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Creator / Sega

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SE-GA!

WELCO
METOT
HENEX
TLEVEL
— US Slogan, 1992-1995

Sega Corporation (stylized as SEGA) is a Tokyo-based multinational video gaming and entertainment company. It is famous for its history of video games, arcade games, and game consoles, and it was one the "big three" console makers from the third to the sixth console generations, competing with Nintendo and Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company is currently a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings, with it and its group companies forming one half of Sega Sammy's operations.

Sega was founded in 1940 by Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg and James Humpert in Hawaii as Standard Games. Following World War II, the company was renamed to "Service Games," before relocating to Japan in the 1950s, when it became a creator and distributor of redemption games designed for overseas markets. As a result of these origins, many of their games are often designed for an international market (and as a side result, this is also why many of their games contain a lot of Engrish and spotty English voice work across different versions.) Sega moved into arcade game development in the 1960s, as U.S. governmental crackdowns on gambling machines and pinball, along with increased competition worldwide, made it difficult to turn a profit solely from redemption and slot games. At about this time, Sega was purchased by Gulf and Western, the owners of Paramount until 1989 (G+W technically still owned the studio until 1994, but during the last five years of this, they were known as Paramount Communications), and they would own Sega until 1984.

Sega also began developing arcade video games in The '70s, but did not find success until The '80s with worldwide hits like Space Harrier and OutRun. They also served as the American distributor of arcade games made by other companies, such as Frogger (made by Konami) and Space Firebird (made by, ironically, Nintendo).

Sega also entered the console market when the Sega Master System (or more accurately, its' predecessors, the SG-1000 console and SC-3000 computer; the Master System would debut in 1986, as a Westernized variant on the successor to both console and computer, the Sega Mark III) was released on July 15, 1983. While it had little success in Japan and North America, the Master System became the console market leader in Europe and South America (Mostly Brazil) during the 8-bit era.

Sega eventually found some of its greatest success with the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis during the 16-bit era, and a marketable mascot in Sonic the Hedgehog provided a perfect rival for Nintendo's Mario. By the early '90s, Sega was the worldwide console market leader, everywhere except for Japan.

Behind the scenes, however, the company suffered from internal conflicts between Sega's Japanese head office (who were salty about being shown up by their foreign subsidiaries) and American/European branches. Lack of developer tools and support was a constant issue. What was available was expensive, poorly-documented and not always reliable.

This resulted in a string of failed hardware that eroded the company's star power. The only console they managed to get right was the Genesis. The portable Game Gear was superior to the competition, but it cost more and yes, it did keep the battery companies going. Backwards compatibility was another factor: The Sega CD and 32X were attempts to prolong the life of the Genesis. Both ended up as fodder for YouTube comedians. The Saturn was going to be the most advanced 2D system ever, with some 3D proficiency, albeit in a more complicated multi-processor setup. The higher-ups at Sega tried to get a jump on the US market and release the system several months before the PlayStation. At the event which was supposed to announce the release date, they literally announced that they were releasing the console right then.

The problem is, they didn't tell any of the game developers, who were just as surprised as the public. So the Saturn had a very limited number of launch titles, and a lot of developers were pissed at Sega for leaving them out of the loop. Not helping matters was subsequent CEO Bernie Stolar. Two years later at E3 1997, he proclaimed that "the Saturn is not our future," and pulled an Osborne with it: ended Saturn support in 1998, and fast-tracked development of the next system, the Dreamcast. The botched release of the Saturn dealt a massive blow to their hardware business in the West, their most successful region, and the Dreamcast was too little, too late. Ironically, the Saturn was Sega's biggest hit in Japan while simultaneously being their biggest flop in the Western world. Sega became a third-party developer on February 3, 2001, ending the company's 18-year run as a major hardware manufacturer.

Sega never got the major third-party support for their consoles that Nintendo and Sony received. In the days of the SG-1000 and Master System, Sega did not want third-party games to compete with their first-party titles in sales, insisting that they publish most of the games on their consoles themselves. They consequently did not build strong relationships with the biggest third-party publishers of the day, who embraced more welcoming platforms such as the MSX, PC-Engine and especially the Famicom. This left Sega playing catch-up as those other console manufacturers, Nintendo especially, tied up the biggest developers and franchises with near-monopolistic exclusivity contracts.

By the 16-bit and 32/64-bit eras, a number of developers developed exclusively for Nintendo (Acclaim, Square, Enix, and Rare) or Sony (Namco, Konami, Eidos Interactive, and Square again) meaning that Sega had to rely solely on their first-party games to bolster their library (though every now and then, they did get third-party games that did well on their systems, like Mortal Kombat I, Strider, and Soulcalibur). Sonic the Hedgehog is wildly-popular, but beyond that, most fans would be hard-pressed to think of another Genesis-exclusive series, unlike Nintendo who could always rely on their wide selection of first-party games to get them through the slow times. The situation worsened with the Saturn. Their previous claim to having superior graphics was harder to justify, and gamers didn't respond to a console which was more expensive than the PlayStation, yet had an inferior library of games.

Electronic Arts were among the developers who got burned by Sega, especially when Bernie Stolar refused their terms for sports exclusivity on the Dreamcast in favor of the newly acquired Visual Concepts, and they took it characteristically poorly. At the E3 where Sony announced the PlayStation 2, the EA spokesman came onstage, openly mocked Sega, predicted doom, then dropped the bomb that EA were only making games for the PS2. (Sega Sports really blew up with the Dreamcast once EA Sports was out of the picture.) In addition, Sony quietly applied pressure on developers and forced them to choose: You can make games for Sega, or you make them for us. Not both. Sony's licensing was cheap and easy (just like with the PS1), they made their pressings cheaper, kit support, etc. By the time the Dreamcast came out, Sega had so little credibility that developers didn't want to invest the resources to make games for the console, and fans didn't want to invest money on a console to play one or two exclusive games.

Still, Sega has remained a major player in the game development world (though not quite what it once was) by shifting to third-party game development for all of the current-generation consoles, handhelds, and arcades. Ironically, Sega now publishes Sonic the Hedgehog games for play on Nintendo (and other) hardware. The only downside to this, however, is that since they no longer work on their own console, it gives them less time to work on their other properties.

Eventually, the Sammy Corporation, best known for its pachinko machines, purchased a controlling share of Sega during 2003 (after a planned merger between both parties got canned earlier that year), eventually buying Sega outright on August 1, 2004, becoming subsidiaries of their new parent company, Sega Sammy Holdings, as a result Sammy's non-gambling assets (including its video game businesses) were transferred to Sega.

Sega was also formerly a major player in the pinball industry. Sega Enterprises of Japan produced arcade pinball games from 1971-1973 and 1976-1979, Sega S.A. Sonicnote  (a.k.a. "Segasa") of Spain imported and produced pinball tables in Europe from 1974-1986, and Sega Pinball of America was a major pinball producer from 1994-1999.

As of September 2016, they are the new owners of all the IPs made by Technosoft.

Subsidiaries

Current

Former

  • Red Entertainment (2002-2005)
  • Relic Entertainment (2013-2024)
  • Sega, S.A. SONIC (1968-2006; now defunct)
  • SIMS Co Ltd (1991-2004; now independent)
  • Sega Pinball (1994-1999; now Stern Pinball)
  • SegaSoft (1995-2000; staff moved to Sega.com)
  • Sega.com, Inc (2000-2003; assets acquired by Nokia)
  • Sega Amusements International (until 2021; now independent)
  • Visual Concepts (1999-2005)

Works, Media & Products

    open/close all folders 

    Home game consoles 

    Pinball machines 

By Sega Enterprises (Japan)

    Video games 

Video games and franchises developed and published by Sega:

Western Developed:

Licensed games by Sega:

Outside Games/Franchises published by Sega in a set region:

Japan:

South Korea:

Asia:

North America:

Europe:

United Kingdom:

Oceania:

    Films 

Films produced by Sega:

    Television shows 

Tropes associated with Sega:

  • Actor Allusion: A number of early '90s German TV commercials managed to pull this off with Mike Myers' and Dana Carvey's German voice actors from Wayne's World as actors. Whilst they did play different characters with no further allusion to Wayne's World whatsoever, they acted out the very same shtick once again and even dressed quite recognizably.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: Alex Kidd was their initial answer to Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. series, but that was eventually taken over by Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Always Second Best:
    • Since the time of SG-1000, Sega seems to always strike in second place behind Nintendo, with occasional third or worse place in some situations (PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era, as well as the classical Console War in Japan, where the PC Engine actually outsold the Genesis.)
    • Averted in some markets, such as Europe (especially the UK) and South America, where Sega's dominance was unquestioned. In the 8-bit era, the NES (thanks to bad marketing decisions by Nintendo) was practically mythical in the UK but the Sega Master System was pretty popular. To this day, unlicensed Master System clones are still on the market in South America.
  • Cash-Cow Franchise: Sega's attempts to trickle out AAA games have yielded varying results. A retraux sequel to Streets of Rage made waves in 2020. Phantasy Star had a bit of a renaissance as an MMO. Ecco the Dolphin comes in at a very distant third, but it has a cult fanbase. Currently, their only true example of this is Sonic the Hedgehog, followed by Puyo Puyo (though only in Japan), and Like a Dragon.
  • Compilation Re-release: Extremely fond of them, especially concerning their Genesis library. They range from being franchise-specific, to encompassing as many games from a given platform as they can fit into a cartridge, disc or downloadable file package.
  • Console Wars: The Sega vs. Nintendo war (mainly Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis vs. Nintendo's SNES) is possibly the most famous one of them all.
    • Also worth noting that someone at NEC tried to start a war with Sega of all things in the Johnny Turbo comics by creating a Bland-Name Product Evil Corporation called FEKA in said comic, and then indirectly bashing Sega for claiming that the Genesis was the first 16-bit console (protip: Sega was right, the TurboGrafx-16 had a 8-bit CPU coupled with a 16-bit GPU- which resulted in a lot of games looking good but playing abysmally. The Genesis on the other hand had a 16-bit CPU). Cooler heads prevailed though and the FEKA plot was dropped after two books.
  • Content Warnings: After the controversy surrounding Night Trap and Mortal Kombat flared up, Sega started their own self-regulatory classification system known as the Videogame Rating Council, which rated games' content within three levels: GA for General Audiences, MA-13 for Mature content suitable for people over 13, and MA-17 for people over 17. However, there was little consistency in the difference between an MA-13 and an MA-17, with only a few games receiving the latter for seemingly arbitrary reasons.note  With the subsequent formation of the ESRB, Sega quietly dropped the now-redundant VRC.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: "Sega" derives from Service Games. Before the rename to Sega Corporation, Sega was known as Sega Games Company Limited, or "Service Games Games Company Limited" (similar to Detective Comics Comics).
  • Derivative Differentiation: Their early games started off by shamelessly ripping off of other popular games of the day—for example, Congo Bongo, an obvious clone of Donkey Kong. Their original mascot, Alex Kidd, was an obvious attempt to ride the coattails of Super Mario Bros.. Even their Sega Master System clearly patterned itself after the NES, right down to having identical controllers. Despite success in other countries, they all badly underperformed in the US due to Nintendo having a very strong grip on the gaming market. Realizing that playing by Nintendo's own rules would get them nowhere, they decided to go in the opposite direction and become Nintendo's antithesis with the Sega Genesis, aiming for older audiences and darker games with slicker graphics, action and very lax censorship policies—their first own pack-in game was Altered Beast, a gory beat-em-up that would never have been allowed on the NES. Their newest mascot for the console, Sonic The Hedgehog, was a unique contrast from the Mario series in art and gameplay, and also a contrast to the Mario-derivative Alex Kidd (who was quickly abandoned by the company once the technicolor insectivore made waves). Unsurprisingly, it worked.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Sega was originally just a regular arcade game company for decades before they jumped into making video games around the 1970's. Also, their original mascot, Alex Kidd, was more genial in tone and gameplay than Sonic.
  • Family Business: Since Sammy's acquisition of the company,
  • Frivolous Lawsuit / Disney Owns This Trope: In December 2012, they filed a lawsuit against Level-5 demanding 900 million yen (US $11 million) for allegedly infringing two patents they got in 2009 and 2011 on using drag-and-drop and tap commands on a touchscreen to control characters (i.e. using a touchscreen as a freaking touchscreen). Over a game that Level-5 released in 2008. Level-5 called them out on their patent trolling and tore them a new one in quite possibly the most epic pwning ever to happen via corporate public statement.
    • Also happened when child company Atlus (which they freshly bought off Index Corp.) tried to sue the developer of PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 despite it already being tried in the past (Sony vs. Connectix, and Sony lost) just because it allowed the PS3 version of Persona 5 to run on a PC. They were quick to back down when several digital rights non-profit organizations called them out on it. See Atlus' page for full details.
  • Logo Joke: Before the arrival of the Sega Saturn, nearly every single game booted up with the logo appearing onto the screen, with elements of the game the system's playing usually interacting with the logo or the screen it appears on in some way. Here's a list of them all.
  • Mascot: Formerly Alex Kidd. Now, it's Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Mascot with Attitude: Sonic the Hedgehog, the Trope Maker by which all others are based on.
  • Never Accepted in His Hometown: Sega saw great success in markets such as Europe, South America and eventually North America, but never did well in Japan. Part of the company's downfall is due to obsessing over trying to capture the Japanese market while casually throwing away the loyal fanbase they had built up abroad, by designing the Saturn (and to a lesser extent, the Dreamcast) largely around things that tried to appeal to Japanese rather than western gamers (painfully obvious when they rebooted the Sonic continuity outside of Japan with Sonic Adventure).
    • Subverted now with their arcade division, as they are not only the most prolific arcade manufacturer in the world, but the most profitable arcade company in Japan. Whereas ventures like Sega World London at the Trocadero proved to be too much of a financial commitment to maintain abroad, Sega still had the largest assortment of large-scale arcades throughout Japan and Asia as a whole until 2021.
    • Also subverted with their Mobile Phone Game division, with titles such as Chain Chronicle, IDOLA: Phantasy Star Saga, Shin Megami Tensei Liberation: Dx2, Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!, and Yumeiro Cast (before its closure) gaining significant amount of popularity among Japanese playerbase.
    • And also subverted with their toys and merchandising division. Sega regularly produces figures, dolls, and stationaries of practically every popular Anime and Manga series at this point (such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Love Live!, and Fate/stay night, to name a few), with these merchandises often prone to become collectors' items because of its' tendencies to be released as limited merchandises obtainable through UFO Catcher machines and Lucky Draws. They have also recently launched a high-quality figurine line, S-Fire to significant acclaim.
    • Outright averted with the Like a Dragon series where it's a Cash-Cow Franchise with no signs of losing momentum anytime soon. Ever since the first game in 2005, the series has seen several sequels, spin-offs and HD remasters released, with almost every game becoming best-sellers and falling under Playstation's "The Best" line. A prequel and remake of the first game were released to commemorate the series' ten year anniversary, and the seventh game in the main series was released to critical and commercial success.
    • Overall, Sega's current reputation in Japan subverts this trope, as they are now considered one of the biggest media conglomerates in Japan that does not only produce video games with their many ventures.
  • Put on a Bus: After Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle flopped with critics and retail and Sonic the Hedgehog made Sega realize the technicolor insectivore was their real answer to Mario, Alex Kidd was dropped as their mascot in favor of Sonic and permanently retired from the companies game line-up. Kidd has made the occasional cameo since then, but he is largely forgotten today.
  • Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The rivalry between Sega's Japanese and American branches is the stuff of industry legend, with the 16- and 32-bit generations marred with SOJ's jealousy of SOA's success and hamstringing their efforts on projects in favor of their own, while simultaneously offering up counterproductive projects like the Sega 32X as work on the coming Saturn continued along. By the time the Dreamcast ended its life cycle, it looked to hardcore fans like Sega's worst enemy was themselves.
  • Screwed by the Network: The Dreamcast was too good to last.
  • Sigil Spam: Sonic the Hedgehog makes a lot of cameo appearances in the companies games. He even appeared in the Sega CD and Sega Channel boot up. He is their mascot, and they want you to know it.
  • Title Scream: Read the caption below the image. First heard in Japanese Sega commercials, it was most famously used internationally at the start of all the major 2D Sonic games. Variations on the scream can also be heard on start-up of Panic!, all the Project Diva games and K-On! Houkago Live!.
    • Enforced because the reason for the scream being there in the first place is because it's actually filler to replace an early Sound Test idea that never came to be in Sonic the Hedgehog. In fact, this one sound byte takes up more memory than entire levels do.
    • US commercials that reveled in the X-treme 90's image they were portraying at the time also often ended with a different voice quickly screaming "SEGA!"
  • Take That!: Their entire advertising campaign throughout their console years famously consisted of lobbing Take Thats at competing consoles.
  • Virtual YouTuber: Since 2022, Popona, an IDOLA: Phantasy Star Saga tie-in VTuber (later a Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis official VTuber) has been promoted to the status of "SEGA Official VTuber" and now covers the company as a whole. Her channel can be found here.
SEGA!

 
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Alternative Title(s): Sega Corporation

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