Sega Console and Hand Held History

Sega Console and Hand Held History

Sega gaming originally started making coin operated amusement machines under the name of Standard Games, A merger with Rosen Enterprises in the 1960s formed the company Sega Enterprises, whom went on to create some of the worlds first in console gaming history. 

In July of 1983 Sega released the Sega Game 1000 (AKA SG-1000 or Sega 1000) in Japan, with the SG-1000 II and the Sega Computer 3000 (AKA SC-3000) being released in 1984, Sega also released the SG-1000 in Australia, Finland, Italy, New Zealand and Spain during this time,  With only approx 2 million consoles being shipped to the world, and their best of 75 games to sell being Flicky the SG-1000 was underwhelming.

October 1985 Sega released the Sega Mark III in Japan which struggled against its competitors at the time, In September of 1986 Sega renamed their console as the Sega Master System and released it in Northern America with the rest of the world to soon follow, the console was backwards compatible (with the Sg-1000's 75 games) and sold over 14 million units with popular games like Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Fantasy Zone, Lemmings, Ninja Gaiden, Phantasy Star, Populous, R-Type, Sonic the Hedgehog, Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Ys: The Vanished Omens also selling many copies.

In October 1988 the Sega Genesis was released in Japan and in 1989 as the Sega Mega Drive in North America with Australia, Europe, Brazil an South Korea to follow in 1990, the 16-Bit generation machine was the most successful Sega console with over 40 million units shipped world wide, and Sonic the Hedgehog selling as its most popular game with over 15 million units shipped, later on they also released the Sega Master System 2 to help sell the more Master System games even though the newer consoles were already released.

October 1990 Sega release the Sega Game Gear in Japan to compete with other hand held systems, later in 1991 in Europe and North America, and then in 1992 for Australia, even though the Game Gear sold over 11 million units, it was no match for its competitors.

November 1994 the Sega Saturn arrived in Japan with North American and Europe releases arriving later in 1995, Sega's was the first 32-Bit and fifth generation console but slowly fought the more popular later brands, in 1994, Sega Channel, a subscription gaming service was released and cancelled only few years later in 1998, with a maximum 250,000 users it was considered a failure because of technical problems, The Sega Saturn managed to only sell over 9 million units with its most popular games, Castlevania, Croc, Darkstalkers III, Daytona USA, Dead or Alive, Die Hard Trilogy, Duke Nukem 3D, Metal Slug, NiGHTS into Dreams, Panzer Dragoon, Quake, Resident Evil, Sega Rally Championship, Street Fighter Alpha's, Tomb Raider, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter, WipEout 2097 and Worms.

In October 1995 Sega released the Sega Genesis Nomad (Sega Nomad) which failed to compete against its competitors with a very limited 1 million units sold over its time.

Then finally November 1998 Sega released the Sega Dreamcast in Japan, then later for Australia, Europe and North America in 1999, even though only 10 million unit sold, The Dreamcast was also the first console to include a built-in modem for Internet support and online gaming, with ChuChu Rocket!, Phantasy Star Online (the first console-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game MMORPG), Quake III Arena and Alien Front Online (the first console game with online voice chat) as well as many other popular games like, Crazy Taxi, Daytona USA, Dead or Alive 2, Ecco the Dolphin, Jet Set Radio, House of the Dead 2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Rayman 2, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Sega Rally 2, Shenmue, Sonic Adventure's, Soulcalibur, Street Fighter III, Test Drive: Le Mans, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, WWF Royal Rumble .

The Sega console era ended in 2001 with the sell off of all remaining consoles at discounted prices, Sega has since been rebranded into a software development and games distribution company, Its latest name is Sega Holdings and continues to reproduce and distribute new games world wide.