Hisao Oguchi
Hisao Oguchi | |
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Born | |
Occupation(s) | Director, vice chairman, chief creative officer, former president of Sega |
Hisao Oguchi (小口久雄, Oguchi Hisao, born 5 March 1960) is a Japanese business executive.[1] He is the director, vice chairman, and chief creative officer of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc.[2] Oguchi originally was President and CEO of Sega.[3][4]
Career
Game development
Hisao Oguchi graduated with a degree in engineering and joined Sega the following year in 1984 as a planner, with his very first work being Doki Doki Penguin Land for the SG-1000. Oguchi also was then responsible for Super Monaco GP and contributed to the medal game area with games such as Royal Ascot and Bingo Party. In 1990 he helmed Sega AM3, which became Hitmaker in 2000.[5] During this period he managed a group of 5 producers and 9 directors.[6][7] He produced dozens of arcade titles including sports games (Decathlete, Virtua Tennis), rail shooters (Rail Chase, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Confidential Mission), puzzle games (Baku Baku Animal, Where's Wally? arcade game), driving games (Sega Rally Championship, Le Mans 24, Crazy Taxi), and fighting games (Funky Head Boxers, Last Bronx, Virtual On).[8] He commented on this spread of genres: "AM3 doesn't have any specialist genre. Our first goal is to do whatever looks interesting."[9] One of his producers was Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who spun off separate development teams after the first Sega Rally game. He also developed the pair of arcade games, Derby Owners Club and World Club Champion Football which drove industry development and profitability in Japanese arcades with their card and satellite systems. At Hitmaker, he also gave the greenlight to Segagaga. His career as a developer ended when he was promoted to company President and CEO in part of Sega's consolidation of in-house studios in 2003.
Executive
As president he was tasked to bring back the company into profitability together with Hideki Sato, who was shunned into vice chairman. During this period he was also approached by Hajime Satomi, president of Sammy Corporation about a potential merger. When Sega and Sammy merged to form Sega Sammy Holdings, he had various executive positions at the Sega Sammy group. Most recently he has helmed the casino initiative of Sega Sammy.[10]
References
- ^ "Executive Profile|SEGA SAMMY Group|Notice of the Changes in Directors and Business Execution System (to be effective from June 27, 2003)" (PDF). www.segasammy.co.jp. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
- ^ Plunkett, Jack W. (2009-01-01). Plunkett's Entertainment and Media Industry Almanac 2009 (E-Book): Entertainment and Media Industry Market Research, Statistics, Trends and Leading Companies. Plunkett Research, Ltd. pp. 482–. ISBN 978-1-59392-471-3. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
- ^ Plunkett, Jack W. (January 2006). Plunkett's Entertainment & Media Industry Almanac 2006: The Only Complete Guide to the Technologies and Companies Changing the Way the World Shares Entertainment and Information. Plunkett Research, Ltd. pp. 472–. ISBN 978-1-59392-051-7. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
- ^ Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. p. 578. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
- ^ "名作アルバム – 『どきどきペンギンランド』 - 1". sega.jp. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
- ^ "GameStaff@wiki - セガ・エンタープライゼス". Retrieved 2015-06-14.
- ^ "GameStaff@wiki - セガ". Retrieved 2015-06-14.
- ^ "Hisao Ōguchi Video Game Credits and Biography – MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
- ^ "An Interview with Hisao Oguchi". Next Generation. No. 32. Imagine Media. August 1997. p. 54.
- ^ "Executive Profile|SEGA SAMMY Group|SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS". www.segasammy.co.jp. Retrieved 2015-06-16.