been directly involved in the home "consumer" video game market since 1983, doubling up in the first eighteen years as a hardware manufacturer. During this time the company has created a number of lucrative franchises which are still actively maintained to this day, most notably the Sonic the Hedgehog series whose eponymous lead character has become a mascot for the company.

Sega supports home video game consoles and handhelds from platform holders Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, as well as mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and the PC market, supported by Western subsidiaries The Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Relic Entertainment.

The company has a number of internal development studios based in Japan, with resources often shared between consumer and arcade projects. With the exception of localisation support and marketing, very little development work currently resides outside of Japan, with Sega winding down Sega of America's R&D departments in the late 1990s.

With the purchasing of Index Holdings in the summer of 2013, Atlus now resides as part of the Sega-Sammy family and also shares development resouces with Sega's Japanese studios.

Entertainment venues

Tokyo Joypolis, the first indoor theme park opened by Sega.

In addition to producing amusement machines, Sega owns a large portfolio of properties in which consumers can access them. Sega opened the first of its many Japanese "game centers" in the late 1960s, likely peaking at 870 sites across Japan in 1999[2], including an array of Joypolis indoor amusement parts, Sega World and Club Sega amusement arcades, and a number of spa and leisure facilities. It also operates the Orbi indoor nature attraction, developed in conjunction with BBC Worldwide.

In addition, Sega owns and operates Sega Republic in the UAE and a small number of venues in Taiwan and China. Cashflow problems, its merger with Sammy and subsequent restructuring in the mid-2000s led to Sega parting with many of its overseas entertainment venues, including the GameWorks chain in the US, Sega Worlds stationed in Australia and South Korea, and its numerous arcades spread across Europe, most notably the Joypolis-inspired SegaWorld London in 1999.

The existence of dedicated venues has allowed Sega to create much larger projects over the years, including indoor rides and movie theaters. They have also proved convenient spots for location testing of arcade machines.

Toys

A takeover of Yonezawa Toys in 1994 led to the creation of what would eventually become known as Sega Toys in 1998. As the largest post-War toy manufacturer in Japan, Yonezawa's incoporation into the Sega family meant that, for a time, Sega was a market leader in the Japanese toy market, with strong links to Hasbro in the United States.

While Sega Toys continues to exist, it is currently managed as a separate entity within Sega Sammy Holdings.

Notable products

External links

References

Early Sega
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Service Games Gulf+Western
Service Games, Hawaii & Nevada & Japan Nihon Goraku Bussan & Nihon Kikai Seizou Sega Enterprises, Inc.
Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Sega Ltd. & Gremlin Sega Ltd.


Timeline of Sega of Japan research and development divisions








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Overseas Sega companies, studios and subsidiaries
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CSK Sega Sammy Holdings
Sega of America
Sega Technical Institute
Sega Away Team
Sega Europe
Sega France Sega France
Sega Consumer Products S.A Sega Spain
Sega Vertriebsgesellschaft Sega Austria
Sega Interactive
Sega Deutschland Sega Germany
Sega Amusements Taiwan Sega Taiwan
Sega Denmark
Sega Belgium
Sega Netherlands
Sega Multimedia Studio
Sega Midwest Studio
Sega Amusements USA
Deith Leisure Sega Amusements Europe Sega Amusements International
Sega Total Solutions
Sega Prize Europe
Sega Music Group
SegaSoft
Sega Entertainment
Hyundai-Sega Entertainment
Sega Enterprises Israel
No Cliche
Sega of America Dreamcast
Sonic Team USA Sega Studios USA
Visual Concepts
Sega.com
Sega.com Asia
Sega of China
Sega Mobile Sega Networks Inc.
Sega Publishing Korea
The Creative Assembly
Sega (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd
Sega Benelux
Sega Studios San Francisco
Sports Interactive
Sega Studios Australia
Three Rings Design
Relic Entertainment
Atlus USA
Demiurge Studios
Go Game
Sonic Studio
Amplitude Studios
Sonic Team USA