History of Sega in Czechia

History of Sega in Czechia
Official Sega distributor(s): Independent retail outlets (1988-1990), Nissho Iwai (1990-1996), Datart (1992-10—1996), ITO CS (1993-1996), Popron Distribuce (1994-1996), DDC Agency (1996-1998), Fliko (2000-2002), CD Projekt (2004-2016), Cenega (2016-present)

Czechoslovakia

Consoles existed in Czechoslovakia during communism and an example is the Tesla XD 8001 produced by the Czechoslovak company Tesla.

The first information about Sega's entry into this market comes from 1988, when independent retail outlets began the sale of Master System. The information gathered shows that Czechoslovakia was probably the first country in Eastern Europe where Sega products were introduced. This fact is little known, so it can be expected that the Master System was not successful in the country, especially since the political changes in Czechoslovakia continued during this period.

In 1990, Sega established its first office in the country with help of Nissho Iwai who established network of retailers selling Master System. At the time, Sega had competition in form of Rambo TV Game (Atari 2600 clones distributed from <1990), CDTV (distributed from 1992 by AB Comp) and Game Boy.

Datart, ITO CS and Popron Distribuce

In late 1992, Nissho Iwai reorganized it's retailers network and began to work with sub-distributors like Datart, which became in October 1992 the authorized distributor of Sega, releasing Mega Drive, Master System II and Game Gear. In mid-1993, the second authorized distributor - ITO CS, was selected. This is also where the popularity of Sega consoles on the market began to grow and soon these video games became widespread in the Czech Republic (the most popular were Mega Drive and Master System). Until early 1994, Nissho Iwai network sold 8,000 units of Master System II, 8,000 units of Mega Drive and 3,000 units of Game Gear with a goal of expending number of sold units of every console to 20,000 copies. To do that, Sega selected a third authorized distributor - Popron Distribuce. Sega released Mega Drive II and Mega CD II same yearand created Czech manuals for games and consoles.

Mega Drive 32X was already available from December 1994 and Multi Mega from April 1995. Popron Distribuce did not want to wait for the European premiere of Sega Saturn, so from April 1995, they started importing Japanese versions of the console, which cost 25,000 CZK..

In addition to the official consoles, there were also famiclones on the market such as Terminator 2 which box design resemble Sega Mega Drive 2, Bel Game, Pegasus IQ-502, Video Game-GT3300, Micro Genius (via Atelier) and many more.

Mega Drive clones have also appeared along with bootleg games. The price of a clone named simply 'Mega Drive' with 2 turbo joysticks was around 3990 CZK in 1994.

Besides Famicom and Sega clones, Sega had competition in form of Super Nintendo, Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System (distributed from 1993 by MPM), Super Engine II (distributed from 1993 by Sunpronic) Amiga CD32 (distributed from 1993 by Presto CS), 3DO (distributed from 1994 by Vision), Atari Jaguar (distributed from 1994 by JRC), Watara Supervision (distributed from 1994 by Atlantida and Act Fast) and Atari Lynx (distributed from 1995 by JRC).

Print advert in Excalibur (CZ) #16 (1993-04-10)
also published in:

• Excalibur (CZ) #15 (1993-03-10)
• Excalibur (CZ) #17 (1993-05-10)
• Excalibur (CZ) #18 (1993-09-10)
• Excalibur (CZ) #19 (1993-10-10)

Print advert in Excalibur (CZ) #21 (1993-12-10)

Print advert in Score (CZ) #10: "Říjen 1994" (1994-10-01)
also published in:

• Score (CZ) #11: "Listopad 1994" (1994-11-01)
• Score (CZ) #12: "Prosinec 1994" (1994-12-01)
• Score (CZ) #13: "Leden 1995" (1995-01-01)
• Score (CZ) #14: "Únor 1995" (1995-02-01)
• Score (CZ) #15: "Březen 1995" (1995-03-01)

Print advert in LeveL (CZ) #4: "Květen 1995" (1995-05-01)

DDC Agency

Hit 96

After distribution was takeover form Nissho Iwai by Sega Europe in late 1995, Datart got full distribution license for the region but after some problems in mid-1996, DDC Agency became a distributor of Sega and Atari Games in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and released Sega Saturn, also continued to sell all older Sega systems (Master System II, Game Gear, Mega Drive II, Mega Drive 32X, Mega CD II and Multi Mega) that were released in the Czechia so far, with it's own manuals for games and consoles translated into Czech. The company had four authorized distributors in the Czech Republic:

• Trojanec - Brno and South Moravia
• Ozón - West Bohemia and North Bohemia
• Euro Shop Ostrava - North Moravia and the East Bohemia
• Zlatý Tygr - South Bohemia

Sega's products have been well advertised in several major gaming magazines, the ABC children's magazine, at gaming events such as HIT 96 and from Summer 1996 Saturn prices were lowered to be equal to PlayStation (distributed from late 1995 by JRC, which distribution was taken over in June 1996 by Sony Czech). The DDC Agency has created a specialized Sega gaming magazine called Sega News, published since October 1996.

Mega Drive clones were still available, as well as pirated copies of games with Czech manuals. They were sold until the early 2000s. One of the sellers of these clones was Sat Game, which released Star Drive 2 and Genesis 2.

Despite the promotion, Saturn did not sell that well in the Czech Republic. From the spring of 1997, Sega consoles were less and less advertised and the Sega brand began to lose its importance in the Czech Republic. Authorized distributors were selling Saturn and Mega Drive until 1998.

In second half of the 90s, Comex became distributor of Sega arcades.

Print advert in Score (CZ) #34: "Říjen 1996" (1996-10-01)
also published in:

• Sega News (CZ) #1: "Říjen 1996" (1996-xx-xx)
• Score (CZ) #35: "Listopad 1996" (1996-11-01)
• Sega News (CZ) #2: "Listopad 1996" (1996-1x-xx)
• Score (CZ) #36: "Prosinec 1996" (1996-12-01)
• Sega News (CZ) #3: "Prosinec 1996" (1996-1x-xx)
• Sega News (CZ) #4: "Leden 1997" (1997-xx-xx)

Print advert in Score (CZ) #34: "Říjen 1996" (1996-10-01)
also published in:

• Sega News (CZ) #1: "Říjen 1996" (1996-xx-xx)
• Score (CZ) #35: "Listopad 1996" (1996-11-01)
• Sega News (CZ) #2: "Listopad 1996" (1996-1x-xx)
• Score (CZ) #36: "Prosinec 1996" (1996-12-01)
• Sega News (CZ) #3: "Prosinec 1996" (1996-1x-xx)
• Sega News (CZ) #4: "Leden 1997" (1997-xx-xx)

Sega Saturn Hit Roku 1996 booklet added to some of the games

Fliko

Print advert in LeveL (CZ) #71: "Prosinec 2000" (2000-1x-xx)

The Sega Dreamcast console was available in the Czechia since March 2000 and distributor of Sega at the time was Fliko. The console could be purchased at few retailers like Game Line, Play Centrum, Digitec and Gamestar. The situation of the console was bad and only 500 Dreamcasts were sold throughout the 2000, compared to other consoles in the Czechia, Dreamcast had the smallest user base. For comparison, PlayStation had about 50,000 Czechs, Game Boy Color (distributed from late 1998 by MPM, which distribution was taken over in late 1999 by Conquest) - 15,000, Nintendo 64 (distributed from March 1997 by MPM, which distribution was taken over in late 1999 by Conquest) - 2,500 and PlayStation 2 (distributed from November 30, 2000 by Sony Czech) - about 800.

The only known Czech game for this system was Hidden & Dangerous.

Dynamic Systems

Dynamic Systems distributed Sega games from Empire around 2000s.

CD Projekt and Cenega

In 2004, the CD Projekt company became a distributor of Sega in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.The company slowly became a representative of Sega in other countries of the Visegrad Group. In 2016, Cenega become representative of Sega.