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SEGA is a company founded in Honolulu in 1940 to provide coin-op amusements for the American military station there. In 1965, SEGA merged with Rosen Enterprises, a photo booth company. Within a year, they started selling their first arcade game, Periscope.
Their business continued as they produced arcades. Eventually, they got into the console business with the SG-1000 and the SEGA Master System.
However, SEGA really started competing with Nintendo with the SEGA Genesis. They mounted an anti-Nintendo marketing campaign with the slogan "Genesis does what Nintendon't." They also advertised their Blast Processing, and competed game-wise as well, creating the world-famous Sonic the Hedgehog series.
However, their next system, the Saturn didn't sell as well. After the Dreamcast failed to sell well enough, they decided to leave the console business and focus even more on game development for other companies' systems, including the Nintendo Gamecube.
SEGA now publishes games on the Wii, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and the PlayStation Vita, as well as the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo DS. SEGA is also publishing Genesis games on the Virtual Console.
Video Game Console Market
Sega Master System
Sega Master System
Released in 1985 in Japan as the Sega MKIII and in 1986/1987 in Europe and America as the Master System. This was Sega's first widely acknowledged games console, (with their previous Japan only SG1000 and SG1000 II consoles proving unsuccessful). A direct competitor to the NES, this 8 bit machine, whilst actually technically more powerful than the Nintendo machine was no where near as successful in the Japanese or North American market where the flood of A+ games for the NES kept it ahead in the competition. The same could not be said in Europe however, where the Master Syetem kept a steady lead over the NES for the entirety of its availability, and was so popular in Brazil, it is still on sale there today.
Mega Drive/Genesis
Sega Genesis
Following up from the Master System in 1988/1989 was the Sega Mega Drive (Known as the Sega Genesis in North America due to copyright restrictions). The Mega Drive was an immediate hit in its released markets, partly due to it being one of the first 16 bit consoles to be released (Americans and Europeans wouldn't see Nintendo's effort, the SNES, for almost 2 years at this point). And began what some consider to be the golden age of video games, the 16 bit wars. (Who could forget either playing with super power or playing with blast processing) When the SNES eventually hit the market in the early 1990's, a fierce battle for market share erupted into the well known 16-Bit war, and surprisingly, SEGA maintained a 65% lead over the SNES, though that did not last long, as SEGA dropped out of the 16-Bit war early to focus attention on their next console, the Sega Saturn.
Saturn
Sega Saturn
By the middle of the 1990's cartridges were going out of fashion. Sega had already attempted to jump onto the optical band wagon with the release of the Sega CD (or Mega CD in some markets) in 1993, but this never quite got beyond the niche catagory and had very few stellar titles. However, their next home console, the Saturn, released in 1995 was based all around the CD format. With improved graphics, smoother gameplay and (obviously) CD quality sound, the Saturn was leagues ahead of its predecessor, the Mega Drive/Genesis. Howeer it wasn't to be without its flaws. It was difficult to program for, using a complicated architecture, meaning many games did not utilize the systems full potential. It was also the only Sega console not to have a main full release Sonic game. Its biggest problem however came from its biggest competitor, the Sony Playstation. With its more impressive 3D graphics (this stemming from the fact the playstation was easier to program for, though the Saturn was technically more advanced), and huge list of games available, the PlayStation wiped the floor with the Saturn as far as sales go by. The Saturn did find a niche as the home of some excellent 2D fighting games though, and thrived on these, especially in Japan. However, overall netloss began to mark the company's impending hour.
Dreamcast
Sega Dreamcast
The Dreamcast started the 6th generation video console market with the Dreamcast. Sega soon had revived their name among gamers with strong launch titles such as Sonic Adventure and SoulCalibur, and soon the Dreamcast was the talk in town. However, just as it seemed that Sega was about to take the helm once again, Sony followed their first console with the Sony Playstation 2. The two fought bitterly for a year, but as the smoke died down, it became clear who the winner was. The PS2 knocked Sega so hard, they were forced to quit the gaming market, though not before releasing well-remembered titles such as Sonic Adventure 2, Chu-Chu Rocket, etc.
Popular Franchises
Games released by Sega
Note these will be games that have appeared on Nintendo systems only (although they don't have to be exclusive to a Nintendo system).
