Sega Club Video Games on the Sega Genesis TV Television Commercial from 1994.
Sega Games Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 株式会社セガゲームス Hepburn: Kabushiki gaisha Sega gēmusu), originally short for Service Games and officially styled as SEGA, is a Japanese multinational video game developer and publisher headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with offices around the world. Sega developed and manufactured numerous home video game consoles from 1983 to 2001, but after financial losses incurred from its Dreamcast console, the company restructured to focus on providing software as a third-party developer. Sega remains the world's most prolific arcade producer, with over 500 games in over 70 franchises on more than 20 different arcade system boards since 1981.[3]
Sega is known for its multi-million selling game franchises, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter, Phantasy Star, Yakuza, and Total War. Sega's North American division, Sega of America, is headquartered in Irvine, California, having moved from San Francisco in 2015. Sega's European division, Sega Europe, is headquartered in London.
In 1940, American businessmen Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg, and James Humpert formed a company called Standard Games in Honolulu, Hawaii, to provide coin-operated amusement machines to military bases. They saw that the onset of World War II, and the consequent increase in the number of military personnel, would mean there would be demand for something for those stationed at military bases to do in their leisure time. After the war, the founders sold that company and established a new distributor called Service Games, named for the military focus. In 1951, the government of the United States outlawed slot machines in US territories, so Bromley sent two of his employees, Richard Stewart and Ray LeMaire, to Tokyo, Japan, in 1952 to establish a new distributor. The company provided coin-operated slot machines to U.S. bases in Japan and changed its name again to Service Games of Japan by 1953.[4][5][6][7]
David Rosen, an American officer in the United States Air Force stationed in Japan, launched a two-minute photo booth business in Tokyo in 1954.[4] This company eventually became Rosen Enterprises, and in 1957, began importing coin-operated games to Japan. On May 31, 1960, Service Games Japan was closed. A few days later, on June 3, two new companies were established to take over its business activities, Nihon Goraku Bussan and Nihon Kikai Seizo.[8] By 1965, Rosen Enterprises grew to a chain of over 200 arcades. Rosen then orchestrated a merger between Rosen Enterprises and Nihon Goraku Bussan, becoming chief executive of the new company, Sega Enterprises, which derived its name from Service Games.[9]
Within a year, Sega began the transition from importer to manufacturer, with the release of the submarine simulator game, Periscope. The game sported light and sound effects considered innovative for that time, eventually becoming quite successful in Japan
