Native name | セガ第一AM研究開発本部 |
---|---|
Romanized name | Sega Daiichi Ē Emu Kenkyū Kaihatsu Bu |
Formerly | Wow Entertainment Sega Wow, Inc. |
Type | Division |
Industry | Video games |
Headquarters | Japan |
Key people | Rikiya Nakagawa Noriyoshi Ohba Kazunori Tsukamoto |
Products | Arcade games, video games, mobile games |
Parent | Sega |
Sega AM Research & Development No. 1 [lower-alpha 1] is a development department within Japanese video game developer Sega that also previously existed as Wow Entertainment and Sega Wow Inc. [lower-alpha 2] AM1 spent most of its early existence under the leadership of Rikiya Nakagawa and developed a number of arcade games for Sega.
In 2000, Sega split its development studios into nine semi-autonomous companies, with AM1 becoming Wow Entertainment. Wow developed games for the Dreamcast and later other consoles as well as arcade games. In 2003, as part of studio consolidations within Sega, Wow was merged with Overworks Ltd. [lower-alpha 3] (originally titled Sega CS Research & Development No. 2 [lower-alpha 4] and later AM7) and renamed to Sega Wow. Nakagawa resigned a few weeks later after Sammy Corporation acquired a significant amount of shares in Sega. Sega Wow was re-integrated back into the company the next year. Since then, the AM1 division has continued within Sega.
Rikiya Nakagawa joined Sega as a programmer in 1983. [1] Working for Sega's development division, he programmed arcade games including Ninja Princess , Alien Syndrome , and Choplifter . [2] Although the exact date of the transition is not known, some time after the release of Power Drift , Sega began to separate the amusement division into the Amusement Machine Research and Development teams, or AM teams. AM1 was formed not long after the decision was made to separate the teams. [3] Hisao Oguchi worked with AM1 before later going to AM3. [4]
Nakagawa was made manager of AM1 in September 1991. [5] According to Nakagawa, he was working with AM2 with Yu Suzuki before being made head of AM1. He has also stated that his job focus had to change upon taking the new title, with less coding and more production and schedule management. [2] Joining him at AM1 were members of Team Shinobi, who had developed Alien Syndrome and the arcade version of Golden Axe . [3] AM1 also included Makoto Uchida, the lead developer for Golden Axe, who had also developed Altered Beast as well as several other Sega arcade titles. [6] [7]
During the next few years, AM1 made several technological advances in their game development. The team used 3D computer graphics for the first time in 1994's Wing War , [2] a game that would also be released for Sega's R360 arcade cabinet. [8] AM1 would also develop Indy 500, which Nakagawa called his most memorable AM1 project and he credits it for AM1's ability to develop proper 3D games. From there, AM1 developed WaveRunner and The House of the Dead. [2] AM1 also collaborated with Sega Technical Institute to develop and release Die Hard Arcade in 1996. [9] According to developer Koichi Izumi, who had worked with AM1 before moving to AM3, AM1 had developed so many games that he lost count of them. [10] Nakagawa has stated that he considered it good that AM1 did not have a specialty area and could develop almost any game as long as it was fun, and highlighted Wakuwaku Anpanman, a kiddie ride, as an example. [2] AM1 also took charge of technical aspects of the NAOMI arcade system board. [11] Some of AM1's other titles developed were Sega Bass Fishing , Sega Strike Fighter, and Wild Riders. [12]
In April 2000, [13] Sega restructured its arcade and console development teams into nine semi-autonomous studios headed by the company's top designers. [14] [15] Sega's design houses were encouraged to experiment and benefited from a relatively lax approval process. [16] Nakagawa chose the name Wow Entertainment for his new company, because it was an easy name to say in Japanese and also would work worldwide as a word in the English dictionary. At the time, Wow Entertainment had a staff of 120 and had 12 to 13 production lines, one of which was based in the United States. Though AM1 had previously focused on arcade games, Wow would split its time with console games as well. Wow also announced a collaboration with Nihon Television and Kodansha for the development of additional games. [11]
Wow's offices were based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. [12] [13] In addition to Dreamcast games, such as Sega Bass Fishing 2, Wow developed for other consoles. The Game Boy Advance received Columns Crown , and games were developed for the GameCube, as well as the Xbox and PlayStation 2. Arcade games, such as The House of the Dead III , were also released. [12]
In 2003, Hisao Oguchi was named president of Sega. He announced his intention to consolidate Sega's studios into "four or five core operations". [17] As part of the mergers, Wow Entertainment merged with Overworks, [18] formerly Sega's AM7 department and headed by Noriyoshi Ohba. [11] With this merger, completed in October 2003, Wow Entertainment changed its name to Sega Wow. [13] Also in 2003, Sammy Corporation purchased a large share of Sega and announced its desire to have Sega focus on arcade game development, preferably with Sammy's Atomiswave arcade system board, which was less expensive and less advanced than Sega's Chihiro and Triforce boards. Nakagawa resigned weeks after the acquisition. While no official reason for his departure was given, it has been suggested that Nakagawa's resignation could have been due to a desire not to comply with Sammy's demands. [1] Nakagawa joined Sammy itself as a general manager at the start of 2004, [19] and as of 2008, was then president of the company Paon DP. [20] Kazunori Tsukamoto, who had worked on The House of the Dead and Super GT, replaced Nakagawa as president of Sega Wow. [21] As Sega Wow, they developed Blood Will Tell and the 2005 Altered Beast game. [22] During the existence of existence of Sega Wow, producer Yosuku Okunari pitched remakes of Streets of Rage and Dragon Force made by Sega Wow for the Sega Ages 2500 series. Ultimately, only Dragon Force eventually became an outsourced project with Okunari helming the project and the Sega Ages 2500 series as whole. [23]
During mid-2004, Sammy bought a controlling share in Sega at a cost of $1.1 billion, creating the new company Sega Sammy Holdings, an entertainment conglomerate. [24] Prior to the acquisition by Sammy, Sega began the process of re-integrating its subsidiaries into the main company, [25] which was completed by October 2004. [26] Sega Wow's 215 employees were split across consumer and arcade development after the integration back into Sega. [27]
The AM1 division has continued within Sega since the re-integration of Sega Wow. Further development since 2004 has included smartphone games, such as Chain Chronicle. [28] Some of AM1's arcade developments since 2004 include Maimai, Initial D Arcade Stage 8 Infinity, Puyopuyo!! Quest Arcade , Fist of the North Star: Battle Medal , and Starhorse III , [29] as well as Sangokushi Taisen , a digital collectible card and trading card game. [30] AM1 is said to be the broadest division of Sega covering arcade video games, smartphone apps, games for kids, medal games, and simulators. [31]
Overworks was a development division of Sega, originally founded as CS Research and Development #2. It was led by Noriyoshi Ohba, [32] who was initially hired to Sega's CS2 department as a planner and worked on titles such as Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Clockwork Knight . [33] Rieko Kodama was a developer on the team, which was formed of developers who had previously worked on series such as Shinobi, Streets of Rage , Phantasy Star , and Alex Kidd . [34] CS2 R&D had a hand in the development of Sega Saturn games, including Sakura Wars , [32] Deep Fear, and J-League Pro Soccer. [11] The team would later be known as R&D #7 or AM7. [35] Upon the transition of the studios that led to the formation of Overworks from AM7, Ohba chose the name "Overworks" as a simplification of "Over Quality Works". Games released for the Dreamcast as Overworks include Skies of Arcadia , Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning? , [34] and GuruGuru Onsen. [11] They also released a game for arcades called Dragon Treasure . [36] After the discontinuation of the Dreamcast, Overworks continued to work on Sakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens and a sequel to Shinobi, before being consolidated into Wow Entertainment. [34] After serving as vice president of Sega Wow, Ohba departed Sega in 2004 to join Interchannel. [37] The CS2 designation would later be given to Sonic Team by 2010. [38]
Sonic Team is a video game developer owned by the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No. 2 division. Sonic Team is best known for the long-running Sonic the Hedgehog series and games such as Nights into Dreams and Phantasy Star Online.
The Dreamcast is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox. The Dreamcast was Sega's final console; its 2001 discontinuation ended the company's eighteen years in the console market.
Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. is a Japanese global conglomerate formed from the merger of Sega and Sammy Corporation in 2004. Both companies are involved in the amusement industry.
Sega AM Research & Development No. 3, known as Hitmaker Co., Ltd. from 2000 to 2004, is a defunct division of Sega, a Japanese video game company. Established by 1993, AM3 was managed by Hisao Oguchi and developed a number of arcade games for Sega. Series introduced by AM3 include Virtual On, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, and Virtua Tennis. AM3's main focus was on arcade games until the release of the Dreamcast. Additionally, developers Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Kenji Sasaki developed Sega Rally Championship with AM3 before departing to form AM Annex, which later split into Sega AM9 and Sega AM5.
Sega AM Research & Development No. 2, previously known as SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd., is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including Hang-On and Out Run, was the first manager of the department.
Sega Rally 2 is an arcade racing game developed by Sega AM Annex for the Model 3 arcade hardware. It is the sequel to 1994's Sega Rally Championship. The game was first released in arcades in February 1998, and was later ported by Smilebit to the Sega Dreamcast, becoming one of the console's earliest titles when it was released in Japan on January 28, 1999. The Sega Dreamcast version was released in Europe as a launch title on October 14, 1999, and then in North America on November 27. A PC version was released in Japan and Europe that same year, with the North American release following suit in September 2000, where it was published by Mattel Interactive.
Shinobi is a 3D action-adventure video game developed by Overworks and published by Sega as part of the Shinobi series. It was released for the PlayStation 2 console on November 12, 2002, in North America; December 5 in Japan; and May 15, 2003, in Europe. The game stars the master ninja Hotsuma, leader of the Oboro clan, who wields Akujiki, a sword that feeds on souls. He can also use ninja magic, shurikens, and special moves. Upon finding a golden castle after an earthquake, Hotsuma makes it his goal to defeat the powerful sorcerer Hiruko, who had summoned hellspawn creatures in Japan to destroy Tokyo. Hotsuma's mission is to stop Hiroko from destroying the world and avenge the death of his clan.
Sega Bass Fishing, also known as Get Bass, is an arcade fishing video game developed in 1997 by Sega for the Sega Model 3 hardware. The game has since been ported to the Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.
Indy 500 is a 1995 arcade racing game developed by Sega AM1. Based on the IndyCar Series, the game possesses a license from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500, and includes the speedway as one of its courses. Indy 500 was AM1's second game developed using 3D computer graphics and their first to utilize color textures. While planned as a Model 3 arcade system board release, delays in the hardware's completion led to use of the Model 2 instead. A Sega Saturn port was planned, but later canceled. Reception to Indy 500 was mixed, with some critical comparison to other games such as Sega AM2's Daytona USA and Namco's Ace Driver and Rave Racer.
Deep Fear is a 1998 survival horror video game co-developed by System Sacom and Sega CS2, and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. It was one of the last first-party titles released for Saturn, and never saw a North American release. Set on the underwater Big Table research facility, the player controls John Mayor as an unknown infection begins transforming the facility staff into hostile mutants. Gameplay has Mayor exploring the Big Table, gathering items and resources while fighting enemies.
NASCAR Arcade, initially known as NASCAR Rubbin' Racing outside North America, is a 2000 racing arcade game developed by Sega Rosso and released by Sega. It was produced at the suggestion of producer Kenji Arai, and the soundtrack was produced by Jun Senoue. The game is based on NASCAR, and carries an official license with permission from EA Sports, which permitted Sega to develop the game as a coin-op only title.
Hisao Oguchi is a Japanese business executive. He was director, vice chairman, and chief creative officer of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. Oguchi originally was President and CEO of Sega. He currently is president and CEO of Sega Sammy Creation.
This is a list of development studios owned by Sega, a Japanese video game developer and publisher based in Tokyo, Japan. Accompanied with the list is their history of game development. Also included are the companies that Sega has acquired over the years. For a full list of games developed and published by Sega, see List of Sega video games, List of Sega mobile games and List of Sega arcade games.
Sega Corporation is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California, and London, respectively. Its division for the development of both arcade games and home video games, Sega Games, has existed in its current state since 2020; from 2015 to that point, the two had made up separate entities known as Sega Games and Sega Interactive Co., Ltd. Sega is a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings. From 1983 until 2001, Sega had also developed video game consoles.
Sega Sports Research and Development or Sega Sports R&D was a development division of the Japanese video game company Sega. It was previously known as Smilebit, one of nine semi-autonomous studios which Sega established in 2000. Smilebit was previously known as R&D6 or AM6 which itself was mainly based on Sega PC. Smilebit was known for its sports simulation titles, as well as Jet Set Radio. When Sega started releasing games for other platforms, Smilebit began developing games for the Xbox, with Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta and GunValkyrie. Smilebit was led by Shun Arai as president and Takayuki Kawagoe as director. Kawagoe became president of Smilebit in 2003.
The history of Sega, a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, has roots tracing back to Standard Games in 1940 and Service Games of Japan in the 1950s. The formation of the company known today as Sega is traced back to the founding of Nihon Goraku Bussan, which became known as Sega Enterprises, Ltd. following the acquisition of Rosen Enterprises in 1965. Originally an importer of coin-operated arcade games to Japan and manufacturer of slot machines and jukeboxes, Sega began developing its own arcade games in 1966 with Periscope, which became a surprise success and led to more arcade machine development. In 1969, Gulf and Western Industries bought Sega, which continued its arcade game business through the 1970s.
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is a video game developer housed within the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No. 1 division. It is known for developing the games in the Like a Dragon series, which the studio is named after, since Yakuza 5.
Sports Jam is a video game developed by WOW Entertainment for the Sega NAOMI and Dreamcast in 2000-2001.
Sega Bass Fishing 2, known in Japan as Get Bass 2, is a video game developed by WOW Entertainment and published by Sega for the Dreamcast in 2001. It is the sequel to Sega Bass Fishing.
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