Sega AM1

Sega WOW

File:SegaWow logo.png
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	2000
Founder	Rikiya Nakagawa Noriyoshi Ohba
Defunct	2004
Owner	Sega

Sega Wow was a division of Japanese video game developer Sega.

History

In 2000 all of Sega's in-house Consumer (CS) and Amusement Machine (AM) R&D departments were separated from the main company and established on 9 semi-autonomous subsidiaries, with each subsidiary getting an elected president as a studio head. However, for more financial stability, Sega began consolidating it's studios into six main ones (Sega Wow, Sega AM2, Hitmaker, Amusement Vision, Smilebit, Sonic Team) and merged them back into a uniform R&D structure in 2004.

WOW Entertainment was headed by Rikiya Nakagawa and Kazunari Tsukamoto. The heritage from WOW comes from AM1 studio which has developed arcade titles such as Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Alien Storm, Wing War, House of the Dead and Dynamite Deka. As WOW Entertainment, In addition of an continued arcade line-up, also made efforts on the consumer market with the SEGA GT racing series, an effort to compete against Sony's Gran Turismo. They also made efforts on the Game Boy Advance.

Overworks was formed from CS2, and was headed by Noriyoshi Ohba. CS2 lineage comes from RPG titles such as Phantasy Star III, Phantasy Star IV, Magic Knight Rayearth and Sakura Wars. It also made action games like Super Shinobi, Streets of Rage and Clockwork Knight. As Overworks out of the gate it came out with Skies of Arcadia for Dreamcast and GameCube, and also continued the Sakura Taisen series. In 2002, it came with the Shinobi reboot on PlayStation 2.

In 2003 it was renamed Overworks and WOW Entertainment merged to become Sega WOW. The line-up of action games Blood Will Tell, Nightshade and the RPG Sakura Taisen became part of SEGA WOW.

After the intergration

By 2004, Sega Wow had 215 employees which were split across consumer and arcade development after the integration back into Sega. Rikiya Nakagawa, Kazunari Tsukamoto and Noriyoshi have retired from Sega and have left videogame development. Nakagawa joined pachinko maker Sammy Corporation as executive officer. Ohba is executive of CGI providing company Premium Agency. Tsukamoto is executive officer of Dartslive, a Darts machine manufacturing company owned by Sega Sammy.

At Sega, former Overworks producer, Yasuhiro Nishiyama replaced Rikiya Nakagawa as head of the AM1 arcade development studio within Sega. The current AM1 within Sega is the biggest arcade department. Akira Nishino, former chief planner of Overworks and then Sega WOW, became project manager within Sega's consumer division at GE2 from 2004 to 2008, and then CS3 from 2008 onwards. Notable projects that started development during the Sega WOW existence are the commercially successfull Sangokushi Taisen on the arcade side, and the critically acclaimed Valkyria Chronicles on the console side.

List of games

WOW Entertainment

Arcade

• Quiz Aa! Megami-sama: Tatakau Tsubasa to Tomoni (2000)
• Sega Strike Fighter (2000)
• Sports Jam (2000)
• Wild Riders (2001)
• World Series Baseball (2001)
• Alien Front (2001)
• Dynamic Golf (2001)
• Inu no Osanpo (2001)
• Lupin III: The Shooting (2001)
• Lupin III: The Typing (2002)
• The House of the Dead III (2002)

Dreamcast

• Quiz Aa! Megami-sama: Tatakau Tsubasa to Tomoni (2000)
• Sega GT (2000)
• Sega Marine Fishing (2000)
• Sega Tetris (2000)
• Alien Front Online (2001)
• Candy Stripe (2001)
• Sega Bass Fishing 2 (2001)
• Sports Jam (2001)
• World Series Baseball 2K1 (2001)

Xbox

• Sega GT 2002 (2002)

Game Boy Advance

• Columns Crown (2001)
• The Pinball of the Dead (2002)

PlayStation 2

• Sega Bass Fishing Duel (2002)

PC

• Sega GT (2001)
• Sega Bass Fishing (2001)
• The House of the Dead 2 (2001)
• Sega Marine Fishing (2002)

Overworks

Dreamcast

• Skies of Arcadia (2000)
• Guru Guru Onsen 2 (2001)
• Sakura Taisen 3 (2001)
• Guru Guru Onsen 3 (2002)
• Sakura Taisen 4 (2002)

PlayStation 2

• Shinobi (2002)
• Online Games: Dai Guru Guru Onsen (2002)

GameCube

• Skies of Arcadia: Legends (2002)

PC

• Sakura Taisen 2 (2001)
• Guru Guru Onsen (2002)

Sega Wow

PlayStation 2

• Gekitou Pro Yakyuu (2003)
• Nightshade (2003)
• Sakura Taisen: Atsuki Chishio Ni (2003)
• Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo (2004)
• Sakura Taisen Monogatari: Mysterious Paris (2004)
• Sakura Taisen V Episode 0: Kouya no Samurai Musume (2004)

GameCube

• Gekitou Pro Yakyuu (2003)

Xbox

• Sega GT Online (2003)
• The House of the Dead III (2003)

Game Boy Advance

• Lilliput Oukoku: Lillimoni to Issho Puni! (2004)

PC

• The House of the Dead 3 (2003)
• Sakura Taisen 3 (2004)