Sega Sports R&D
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Founded | 1994 (Team Andromeda) 1998 (Smilebit) 2004 (Sega Sports Japan) |
| Headquarters | |
| Products | Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series Panzer Dragoon series Jet Set Radio series The Typing of the Dead series |
| Parent | Sega Games Co., Ltd. |
Sega Sports R&D (also known as Sega Sports Japan) is a Japanese video game development division of Sega. The studio is responsible for creating and producing the Let's Make a, 90 Minutes, Sega Worldwide Soccer, Virtua Pro Football, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series.
History
AM6 (1994–1998)
Initially founded in mid-1994 as part of Consumer Software R&D Dept. 1,[citation needed] Team Andromeda became a separate internal development team when the first Sega Saturn software was entering development.[1] The name came from Andromeda, the code used to make their games.[1] The group produced three Panzer Dragoon titles and, after the release of its final game Panzer Dragoon Saga in 1998, was then dissolved. Different teams of the same division were responsible for the Let's Make a series and the Sega Worldwide Soccer series.
After the restructuring, many of the group's members joined Sega's Smilebit and United Game Artists development teams. Former Team Andromeda staff have also developed video games at other studios, including Polyphony Digital, Artoon, feelplus and Land Ho!
Smilebit (1998–2004)
Key members of Team Andromeda were folded into the new second-party Sega studio Smilebit Corp., which crafted such titles as Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon Orta and GunValkyrie. On July 1, 2004, Sega's subsidiaries, Wow Entertainment, Amusement Vision, Hitmaker, Smilebit, Sega Rosso, and United Game Artists reintegrated into Sega following the merge between Sega and Sammy in 2005, and a holding company, (Sega Sammy Holdings), was formed. The subsidiaries ceased to exist and were renamed. [citation needed]
Sega Sports Japan (2004–present)
The division was from now on was only for sports titles, adding the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series. The department responsible for non-sport titles, became part of Amusement Vision under the lead of Toshihiro Nagoshi.
Games developed
as AM6
- Panzer Dragoon (1995)
- Panzer Dragoon Zwei (1996)
- Panzer Dragoon Saga (1998)
- Let's Make a series
- Sega Worldwide Soccer series
as Smilebit
- Jet Set Radio (2000)
- Hundred Swords (2001)[2]
- Jet Set Radio Future (2002)
- GunValkyrie (2002)
- Panzer Dragoon Orta (2002)
- Let's Make a series
- 90 Minutes
as Sega Sports Japan
- Let's Make a series
- Virtua Pro Football (2006)
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (2007)
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (2009)
- Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (2011)[3]
- Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (2013)[4]
- Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (2016)
References
- ^ a b "Panzer Dragoon: The Maximum Inquisition!". Maximum: The Video Game Magazine (6). Emap International Limited: 42–44. May 1996.
- ^ "Hundred Swords – Dreamcast". IGN. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
- ^ "Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games Overview". Polygon. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
- ^ "Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games Overview". Polygon. Retrieved 9 June 2015.