Sega Mobile

Sega Mobile was a division established within Sega of America to tackle the then-emerging mobile video games market. It was founded in April 2002 and initially run by Ryoichi Shiratsuchi. Sega Mobile was responsible for Sega's mobile content in North America - other regions of the world were handled differently.

Sega Mobile was established as part of an initial mobile "boom" in the early-2000s, as mobile phone and handheld PDA technology was accelerating at a rapid pace. Sega had already been catering for such a market in Japan, where at the time of this US branch's launch, was estimated to involve 2.5 million users subscribing to "wireless content". It was widely expected by industry analysts that similar growth would occur stateside, leading to a multi-billion dollar industry for Sega to take advantage of.

Sega Mobile was not the first venture into this market for Sega (a deal with Motorola was announced in June 2000 for their line of iDEN-enabled handsets), but it was the first concentrated effort to bring multiple games to multiple handheld platforms. Progress began in May 2002 after a deal was signed with US carrier Sprint, the first game being Sega Monkey Ball.

Sega Mobile added other carriers to its list towards the end of the year and into 2003, including Pocket PC, AT&T Wireless mMode, BREW and Palm OS. It later made a deal with publisher Handago to increase the number of distribution outlets.

Sega Mobile charged for its games, which were downloaded through 3G services. The bulk of Sega Mobile's software originated from Japan, though the US operation never matched the volume or diversity of titles available in that region. Products for Nokia's N-Gage platform, also released around this period, were not handled by Sega Mobile, with responsibilities instead going to the parent company.

Sega Mobile continued its operations throughout the decade, however accelerated change in the mobile market led to two dominant mobile platforms; iOS and Android. Sega Networks was established in 2012 to cater for this new smartphone market - Sega Mobile subsequently found itself without platforms to support, and so likely folded back into Sega of America.

Softography

J2ME

• Sega Monkey Ball (2002)
• Baku Baku Animal (2002)
• Flicky (2002)
• Pengo (2002)
• Puyo Puyo (2002)
• Sega Fast Lane (2002)
• Sega Pet TV (2002)
• Sega Snowboarding (2002)
• Home Run King (2002)
• Sega Soccer Slam (2002)
• AiAi's Fun House (2003)
• Fantasy Zone (2003)
• Depth Charge (2003)
• Break the Eggs (2003)
• Krazy Kings (2003)
• Tricky Third (2003)
• Penguin Luv (2003)
• Sega Sports Mobile Golf (2003)
• Space Gunner (2003)
• Galaxy Patrol (2003)
• Blob Buster (2003)
• Sega Sports Mobile Baseball (2003)
• Slidin' Smileys (2003)
• Space Spyder (2003)
• Alien Chaos (2003)
• OutRun (2003)
• Super Real Tennis (2004)
• Wonder Boy (2005)
• Virtua Tennis Mobile (2005)
• Sonic Jump (2005)
• Home Run King 2 (2005)
• After Burner II (200x)
• Monkey Ball Bowling (200x)
• Monkey Ball Mini Golf (200x)
• Ollie King SK8R (200x)
• Phantasy Star (200x)
• Real Billiards (200x)
• Sega Air Hockey (200x)
• Sonic Backgammon (200x)
• Sonic Darts (200x)
• Sonic Hearts (200x)
• Space Harrier (200x)
• Super Monkey Ball 3D (200x)
• The House of the Dead (200x)
• Vectorman (200x)
• Charlotte's Web (200x)
• Golden Axe (200x)
• Beijing 2008 (2008)

Pocket PC

• Sega Classics Action Pack (2002)
• Sega Classics Leisure Pack (2002)

Palm OS

• Sega Swirl (2002)
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (2003)
• Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya (2003)
• Shinobi (2003)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2003)
• Super Columns (2003)

BREW

• Pengo (2002)
• Puyo Puyo (2002)
• Sega Fast Lane (2002)

External links

• Website (archived)