Sega



"W E L C O M E T O T H E N E X T L E V E L"

- US Slogan, 1992-1995

Once upon a time, Sega, a big arcade video game company, was part of the "Big Three" console developers, its main competition being Nintendo, and later Sony Computer Entertainment (with the introduction of the PlayStation in 1994/1995). The company was created in the mid-fifties in Hawaii as "Service Games," a creator and distributor of redemption games designed for overseas markets. As a result of these origins, most of their games are designed for an international market (and as a side result, this is also why they contain a lot of Engrish and spotty English voice work across all versions.)

Sega 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. However, a string of questionable marketing decisions with subsequent consoles eroded its star power, and eventually led it to pull out of the console business entirely, after the Too Good to Last Dreamcast sold below expectations.

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 and handhelds. Ironically, Sega now publishes Sonic the Hedgehog games for play on Nintendo (and other) hardware.

They are also the owners of animation studio TMS Entertainment (and by extension, Koko Enterprises/Dong Yang Animation, Seoul Movie and Mizo Planning) since 1995.

See also Platinum Games and Sonic Team, two of their best-known subsidiaries.

Consoles:

 * Sega Master System
 * Game Gear
 * Sega Genesis
 * Sega Saturn
 * Sega Dreamcast
 * Other Sega Systems

Notable games and franchises released by Sega:

 * After Burner
 * Alex Kidd
 * Alien vs. Predator (2010 game)
 * Alien Storm
 * Alien Syndrome
 * Altered Beast
 * Amazing Island
 * Bayonetta (the PlayStation 3 version was coded by Sega)
 * Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
 * Bonanza Bros
 * Border Break
 * Buck Rogers Planet of Zoom
 * Bug!!
 * Burning Rangers
 * Castle of Illusion
 * Chu Chu Rocket
 * The Conduit
 * Congo Bongo
 * Crack Down
 * Crazy Taxi
 * Crush
 * Daytona USA
 * Decathlete
 * Dragon Force (video game)
 * Dynamite Deka (also known as Die Hard Arcade and Dynamite Cop)
 * Ecco the Dolphin
 * F-Zero (with Nintendo, from GX and onwards)
 * Fantasy Zone
 * Fighters Megamix
 * Fighting Vipers
 * Flicky
 * Football Manager
 * Golden Axe
 * Hang-On
 * House of the Dead
 * Infinite Space
 * Initial D Arcade Stage
 * Jet Set Radio
 * Kenseiden
 * Kingdom Conquest -- for iOs.
 * Laser Ghost
 * Last Bronx
 * The Lucky Dime Caper
 * MadWorld
 * Mario and Sonic at the Olympic (Winter) Games
 * NiGHTS Into Dreams
 * The Ocean Hunter
 * Out Run
 * Panic!!
 * Panzer Dragoon
 * Penguin Land
 * Phantasy Star
 * Pole no Daibouken
 * Project Diva
 * Puyo Puyo (since 2001)
 * Quackshot
 * Rez
 * Ristar
 * Ryu ga Gotoku (a.k.a. Yakuza in North America)
 * Sakura Taisen
 * Sands of Destruction
 * Segagaga
 * Sega Rally
 * Sega Superstars
 * Shenmue
 * Shining Series
 * Shining Force
 * Shinobi
 * Skies of Arcadia
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Space Channel 5
 * Space Harrier
 * Spiral Knights (co-production with Three Rings Design )
 * Streets of Rage
 * Super Monaco GP
 * Super Monkey Ball
 * Toejam and Earl
 * Total War (from Spartan: Total Warrior onward)
 * Valkyria Chronicles
 * Vanquish
 * Vectorman
 * Virtua Cop
 * Virtua Fighter
 * Virtua Racing
 * Virtual On
 * Wonder Boy
 * World Series Baseball
 * Zaxxon

Tropes associated with Sega:

 * Always Second Best: Since the time of SG-1000, SEGA seems to always struck in second place behind Nintendo, with occasional third or worse place in some situation (PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era, as well as the classical Console War in Japan, where the TurboGrafx-16 actually outsold the Genesis.)
 * Console Wars: The Sega Genesis vs. SNES war is possibly the most famous one of them all.
 * Iconic Logo: In fact, Sonic the Hedgehog was originally going to be a lighter shade of blue, but he was given a darker shade in order to match him up with the logo's.
 * Logo Joke: Before the arrival of the Sega Saturn, nearly every single game booted up with the Iconic 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: Formally Alex Kidd. Now, it's Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * Mascot with Attitude: Sonic the Hedgehog, the Trope Maker by which all others are based on.
 * 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. (Here's the Sonic 3 & Knuckles version.) Variations on the scream can also be heard on start-up of Panic, all the Project Diva games and K-On!! Houkago Live!.
 * Take That: Their entire advertising campaign throughout their console years famously consisted of lobbing Take Thats at competing consoles.