Difference between revisions of "Sega of America"

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{{stub}}'''Sega of America, Inc.''' ('''SoA''') is the company responsible for [[Sega]]'s North American operations. SoA's current incarnation is a result of a merger between Sega Enterprises USA and another subsidiary named Sega of America.
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{{stub}}'''Sega of America, Inc.''' is the company responsible for [[Sega]]'s North American operations.
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
 
===Pre-1985===
 
===Pre-1985===
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The incarnation of [[Sega Enterprises, Inc.]] that was owned by [[Gulf+Western]] had traded as "Sega of America" during the 1970s{{magref|bb|1976-08-14|113}}{{magref|bb|1976-09-04|47}}{{magref|bb|1978-04-29|59}}, mainly referring to its electro-mechanical and discrete logic arcade products (and the [[Sega-Vision]]). This name fell out of use when SEI bought [[Gremlin Industries]] - Gremlin would act as Sega's way into the fledgling video game market (with SEI's game production facilities wound down), later trading as Gremlin/Sega and Sega/Gremlin before becoming Sega Electronics in 1982. While Sega Electronics was able to make a name for itself during the early 1980s, even producing games for home consoles, its assets were sold to [[Bally Midway]] in 1983, leaving Sega without a video game presence in the US for nearly two years.
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Sega has technically had a minute presence in the United States ever since its 1946 inception as an American entity, but it was it’s later Japanese incarnation [[Sega Enterprises, Ltd.]] that would grow to see true success. Acquired by Gulf+Western in 1969, the purchase allowed the company to expand into the American market in 1974 with the establishment of [[Sega Enterprises, Inc.]] in Los Angeles, California. Initially producing arcade games of their own (and even a [[Sega-Vision|consumer television]]), this American branch of Sega also traded under the name “Sega of America” for the next decade.
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Eager to expand [[Sega]]’s newfound presence in the United States, the company acquired American arcade developer [[Gremlin Industies]] to become [[Gremlin/Sega]], andwith the increased game production capability was able to steadily make a name for itself in the arcades of the early 1980s. Later becoming [[Sega Electronics]] in 1982, it would also go on to produce ports of Sega arcade games for the home market. In 1983, the company’s assets were sold to [[Bally Midway]] leaving Sega without a video game presence in the United States for nearly two years.
  
 
===1985-2008===
 
===1985-2008===

Revision as of 00:27, 21 March 2021

https://segaretro.org/images/7/76/Sega_logo_International_R.svg

Sega logo International R.svg
Sega of America
Founded: March 21, 1985 (as "Sega Enterprises (USA)")[1]
Headquarters:
Irvine, California, United States

This short article is in need of work. You can help Sega Retro by adding to it.

Sega of America, Inc. is the company responsible for Sega's North American operations.

History

Pre-1985

Sega has technically had a minute presence in the United States ever since its 1946 inception as an American entity, but it was it’s later Japanese incarnation Sega Enterprises, Ltd. that would grow to see true success. Acquired by Gulf+Western in 1969, the purchase allowed the company to expand into the American market in 1974 with the establishment of Sega Enterprises, Inc. in Los Angeles, California. Initially producing arcade games of their own (and even a consumer television), this American branch of Sega also traded under the name “Sega of America” for the next decade.

Eager to expand Sega’s newfound presence in the United States, the company acquired American arcade developer Gremlin Industies to become Gremlin/Sega, andwith the increased game production capability was able to steadily make a name for itself in the arcades of the early 1980s. Later becoming Sega Electronics in 1982, it would also go on to produce ports of Sega arcade games for the home market. In 1983, the company’s assets were sold to Bally Midway leaving Sega without a video game presence in the United States for nearly two years.

1985-2008

Sega Enterprises, Ltd. established a subsidiary that would release its arcade games in North America. It was founded as SE, Inc. on March 21, 1985, but its name was changed to Sega Enterprises, Inc. (U.S.A.) seven days later.[1] Another subsidiary, Sega of America, Inc., was established on March 10, 1986[2][3] to assist with consumer products. The two subsidiaries co-existed for several years.

Sega of America initially partnered with Tonka for the marketing and distribution of the Sega Master System, though following the launch of the Sega Genesis, the branch began taking on these duties themselves. With savvy marketing and smart talent, Sega began to take a significant share of what had been exclusively Nintendo’s market and soon millions of consoles were found in American homes. While localizing Sega of Japan’s games, Sega of America sought out talented American developers to produce original games for the West, giving the early Genesis library a number of quality sports titles. Games were also developed internally, such as Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin, or through related studios, like Sega Technical Institute’s Comix Zone.


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During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sega of America outsourced development for a number of home console games to third-party developers, playing an advisory role throughout the development process. SoA also had a say in hardware decisions - the Sega 32X for example is an American invention, and a great deal of American-led work was put into developing the Sega Dreamcast. Sega of America's efforts greatly influenced the video game industry as we know it today (for example, it created the VRC ratings board, which led to first industry-wide system, the ESRB)

Struggles selling the Sega Saturn in North America led to a scaling back of internal production and consolidation of many of Sega of America’s development teams.

During the Dreamcast era, Sega of America came back strong, due to Visual Concepts and the 2K games - as well as strong marketing reminiscent of the Genesis days. Like on Saturn, the bias was more towards localizing Japanese games however. In 2005, Sega of America was hit with a large scale restructuring, with it being designed to appeal more to the Western market, due to it being becoming larger than the Japanese market. This however led to numerous questionable games, with some games being some of the worst in Sega's history. This includes licensed games The Golden Compass, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Iron Man, as well ill fated attempts to reboot SoJ franchises such as with Golden Axe: Beast Rider and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.

2008-present

Sega Enterprises Inc. (U.S.A.) was merged with Sega of America, Inc. on April 1, 2008,[1] and Sega of America became the new company's name.

Around 2015, Sega was evaluating on how they should handle the American branch in the future. Effectively, SoA was relocated from San Francisco to Irvine, California, to share the same office with Atlus USA, which Sega had acquired earlier. The main purpose of the new Sega of America and Atlus USA, is to localize the Japanese games of their respective parent company. In addition, a dedicated office for the Sonic franchise in Burbank, California exists as well.

Softography

Discrete logic arcade

Master System

Mega Drive

Game Gear

Mega-CD

32X

Saturn

Dreamcast

IBM PC

Windows PC

Unlike in Sega of Japan, all games are created with an external company

Master System

Mega Drive

Game Gear

Sega CD

Pico

Sega 32X

Sega Saturn

Dreamcast

PlayStation 2

GameBoy Advance

Xbox

GameCube

Nintendo DS

PlayStation Portable

Xbox 360

Wii

PlayStation 3

Nintendo 3DS

Wii U

Xbox One

PlayStation 4

Nintendo Switch

PC

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 California Business Search: Entity #C1271130
  2. ↑ California Business Search: Entity #C1299989
  3. ↑ Sega Visions, "February/March 1993" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 81
Overseas Sega companies, studios and subsidiaries
84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
CSK Sega Sammy Holdings
Sega of America
Sega Technical Institute
Sega Away Team
Sega Europe
Sega France Sega France
Sega Consumer Products S.A Sega Spain
Sega Vertriebsgesellschaft Sega Austria
Sega Interactive
Sega Deutschland Sega Germany
Sega Amusements Taiwan Sega Taiwan
Sega Denmark
Sega Belgium
Sega Netherlands
Sega Multimedia Studio
Sega Midwest Studio
Sega Amusements USA
Deith Leisure Sega Amusements Europe Sega Amusements International
Sega Total Solutions
Sega Prize Europe
Sega Music Group
SegaSoft
Sega Entertainment
Hyundai-Sega Entertainment
Sega Enterprises Israel
No Cliche
Sega of America Dreamcast
Sonic Team USA Sega Studios USA
Visual Concepts
Sega.com
Sega.com Asia
Sega of China
Sega Mobile Sega Networks Inc.
Sega Publishing Korea
The Creative Assembly
Sega (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd
Sega Benelux
Sega Studios San Francisco
Sports Interactive
Sega Studios Australia
Three Rings Design
Relic Entertainment
Atlus USA
Demiurge Studios
Go Game
Sonic Studio
Amplitude Studios
Sonic Team USA
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