Hitmaker

Hitmaker (ヒットメーカー) is a former internal development studio owned by Sega. It was founded in 2000 largely on the remains of Sega Software R&D Dept. 3 (formerly Sega AM3), and was one of the 10 that was spun off during the 2000 restructure.

AM3 was a dominant force within Sega throughout the 1990s, however had been very much arcade-orientated by design. With Hitmaker, this focus shifted more towards home consoles, but as the arcade section did not go away, this led to Hitmaker producing a large chunk of Sega games during the 2000-2004 period.

In October 2003, Sega Rosso was merged back into the studio.

Hitmaker even had their own record label, Hitmaker Records, for a short period.

Members

• Junichi Tsuchiya
• Juro Watari
• Kenji Kanno
• Masaku Ito
• Mie Kumagai
• Nobuyuki Yamashita
• Shinichi Osagawa
• Shoichiri Kanazawa
• Shintaro Ito
• Takeshi Goden

Former members

• Hisao Oguchi

Softography (arcade)

NAOMI

• Confidential Mission (2000)
• Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram M.S.B.S. Ver. 5.66 (2000)
• Crackin' DJ (2000)
  • Crackin' DJ Part 2 (2001)
• Derby Owners Club 2000 (2000)
  • Derby Owners Club 2 (2002)
• Derby Owners Club World Edition (2001)
• Jambo! Safari (1999)
• The Maze of the Kings (2002)
• Virtua Athlete (2002)

Hikaru

• Air Trix (2001)
• Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force (2001)

NAOMI 2

• World Club Champion Football: Serie A 2001-2002 (2002)
  • World Club Champion Football: Serie A 2002-2003 (2003)
  • World Club Champion Football: European Clubs 2004-2005 (2004)
• Initial D Arcade Stage: Ver. 3 (2004)

Triforce

• The Key of Avalon: The Wizard Master (2003)
  • The Key Of Avalon Ver.1.20 : Summon The New Monsters (2004)

Chihiro

• Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller (2003)
• The Quiz Show (2004)

Softography (consumer)

Dreamcast

• Crazy Taxi 2 (2001)
• Confidential Mission (2001)
• Segagaga (2001) (with Thunder Stone)
• Virtua Athlete 2K (2000)
• Virtua Tennis (2000)
• Virtua Tennis 2 (2001)

Game Boy Advance

• Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride (2003) (Supervision)
• Astro Boy: Omega Factor (2003) (with Treasure)
• Virtua Tennis (2002) (with Altron)

GameCube

• Crazy Taxi (2001)

PlayStation 2

• Crazy Taxi (2001)
• Cyber Troopers Virtual-On: Marz (2003)
• Virtua Tennis 2 (2002)

Xbox

• Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller (2002)

PC

• Crazy Taxi (2002)
• Virtua Tennis (2002)
• Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller (2004)
• Derby Owners Club Online (2004)

Mobile

• Nakayoshi Techo (2000)
• Virtua Tennis (2003)
• Sega Rally Championship (2004)
• The Sumou Kokoro Waza Tai (2001)
• Uchuujinda! (2001)

Magazine articles

Main article: Hitmaker/Magazine articles.

External links

• Hitmaker Official websites (Internet Archive)
  • Production history of the Hitmaker