History of Sega in Central Asia

History of Sega in Central Asia
Official Sega distributor(s): Nissho Iwai (1994-1995), Buka (1994-1999), Bitman (1996-1997), R-Style (1996-1999), NVT (2000-2001), 1C Company (2005-present)

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan declared independence in 1991. In the next years they all became members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Nissho Iwai

Back in the days of the Soviet Union, Sega tried to enter the market with the special model of first Master System (SECAM signal, lack of card slot and Alex Kidd in Miracle World built in) through Beryozka stores selling luxury goods, but the lack of good advertising, a small distribution network and the luxurious nature of the system resulted in failure.

The video games became more popular from around 1993, when Russian company Steepler released Famicom clone called Dendy. The video games to this time existed only because of Soviet products (like Pong or Elektronika IM), European imports (NES or Atari) or clones (Rambo 2600). With the time, Steepler began to offer Sega related stuff like clones called Pro 16 Bit, High Quality or simply Mega Drive, original Asian Mega Drive 2 or Sega Genesis CDX, all with US, Asian and bootleg games. As a competition Nissho Iwai began to offer from 1994, official Sega games like Mega Drive II, Master System II and Game Gear from Europe, sold by authorized distributors networks like Buka. With the time Steepler began to offer it in its own stores. The video gaming around that time wasn’t widespread in Central Asia. Most of the people that played games around that time were from large cites or capital city. This was due to economical situation and in some of the countries political one like Tajikistani Civil War. The clones of Mega Drive and Dendy video games that were seen on flea markets, small stores and from specialized distributors like Bitman, Kenga or Subor were more popular than original one but still only few had it. Between 1994/1995, Nissho Iwai and Buka continue to released new systems like Mega CD 2, Mega Drive 32X and Sega Saturn and introduce cheaper Mega Drive 2 model from Asia.

Besides Famicom and Mega Drive clones, Sega had competition in form of Super Nintendo and Game Boy (distributed from November 1994 by Steepler), 3DO (distributed from late 1994 by Buka), PlayStation (distributed from March 1995 by Buka, which distribution was taken over from July 1997 by Sony CIS), CD-i (distributed from 1995 by A –STIMUL with chain of 3 authorised distributors) and Atari Jaguar (distributed from 1995 by Game Land).

Bitman and R-Style

With Sega Europe taking over distribution of products in CIS region, former cloner Bitman with R-Style and Buka began to taking care of Sega distribution offering still the same hardware as previous, delivered from Europe and focusing on Sega Saturn, Sega Pico and Sega Mega Drive II. Bitman was later bought by R-Style and Sega disappeared from region until 1999. The video game market still existed around that time focusing mostly on clones of Famicom and Mega Drive which were delivered mostly from Russia by Simba's Video Games and New Game with some of the Central Asia distributors importing bootleg hardware and software directly from Far Asia.

Dreamcast

Sega wanted to market Dreamcast in late 2000, through Russian company NVT. They promised localized games into Russian and games in cheap jewel cases, but with the problems of 128-bit console, Sega gave up on the idea and stay with European versions. The pre-release sales of the console started on November 10, 2000 with promised of full release until end of the year. Larger plans for sales and marketing were canceled when Sega announced the end of production on January 31, 2001, which meant the end of all shipments to Russia and CIS.

Before that, Central Asia got imported Dreamcast from Europe by independent distributors. With the translation of software into Russian by Vector (Вектор), Kudos and RGR Studio who had distribution network across CIS selling same translated games for Sony consoles, Russians imported Sega’s consoles form Europe and started distribution on its own which resulted in Dreamcast becoming more popular and was doing pretty well, same like PlayStation in the region.

1C Company

In the following years, some games were released in CIS by the 1C Company with translated boxes and localized games into Russian. Sega games are also available through digital distribution and the region is part of RU-CIS-UA when it comes to digital keys. Digital game distribution platforms such as Steam suggest lower prices for the region.

Mega Drive clones from mid-2000s

In the Central Asia countries, clones of Sega Mega Drive can still be find from Asian and Russian distribution channels.

Sega Amusement

Since 2006, the distribution of arcade machines and equipment for children produce by Sega is being carried out by KidsPlay.

QubicaAMF is a strategic partner in Russia and CIS countries.

Sititek

Sititek is the official distributor of Sega Toys in Russia and CIS countries.