Sega Japan
Production and Engineering Department
Sega started development on games with electro-mechanical games and transitioned to microprocessor video games in the Production and Engineering Department. Some of the most popular games during the early era of Sega were Turbo, Zaxxon and Pengo and the eletro-mechanical game Periscope.
|
Division |
Titles |
|---|---|
| Production and Engineering Department | Arcade
|
Research and Development (First Party)
In 1984, when Research and Development divisions were formed.
The earliest documented Sega employee in game development is Hisashi Suzuki who worked on many electro-mechanical games and has worked up the corporate ladder since.
Hideki Sato joined Sega in 1971 and is credited for creating the very first Sega home hardware, the SG-1000, and all subsequent Hardware.
For software development, the most senior employees were Yoji Hoshii and Tomio Takami and have led Research and Development departments since.
R&D departments were further expanding, with divisions handling mechanical hardware development. including amusement operations and home hardware creation.
The most celebrated success were the Super Scaler games which include OutRun, Hang-On, After Burner and Space Harrier. All these games were created by Yu Suzuki who joined Sega in 1984.
The UFO Catcher was introduced in 1985 which has become the staple claw crane game in Japan. With the expansion of R&D Departments, the arcade and game console operations became their own divisions, the Consumer Research and Development Division and the Amusement Machine Research and Development Division.
During the 90's, arcade hardware from Sega was considered generations ahead of home hardware. This also saw the games that laid foundation for 3D Fighting and Racing games with Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter, once again sparheaded by Yu Suzuki.
The large amount of releases and departments in the arcade division, covered many genres, unique custom cabinets, and saw pioneering features not only relevant to arcade gaming, but gaming as a whole. A large success in the domestic market were the Club series of Arcades that introduced the Purikara concept in Japan, which became a staple in Japanese amusement centers to the present day.
Daytona USA saw the first game using the palmtree AM2 logo, signaturing the department for being special among all the R&D Departments among Sega.
In the home hardware market, Sonic the Hedgehog became Sega's biggest success, elevating the creators Yuji Naka who joined Sega in 1984 and Naota Oshima who joined in 1987, into lofty positions within the company being able to name their R&D Dept. into Sonic Team, new IP such as Burning Rangers and Nights Into Dreams... were promoted with the Sonic Team moniker. Sakura Taisen introduced in 1996, became Sega's biggest domestic success on home hardware.
| Division | Titles |
|---|---|
| R&D Department #1-8
(1984~) |
Arcade
Super Scaler Arcade
Model 1/2/3 Arcade
NAOMI
|
| Amusement Machine R&D
Department #1-6 (Formed from R&D Department. #1-5) (1990~) + Emotion R&D Office (1992~) | |
| Software R&D Unit #1-9
(Formed from Amusement Machine R&D and Consumer R&D) (1998~) | |
| R&D Department #1-8
(1984~) |
SG-1000
Master System
Mega Drive
Game Gear
Mega CD
32X
Sega Saturn
Dreamcast
PC
|
| Consumer R&D Department #1-4
(Formed from R&D Department #5-8) (1990~) + RPG Project Office (1993~) | |
| Software R&D Unit #1-9
(Formed from Amusement Machine R&D and Consumer R&D) (1998~) | |
Subsidiary Era (First Party and Third Party)
During the transitional phase of Sega, all of its R&D departments were separated from the main company and established on 9 semi-autonomous subsidiaries, the largest internal development operation Sega has ever held.
WOW Entertainment was lead by Rikiya Nakagawa one of the most senior employees at Sega having worked for the company for over 20 years by 2000. Through the establishment of WOW Entertainment, he has helmed many popular games such as Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Shinobi, Dynamite Deka and The House of the Dead.
SEGA-AM2 was established as an indepedent studio but has held it's corporate name. The studio was headed by Yu Suzuki responsible for the innovative Super Scaler games and pioneering 3D graphics in games, and also Makoto Osaki who joined the AM2 department in 1993 and Hiroshi Kataoka who joined in 1992. In addition the most senior Arcade employee, Hisashi Suzuki was also part of AM2. Shenmue was in development by the department since 1994, and released in 1999 in Japan. The game was famous for it's highest development budget at the time, and pioneering gameplay for home gaming.
Hitmaker! was established from the department that has created many popular arcade favourites in past, such as Virtual-On, Crazy Taxi and Virtua Tennis. In 1999, Derby Owners Club was launched by the department, a horse simulator game with the first IC cards. This machine has been in planning and development since the early 90's, and became a huge hit in the domestic market, with features of it becoming a staple in japanese game centers. Hisao Oguchi was the head of the studio, who joined Sega in 1984. Also part of the studio were Mie Kumagai who joined Sega in 1993, Kenji Kanno who joined in 1993, and Junichi Tsuchiya who joined in 1987.
Amusement Vision was established from a small Arcade department that has spun off AM2, which had staff working on popular racing games such as Daytona USA and Scud Race. It was headed by Toshihiro Nagoshi who joined Sega in 1989.
Sega Rosso was formed from the arcade department that spun off AM3. Sega Rally Championship being the most popular game by the department. In 2003 the division was scaled back and merged into Hitmaker!
Smilebit was was formed from CS1, with contained staff from the Panzer Dragoon series, sports games and PC conversion staff. It was headed by Shun Arai and Takayuki Kawagoe, who both joined Sega in the mid 90's.
Overworks was formed from CS2, which was the department responsible for home conversions of titles such as Altered Beast and Shinobi, and since has created popular Mega Drive titles such as the Phantasy Star series, Streets of Rage series and the Super Shinobi series. The studio was headed by Noriyoshi Ohba who joined Sega in 1988, and Yasuhiro Nishiyama who joined in 1997. In 2003 the division was scaled back and merged into WOW Entertainment.
Sonic Team was established as a subsidary with the same as it had before. Like before, it promoted new IP with the Sonic Team name. The studio was once again headed by Yuji Naka.
United Game Artists was established by Tetsuya Mizuguchi who joined Sega in 1990 and worked on theme park attractions and arcade racing games such as Sega Rally Championship. In addtion he had his own "Emotion Design Reasearch and Development Office" in 1992.
The sound production unit at Sega became it's own label as Wave Master. In addition to producing music, it also has created games. 3 games, and the mobile phone service Sonic Cafe which covers all mobile games from Sega made for japanese phones. Sonic Cafe ran until 2007.
| Subsidary | Titles |
|---|---|
|
WOW Entertainment Ltd. (Formed from Software R&D Unit. #1) (2000~) |
Arcade
Dreamcast
PC
PlayStation 2
Game Boy Advance
Xbox
GameCube
|
|
SEGA-AM2 Ltd. (Formed from Software R&D Unit. #2) (2000~) |
Arcade
Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
GameCube
Xbox
|
|
Hitmaker Corporation (Formed from Software R&D Unit. #3) (2000~) |
Arcade
Dreamcast
GameCube
PlayStation 2
Xbox
|
|
Amusement Vision Ltd. (Formed from Software R&D Unit. #4) (2000~) |
Arcade
Dreamcast
GameCube
|
|
Sega Rosso Ltd. (Formed from Software R&D Unit. #5) (2000~) |
Arcade
Dreamcast
Game Boy Advance
PlayStation 2
|
|
Smilebit Corporation (Formed from Software R&D Unit. #6) (2000~) |
Dreamcast
PC
Xbox
PlayStation 2
Game Boy Advance
GameCube
|
|
Overworks Ltd. (Formed from Software R&D Unit. #7) (2000~) |
Arcade
Dreamcast
PC
PlayStation 2
GameCube
|
| Sonic Team Inc.
(Formed from Software R&D Unit. #8) (2000~) |
Arcade
Dreamcast
PC
Neo Geo Pocket Color Game Boy Advance
PlayStation 2
GameCube
Xbox
|
| United Game Artists Ltd., Co.
(Formed from Software R&D Unit. #9) (2000~) |
Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
|
| Unspecified/Sega Toys | Arcade
Dreamcast
Neo Geo Pocket Color PC
|
| Sega Mechatronics
(Formed from Amusement Machine R&D) |
|
| Wave Master Ltd.
(Formed from Sega Sound Team) (2000~) |
Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
|
Research and Development (Third Party)
Since 2003 Sega was slowly restructured and consolidated to uniform Amusement and Consumer R&D Divisions like it was in the 90's. The Process was fully completed in 2005, and the structure was revealed.
Overall software management was handled by Hideki Okamura, Yukio Sugino and Takayuki Kawagoe. Hideki Okamura joined Sega in 1987, and was division director of the Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast. Yukio Sugino joined Sega in 1993 and has been an executive member and supervisor since. Takayuki Kawagoe was head of the Smilebit software development house.
Hideki Sato, the father of Sega hardware has been appointed to the board of directors of the newly formed Sega Sammy Holdings, but has since dissapeared of executive listings by Sega Sammy, it can be assumed he retired Sega after 35 years of serving the company.
The General Entertainment Research and Development Division was formed with the merger of Sonic Team, United Game Artists and Overworks. It was headed by Yuji Naka. Hiroyuki Miyazaki also helmed the division, he joined Sega in 1996 and has held several business and producer related roles since.
Dept.#1 was headed by Akinori Nishiyama who joined in 1987, Takashi Yuda who joined in 1989 and Masahiro Kumono who joined in 1993. Except for Masahiro Kumono who worked at Overworks and WOW Entertainment, the other two worked at Sonic Team.
Dep.#2 was headed by Akira Nishino who joined in 1993, Ryutaro Nonaka who joined in 1994 and Shinji Motoyama. All of them worked at Overworks
Derpt.#3 was headed by Takao Miyoshi who joined in 1991. He worked at Sonic Team.
The New Entertainment Research and Development Division was formed with the merger of Amusement Vision and Smilebit. It was headed by Toshihiro Nagoshi who helmed Amusement Vision, Takaya Segawa and Osamu Ohashii who joined in 1995 and worked on sports games since.
The Amusement Machine Research and Development Division was formed with the merger of WOW Entertainment, SEGA-AM2, Hitmaker and Sega Rosso.
The Division was headed by Hiroshi Kataoka who joined AM2 in 1992 and succeeded Yu Suzuki in creating sequels for Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop and OutRun.
Dept. #1 was headed by Atsushi Seimiya who joined in 1990, Yasuhiro Nishiyama who joined in 1997 and Mizuki Hosoyamada who joined in 1990. They worked at Overworks and WOW Entertainment.
Dept. #2 was headed by Makoto Osaki who joined AM2 in 1993.
Dept. #3 was headed by Mie Kumagai, Kenji Kanno who worked at Hitmaker. Previous head, Hisao Oguchi was promoted to President of the Sega Corporation in 2003, and CCO of Sega Sammy Holdings in 2005.
Plus Dept. was headed by former AM2 head, Yu Suzuki.
Family Entertainment R&D was formed after the success of Mushiking which opened the market for games at the arcade for young children. It is headed by Hiroshi Uemara who joined Sega in 1990 and worked on theme park development since.
Another restructuring took place and previous department managers Toshihiro Nagoshi, Akira Nishino and Akinori Nishiyama got a promotion to chief producers and oversee all software development.
The Consumer Research and Development Division resulted from the merger of the New Entertainment Research and Development Division and General Entertainment Research and Development Division.
Dept #1 is headed by Masayoshi Kikuchi, Riichiro Yamada, Daisuke Sato, Yojiro Ogawa, Masayoshi Yokoyama and Yasuhito Baba. They have worked at the NE R&D Division. Yojiro Ogawa at the GE R&D Dept.#1/Sonic Team.
Dept.#2 is headed by Takashi Iizuka, Shun Nakamura, Hosoyamada Mizu who worked at GE R&D Dept.#1/Sonic Team.
Dept.#3 is headed by Tsuyoshi Sawada, Shinji Motoyama, Yosuke Okunari and Yochi Shimasato who worked at the GE R&D Dept #2 and Dept. #3
Online R&D Dept. was established for Phantasy Star Online 2 and other digital games and is headed by Takaya Segawa, Satoshi Sakai, Shuntaro Tanaka who worked at the GE R&D Dept #2 and Dept. #3.
The Amusement Research and Development Division was renamed to the Research and Development Division and has 2 large departments.
The General Manager is Yasuhiro Nishiyama who helmed the AM R&D Dept. #1.
Dept. #1 is headed by Naoyuki Sato, Kenji Arai, Ryuchi Taki, Tomohiro Kashiwada and Takashi Oda who worked at AM R&D Dept. #1. and AM R&D Dept. #3
Dept. #2 is headed by Hiroshi Kataoka, Noriyuki Shimoda, Makoto Osaki and Mie Kumagai who worked at the AM R&D Dept. #2 at the AM R&D Dept. #3.
Mobile studios were established at both CS R&D and R&D divisions.
| Division | Titles |
|---|---|
| SEGA WOW Division
SEGA-AM2 Division Hitmaker Division Digital Rex Division Amusement Vision Division Smilebit Divsion Sonic Team Division (2004~) |
Dreamcast
GameBoy Advance
Xbox
GameCube
PlayStation 2
Nintendo DS
PlayStation Portable
PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
Wii
Nintendo 3DS
PlayStation Vita
Wii U
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
PC
|
|
Consumer Division General Entertainment Division General Entertainment R&D Department #1-3 Mobile R&D Department SEGA Studio USA Sega Shanghai R&D (Formed from Sonic Team Division and SEGA WOW Division) (2005~) New Entertainment Division New Entertainment R&D Department Sports Design R&D Department (2005~) Visual Entertainment R&D (2006~) | |
| R&D Division #3
Consumer R&D Department #1-4 (Formed from General Entertainment R&D Division New Entertainment R&D Division and Sports Design R&D Department) Marza Animation Planet Inc. (2009~) (Formed from Visual Entertainment R&D) + Online R&D Dept. (2010~) + Mobile New Media (2011~) | |
| SEGA WOW Div.
SEGA-AM2 Div. Hitmaker Div. Digital Rex Div. Amusement Vision Div. Smilebit Div. Sonic Team Div. (2004~) |
ALL.Net Arcade
Arcade
Kids Arcade games
|
| (2005~)
Amusement Machine R&D Division Amusement Machine R&D Department #1-3 Amusement Machine Plus R&D Department Family Entertainment R&D Department (Formed from SEGA WOW Division, SEGA AM2 Division, and Hitmaker Division) | |
| R&D# Division 1-2,
(Amusement Machine R&D Division) (2009~) + MOBILE WORKS (2010~) + N. Pro. R&D (2013~) | |
Sega Networks Co. Ltd.
| Division | Titles |
|---|---|
| SEGA R&D |
|
| Domestic Partners |
|
| Overseas Partners |
|
http://www13.atwiki.jp/game_staff/pages/603.html
Group companies
| Studio | Region | Function & Collaborations | Studio | Function & Collaborations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index (Atlus) | Domestic |
|
The Creative Assembly |
Overseas |
|
| Sega Toys |
|
Three Rings Design |
| ||
| Marza Animation Planet Inc. |
|
Sports Interactive |
| ||
| TMS Entertainment |
|
Relic Entertainment |
| ||
| Sammy Networks |
|
||||
Affiliated studios
|
Studo |
Relationship & Titles |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Coreland | Arcade
Master System
Game Gear
|
Compile | Arcade
SG-1000
Master System
Mega Drive
Mega CD
Game Gear
Saturn
Dreamcast
|
| SIMS | Arcade
SG-1000
Master System
Mega Drive
Game Gear
Saturn
Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
Wii
|
Westone Bit Entertainment | Arcade
SG-1000
Master System
Game Gear
Mega Drive
Dreamcast |
| Camelot | Mega Drive
Mega CD
Game Gear
Saturn
|
MegaSoft | Arcade
Mega Drive
|
| Ancient | Game Gear
Mega Drive
Saturn
GameCube
|
Aspect |
Master System
Game Gear
Dreamcast
Xbox
|
| SunSoft | Arcade
Mega Drive
PlayStation 2
|
VIC Tokai | Arcade
Master System
Mega Drive
Saturn |
| Aicom |
Arcade
|
Biox | Game Gear
|
| Climax Entertainment | Mega Drive
Saturn
Dreamcast
Game Boy Advance PlayStation Portable
Wii
Nintendo DS
|
Game Freak |
Mega Drive
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
PC
|
| TOSE | Mega Drive
Saturn
PlayStation 2
GameCube
PlayStation Portable
Nintendo DS
|
Givro | Mega Drive
Sega 32X
|
| CRI | Game Gear
Saturn
Dreamcast
Arcade
|
Nex Entertainment | Mega Drive
Saturn
Dreamcast
Game Boy Advance
PlayStation 2
PlayStation 3
|
| Treasure |
Mega Drive
Saturn
Game Boy Advance
Wii
Nintendo DS
|
G.Sat | Mega Drive
Mega CD
|
| Kogado Studio |
Mega CD
|
Micronet | Saturn
|
| Minato Ginken | Arcade
Master System
Mega Drive
Game Gear
|
Japan Media Programming |
Mega Drive
Saturn
|
| Rutobo Games | Sega 32X
Saturn
Dreamcast
|
System Sacom | Mega CD
Saturn
|
| Genki | Saturn
Dreamcast
Nintendo DS
|
M2 | Game Gear
Windows
Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Nintendo 3DS |
| MicroCabin | Saturn
|
Red Entertainment | 32X
Saturn
Dreamcast
PC
PlayStation 2
|
| J-Force |
Sega Saturn
|
Scarab | Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast
|
| Anchor | Arcade
|
Data East | Arcade
Saturn
Dreamcast
|
| Hudson Soft | Dreamcast
|
Queintet | Dreamcast
|
| Vivarium | Dreamcast
PlayStation 2 |
Ecole Software | Sega Saturn
PlayStation 3 PlayStatiion Vita ALL.Net Arcade |
| Chime | Saturn
Dreamcast |
SystemSoft | Dreamcast
PC
PlayStation 2 |
| Forty Five |
Dreamcast
|
Zoom | Dreamcast
|
| D3 Publisher | PlayStation 2
|
ChunSoft | Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
PlayStation Portable Nintendo DS
Wii
PlayStation 3
|
| Art Co. |
Game Boy Advance
|
Altron |
Game Boy Advance
|
| From Software | Xbox
Xbox 360
|
NOW Productions | GameCube
PlayStation 2
Xbox
PC
Wii
|
| Neverland | PlayStation 2
Nintendo DS |
Shade Inc. |
PlayStation 2
Nintendo DS
|
| Dimps | Neo Geo Pocket Color
Game Boy Advance
PlayStation 2
Xbox
Nintendo DS
Wii
PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Nintendo 3DS
|
PlayStation 2
| |
| Polygon Magic | Wii
|
PlayStation Portable
| |
| Sega Networks China Co. | PC
|
Sega Shangai Software | PlayStation 2
Arcade
PlayStation 2
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
PC
|
| Marvelous AQL | PlayStation 3
Wii
Nintendo DS PlayStation Vita |
PlayStation Portable
| |
| Racjin | Wii | Wii
Nintendo DS
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
| |
| Media.Vision | PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
PlayStation Portable
|
Nintendo DS
| |
| imageepoch |
Nintendo DS
PlayStation Portable
Nintendo 3DS
|
Nintendo DS | |
| Skonec | Nintendo DS
|
Studio Saizensen | PlayStation Portable
ALL.Net Arcade
|
| syn.sophia |
PlayStation Portable |
Tabot Inc. |
Wii
|
| Tri-Ace | PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
PlayStation Vita
|
Xeen |
Nintendo 3DS |