SEGA HISTORY
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1950's

1951 - Rosen Enterprises Founded by American David Rosen, who moved permanently to Japan after W.W.II

1954 - Rosen establishes the Service Game Company to market amusement games in the US and Japan.

1956 - Service Games begins to import games from Japan. They are especially interested in the coin-op games which have become popular on US military bases in Japan.

1960's

1965 - Rosen decides to change the company direction. He wants to produce his own games rather than just distributing those made by other companies. To accomplish this goal Rosen purchased a Tokyo factory which had been producing jukeboxes and converted it to produce his amusement machines. Rosen also decided that the name Service Games was too long to be stamped on the machines so he shortened it to SEGA (SE-rvice GA-mes).

1966 - Sega produces it's first hit game called "Periscope". Rosen sells Sega to Gulf and Western Industries but continues on as CEO.

1970's

1979 - Rosen acquires a distribution company that was founded by Japanese entrepreneur Hayao Nakayama. Throughout the late 70's and early 80's, Sega produced arcade games and software for early home videogame consoles, such as the Atari 2600 and the ColecoVision. Sega wasn't exactly an industry powerhouse yet, but they had scored a few hits with games like Turbo (which was packaged with the ColecoVision's driving controller), Frogger, and Zaxxon

1980's

1982 - Sega has reached worldwide sales of over $214 million per year. By this time they have introduced several ground breaking products in Japan such as the first laser disc game (Astron Belt) and the first 3D game (SubRoc-3D). In this year Sega also released it's first home console called the SG-1000 which was a hit in the orient.

1983 - THE BIG VIDEO GAME CRASH !!!! The arcades and the US home market crashed shortly after. Gulf & Western, which had spun off 20 percent of Sega, bought back the public shares and sold the U. S. assets to Bally Manufacturing Corp. However, in Japan, Sega survived. Back in 1979, Rosen had acquired a distribution company founded by a Japanese entrepreneur, Hayao Nakayama. Following the crash, Rosen joined Nakayama and other Japanese investors to buy the Japanese assets of Sega for $38 million. Nakayama became chief executive and Rosen headed the US subsidiary. From that point forward, the company vowed to stick not with one concept too long, realizing that each generation of technology has a life and death.

1984 - Sega is bought out by a partnership of Sega Japan and the CSK Corporation. Together they form Sega Enterprises LTD which is based in Japan.

1986 - Sega stock goes public in Japan. Sega of America and Sega of Europe are formed to handle foreign sales and the Sega Master System is released. The SMS is actually the 5th console from Sega but the first to be marketed worldwide (the others were Japanese only). In addition, Sega of America was established to adapt and market video game products to a rapidly expanding American market. It was subsequently given the charter to develop software products specifically for the American market.

1987 - Sega released a string of arcade hits in the mid-80's, strengthening its position in the US market especially. Games like Out Run (1986), After Burner (1987), and Shinobi (1987) not only raked in cash for future arcade development, but also gave Sega a recognized stable of successful games that could be ported Sega produced home consoles.

1990 - The Sega MegaDrive/Genesis is released. With this system Sega begins to target an older audience. Traditionally they had aimed their consoles at children. A 16-bit next generation system far superior to the NES. At launch, the Genesis was $189 and came packaged with one controller and Altered Beast. The "Power Base Converter," an adapter that allowed Sega Master System games on the Genesis was immediately released and Sega planned to release a modem and possibly a keyboard for the system by the end of the year.

1990's

1991 - Time Traveler released, the worlds first holographic arcade game, suffered from horrible reliability problems.

1993 - Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter kicked off the successful virtua franchise, while a string of popular racing games cemented Sega's presence in American arcades. Sega CD system is also released.

1994 - The 32-X is released. SOA, Time Warner and TCI get together and launch the Sega channel in North America.

1995 - Sega formed SegaSoft, its new computer software division, and launched the Sega Saturn in the United States. While the Saturn had a head start of a couple of weeks over the competing Sony Playstation, the Playstation was much easier to develop for and quickly overtook the Saturn in sales. While the Saturn had some great conversions of popular Sega arcade games and was one of the first consoles with Internet capabilities (via the NetLink adapter), the lack of good software and strong competition from the Playstation doomed the Sega Saturn to a fate similar to that of the Master System.
Aside from some successful arcade games like House of The Dead and Virtua Fighter 3, Sega was relatively quiet after the slow demise of the Saturn, which was much more successful in Japan than it was in the states.

1996 - Sega, MCA and the DreamWorks' creative team of Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg joined forces as Sega GameWorks to create family-oriented location-based entertainment centers with the goal of expanding the gaming market.

1997 - Sega promoted Bernie Stolar to COO of Sega of America. Previously Executive Vice President of Product Development and COO of Sega Entertainment.

1998 - Naomi system released, Dreamcast Released.

2000's

2001 - Naomi 2 system released, Dreamcast production stopped

2002 - Chihiro, Sammy Atomiswave and Triforce Systems launched.

2003 - Sega and Sammy to merge, with the boss of Sammy taking the helm of the company but Sega retaining a 54% share in the company.

2004 - Sega Sammy Holdings formed. Deal made with Imagination Technologies to provide new graphics chip for next generation arcade hardware platform.

Sega Major Subsidiaries/Affiliated Firms

Sega of America, Inc.
255 Shoreline Drive, Suite 200, Redwood City, CA 94065 USA

Sega Soft, Inc.
150 Shoreline Drive, Redwood City, CA 94065 USA

Sega Entertainment, Inc.
255 Shoreline Drive, Suite 500, Redwood City, CA 94065 USA

Sega Enterprises, Inc.(U.S.A.)
255 Shoreline Drive, Suite 400, Redwood City, CA 94065 USA

Sega GameWorks, L.L.C.
10 Universal City Plaza, Suite 3300, Univesal City, CA 91608 USA

Sega Europe Limited
266-270 Gunnersbury Avenue London W4 5QB UK

Sega France S.A.
19/21 Rue Du Colonel Pierre Avia, Paris, France

Sega Consumer Products S.A.
C/Playa De Liencres 2, 28230 Madrid, Spain

Sega Gesellschaft Fur Videospiele m.b.H
Hans-Henny-Jahnn Weg 53, 22085 Hamburg, Germany

Sega Operations UK Ltd.
266-270 Gunnersbury Avenue London W4 5QB UK

Sega ATP Europe Ltd.
266-270 Gunnersbury Avenue London W4 5QB UK

Sega Operations France EURL
Zac Daugny 57685, Augny, France

Premier Loisir France S.A.
45 Avenue Victor-Hugo-Batiment 283 93300 Aubervilliers France

JPM International Ltd.
JPM House, Hadfield Road, Leckwith Trading Estate, Cardiff, CF1 8AQ UK

Sega Ozisoft Pty Ltd.
Bldg. A, Southern Cross Industrial Estate, 200 Coward Street, Mascot NSW 2020 Australia

Sega Amusements Taiwan Ltd.
2F No.205 Section 1, Fu-Shing South Road, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Sega Huahan Culture Entertainment Co. Ltd.
Room 2606 Wen Hua Palace, In the Working People's Cultural Palace, Beijing 10006 China

Hyundai Sega Entertainment Co., Ltd.
7th Fl. Boram Bldg. 705-19, Yeoksam-dong, Kangnam-ku, Seoul, Korea

Lotte Sega Co., Ltd.
Lotte Kwanak Tower 5th Flr. Shindaebang-Dong Dongjak-Gu, Seoul, Korea

Sega Enterprises (Australia) Pty Ltd.
1-25 Harbour Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

V/S Equipment Distribution Joint Venture
Level 1, 500 Chapel Street, South Yarra, Victoria 3141 Australia

Premier Loisir Germany Gmbh
Emil Hoffmann Strasse 55/1.06, 50996 Koln, Germany

Light Printing Co. Ltd.
2-1-26 To-un Koto-ku Tokyo 135 Japan

Sega Leasing Co., Ltd.
1-2-12 Haneda Ota-ku Tokyo 144 Japan

Sega Yonezawa Co., Ltd.
Daiichi Haneha Bldg. 5F 1-2-6 Haneda Ota-ku Tokyo 144 Japan

Sega Music Networks Co., Ltd.
PK Bldg. 3F 2-1-18 Higashi-Kojiya Ota-ku Tokyo 144 Japan

Sega Logistics Service Ltd.
3-23-15 Omori-Minami Ota-ku Tokyo 143 Japan

S.G.S. Co., Ltd
Seiei Bldg.3F 7-9-5 Nishi-Gotanda Shinagawa-ku Tokyo 141 Japan

Sega Music Inc.
5-39-1 Kamitakada Nakano-ku Tokyo 164 Japan

Sega Kousan Co., Ltd.
Daiichi Haneha Bldg. 7F 1-2-6 Haneda Ota-ku Tokyo 144 Japan

Sims Co., Ltd.
3-3-2 Shibuya Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150 Japan

SI Electronics Co., Ltd.
2-28-16 Shimomaruko Ota-ku Tokyo 146 Japan

Nextech Co., Ltd.
3-3-2 Shibuya Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150 Japan