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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sega Corporation is a multinational Japanese video game software and hardware development company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. The company has had success with both arcades and home consoles, but in early 2001, it left the consumer console business and began concentrating on software development for multiple platforms.
Sega was originally founded in 1940 as Standard Games (later Service Games) in Honolulu, Hawaii, by Martin Bromely, Irving Bromberg, and James Humpert to provide coin-operated amusements for American servicemen on military bases. Bromely suggested that the company move to Tokyo, Japan in 1951 and in May 1952 "SErvice GAmes of Japan" was registered.
The Sega Mega Drive is a video game console released by Sega in Japan in 1988, North America in 1989, and the PAL region in 1990. It was sold under the name Sega Genesis in North America, as Sega was unable to secure legal rights to the Mega Drive name in that region.
The Mega Drive was the first 16-bit console to achieve notable market share in Europe and North America. It was the direct competitor of the Super Famicom (SNES), although the Sega Mega Drive was released two years earlier. The Sega Mega Drive began production in Japan in 1988 and ended with the last new game being released in 2002 in Brazil.
In 1993, Sega released a redesigned version of the console at a newly reduced price. By consolidating the internal chipset onto a smaller, unified motherboard, Sega was able to both physically reduce the system's size and bring down production costs by simplifying the assembly procedure and reducing the number of integrated circuits required for each unit.
Aside from the release of the Mega-CD (Sega CD in North America) and 32X add-ons for the Mega Drive, Sega's last big announcement came in the form of a partnership with Time Warner in the U.S. to offer a subscription-based service called Sega Channel, which would allow subscribers to "download" games on a month-by-month basis.
The Sega Saturn is a 32-bit video game console, first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America and July 8, 1995 in Europe.
The system was supported in North America and Europe until late 1998, and in Japan until the end of 2000.
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