With a rich history in gaming, Sega is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a new timeline website that chronicles its journey as a company and its history in the gaming industry. For its 60th anniversary, Sega also introduced a new website and ambassador called Sega Shiro (Segata Sanshiro) who’s played by the actor Hiroshi Fujioka.
The new website will take fans through the past six decades of Sega history, including the story of its founding, the launch of various consoles and IPs, and much more.
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The Sega timeline starts in the 1960s with the founding of Nihon Goraku Bussan Co., Ltd, which would later become Sega. According to the timeline, Sega first got started in the gaming industry in 1964, when it began producing commercial arcade equipment.
In 1983, Sega released its first home gaming console, the SG-1000. Costing ¥15,000 ($134 USD). the console released in Japan the same day as Nintendo’s Famicom, and ended up selling 160,000 units in its first year, far exceeding Sega’s expectations and officially marking its interest in the home console market.
In 1988, Sega released the Mega Drive in Japan, better known as the Sega Genesis in the United States. The Genesis saw the first release of Sega’s most iconic character, Sonic the Hedgehog, and solidified the companies name in the gaming industry, selling over 15 million units in North America alone.
In what most consider to be the peak of Sega, the 1990s saw the release of multiple Sonic games and two new consoles, the Sega Saturn (1994) and the Dreamcast (1998). While the Dreamcast turned out to be Sega’s final home game console, the company had quite the battle with Nintendo in the ’90s, which has since been dubbed “the console wars.”
In the 2000’s Sega’s story mostly revolved around new IPs like Phantasy Star Online (2000), Yakuza (2005), and much more. Additionally, Sega also manufactured a variety of tech products like HomeStar, the world’s first optical projection home planetarium
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Recently, Sega oversaw the release of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which came to theaters earlier this year. The film was received quite well in the box offices, becoming the best showing of all time for a video game movie. Be sure to check out our official Sonic movie review as well as reviews from various IGN staff members.
If you’re interested in learning more about Sega, be sure to check out our deep dive into the history of Sega.
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Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.
Source: IGN.com Sega Celebrates 60th Anniversary With New Timeline Website