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150-515: Bishōjo games are similar to Choose Your Own Adventure books in the way of narrative, in which the game tells a story but the player may make choices to change how the story flows. Bishōjo games began to appear in Japan in the beginning days of personal computers. The first bishōjo game commercialized in Japan appeared in 1982 as Night Life by Koei . The first bishōjo games were not too popular, being limited to graphics of 16 colors or less. At

300-587: A bishōjo game). In some cases, images of girls are used as prizes for skilled play, as is the case in strip Mahjong . In other games, the bishōjo aspect can be integrated more tightly into the game: in most dating sims, the objective is to select the correct conversation lines while speaking with a female character to increase their "love meter". This type of game resembles role-playing or adventure games . Many are very linear and are essentially interactive romance novels for men (sometimes called visual novels ). Most bishōjo games remain 2D . The main reason

450-651: A $ 1 billion stock swap whereby Sega would wholly acquire Bandai, was set to form a company known as Sega Bandai, Ltd. Though it was to be finalized in October of that year, it was called off in May after growing opposition from Bandai's mid-level executives. Bandai instead agreed to a business alliance with Sega. As a result of Sega's deteriorating financial situation, Nakayama resigned as Sega president in January 1998 in favor of Irimajiri. Nakayama's resignation may have in part been due to

600-570: A 92% replay rate. While the eight-player Japanese version of the game was released in 1999, the game was reduced to a smaller four-player version due to size issues and released in North America in 2003. The cabinet was too expensive and the game did not entice casual users which are essential to the western arcade market. While the Japanese market retained core players, western arcades had become more focused on casual players, and Sega Amusements Europe,

750-602: A Dreamcast launch game . It was promoted with a large-scale public demonstration at the Tokyo Kokusai Forum Hall . Due to a high failure rate in the manufacturing process, Sega could not ship enough consoles for the Dreamcast's Japanese launch. As more than half of its limited stock had been pre-ordered, Sega stopped pre-orders in Japan. Before the launch, Sega announced the release of its New Arcade Operation Machine Idea (NAOMI) arcade system board , which served as

900-459: A cheaper alternative to the Sega Model 3 . NAOMI shared technology with the Dreamcast, allowing nearly identical ports of arcade games. The Dreamcast launched in Japan on November 27, 1998. The entire stock of 150,000 consoles sold out by the end of the day. Irimajiri estimated that another 200,000 to 300,000 Dreamcast units could have been sold with sufficient supply. He hoped to sell more than

1050-602: A computer, the SC-3000. Learning that Nintendo was developing a games-only console , the Famicom , Sega developed its first home video game system, the SG-1000 , alongside the SC-3000. Rebranded versions of the SG-1000 were released in several other markets worldwide. The SG-1000 sold 160,000 units in 1983, which far exceeded Sega's projection of 50,000 in the first year but was outpaced by

1200-614: A contract for the series with Bantam Books . Packard and Montgomery were selected to write books for the series, including the contracting out of titles to additional authors. The phrase Choose Your Own Adventure was adapted for the next title with the tag line, The Third Planet from Altair: Choose your own adventure in outer space . The series was highly successful after it began printing with Bantam Books. A 1981 article in The New York Times , followed by an interview with Packard on The Today Show , provided free publicity. By

1350-429: A decade-long boom. The first major title of the 1990s was Tokimeki Memorial , released in 1994 by Konami which was on the verge of bankruptcy, the platonic dating sim becoming the first major bishōjo game since Koei's release of Night Life . In 1999, Kanon was released by Visual Arts / Key . While the title was another eroge title targeted at males for its sexual content, the players began to identify with

1500-487: A decrease in profitability due to the investments required to launch the Dreamcast in Western markets and poor software sales in Japan. At the same time, worsening conditions reduced the profitability of Sega's Japanese arcade business, prompting the closure of 246 locations. Moore became the president and chief operating officer of Sega of America on 8 May 2000. He said the Dreamcast would need to sell 5 million units in

1650-508: A former executive at Sony Computer Entertainment of America, became Sega of America's executive vice president in charge of product development and third-party relations. Stolar was not supportive of the Saturn, believing its hardware was poorly designed. While Stolar had said "the Saturn is not our future" at E3 1997, he continued to emphasize the quality of its games, and later reflected that "we tried to wind it down as cleanly as we could for

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1800-647: A four-point plan: cut the price of the Genesis, create a US team to develop games targeted at the American market, expand the aggressive advertising campaigns, and replace the bundled game Altered Beast with Sonic the Hedgehog . The Japanese board of directors disapproved, but it was approved by Nakayama, who told Kalinske, "I hired you to make the decisions for Europe and the Americas, so go ahead and do it." In large part due to

1950-481: A growing number of games for the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS handhelds. Games ported to consoles usually have adult content removed. The industry of bishōjo games is closely related to the industry of anime and Japanese manga . While many of the games are pornographic, the majority feature romantic situations with suggestive material. Some dōjinshi groups produce bishōjo games, many with

2100-432: A little piece of Japan in the game – you really feel like you're experiencing love and life vicariously through the game characters". By using a first person avatar with Japanese identity, bishōjo games offer an unprecedented means of cultural immersion that, according to Jones, travel and live interpersonal communication cannot. This is done by taking on the Japanese identity that allows for an intimate perspective of

2250-420: A million Dreamcast units in Japan by February 1999, but less than 900,000 were sold. The low sales undermined Sega's attempts to build up a sufficient installed base to ensure the Dreamcast's survival after the arrival of competition from other manufacturers. Sega suffered a further ¥42.881 billion consolidated net loss in the fiscal year ending March 1999, and announced plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs, nearly

2400-435: A popular form of entertainment among youths across East Asia , laying the foundations for modern selfie culture. By 1997, about 47,000 Purikura machines had been sold, earning Sega an estimated ¥25 billion ( £173 million ) or $ 283,000,000 (equivalent to $ 537,000,000 in 2023) from Purikura sales that year. Various other similar Purikura machines appeared from other manufacturers, with Sega controlling about half of

2550-521: A press release confirming it was considering producing software for the PlayStation   2 and Game Boy Advance as part of its "new management policy". On January 31, 2001, Sega announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast after March 31 and the restructuring of the company as a "platform-agnostic" third-party developer. Sega also announced a Dreamcast price reduction to eliminate its unsold inventory, estimated at 930,000 units as of April 2001. This

2700-550: A quarter of its workforce. Before the Western launch, Sega reduced the price of the Dreamcast in Japan by JP¥9,100, effectively making it unprofitable but increasing sales. On August 11, 1999, Sega of America confirmed that Stolar had been fired. Peter Moore , whom Stolar had hired as a Sega of America executive only six months before, was placed in charge of the North American launch. The Dreamcast launched in North America on September 9, 1999, with 18 games. Sega set

2850-453: A record by selling more than 225,132 Dreamcast units in 24 hours, earning $ 98.4 million in what Moore called "the biggest 24 hours in entertainment retail history". Within two weeks, US Dreamcast sales exceeded 500,000. By Christmas, Sega held 31 percent of the US video game market by revenue. On November 4, Sega announced it had sold more than a million Dreamcast units. Nevertheless, the launch

3000-605: A second, faster processor, vastly expanded system memory, a graphics chip that performed scaling and rotation similar to the company's arcade games, and another sound chip. In North America, it was renamed the Sega CD and launched on October 15, 1992, with a retail price of US$ 299. It was released in Europe as the Mega-CD in 1993. The Mega-CD sold only 100,000 units during its first year in Japan, falling well below expectations. Throughout

3150-472: A slight increase in the fiscal year ended March 1997, partly driven by increasing arcade revenue, while outperforming Nintendo during the mid-term period. However, in the fiscal year ending March 1998, Sega suffered its first financial loss since its 1988 listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as both a parent company and a corporation as a whole. In the company's 1998 year end report, Irimajiri placed

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3300-648: Is Konami 's experiment Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side (2002). There have even appeared a small number of erotic games that present man–man homosexual relations ( yaoi games ), which take their bases from the parallel subculture of yaoi anime and manga. Games targeted specifically at female players are not referred to as bishōjo games, but categorized under the broader genre of adventure or simulation by publishers, and commonly referred to as otome games or Boys' Love games by fans and reviewers. Bishōjo game elements can be present in practically any type of video game, and gameplay in bishōjo games varies within

3450-456: Is diminished in comparison to mediums like virtual reality . Instead, they rely on psychological immersion. These games are constructed around popular culture and other social phenomena of Japan which then combined with immersion and telepresence allows a Western player to get a better idea of what it is like living in Japan. According to Mathew T. Jones of Temple University , Peter Payne, founder of Jast USA, says, "You're reaching out and touching

3600-497: Is largely not the case in the West, where enthusiasm for the subgenre is lukewarm. What success these games have had has historically been dependent on the related industries of anime and manga. The common visual novel format that make up the majority of translations has been criticized as boring and not actually games. In addition, the genre has been associated exclusively with poorly written eroge . The popular discussion of bishōjo games

3750-472: Is one of the world's most prolific arcade game producers and its mascot, Sonic , is internationally recognized. Its name and branding are used for owned or affiliated companies that operate amusement arcades and produce other entertainment products, including Sega Fave; however, these are largely separate ventures. Sega is recognized for its video game consoles, creativity and innovations. In more recent years, it has been criticized for its business decisions and

3900-411: Is referenced through the usage of various institutes like love hotels , lingerie pubs and erotic public baths . There are a number of terms roughly equivalent to " bishōjo game" in use, both in Japanese and English, and there is considerable disagreement and confusion about their proper use. There is no clear consensus on the precise meaning of many of the terms below. The naming difficulties reflect

4050-484: Is regulated by the Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS), the organization in charge of classifying the content of video games in the Japanese industry. Pornography is prohibited in all console titles, and computer games are assigned a special classification alerting the public to its content. Also, as in all legal Japanese pornography , the explicit images are normally censored, showing mosaics or bars on

4200-475: Is that bishōjo games are centered mainly on characters instead of landscapes, and for this intention, 2D bitmaps continue to look better than 3D models (which tend to be blocky when seen up close). The main advantage of 3D models in this context is smoother and more realistic animation, although this is usually discarded by the unpolished look of the 3D characters, in addition to the additional cost of production for this type of work. Tokimeki Memorial 3 (2001)

4350-512: Is the attempt to release the PC game Princess Maker 2 in the United States. Though it was never officially released, a few newspapers critically accused the game of sexism. Adding to the uproar was a pre-release screen-capture containing nudity. However, the game is not pornographic; there was some nudity which was already censored by American localizer SoftEgg , and the only way to see any real nudity

4500-467: Is the presumption of a male reader (the target demographic group). In some stories, the protagonist is implied to be a child, whereas in other stories, the protagonist is an adult. The stories are formatted so that, after a few pages of reading, the protagonist faces two or three options, each of which leads to further pages and further options, and so on until they arrive at one of the many story endings. The number of endings varies from as many as 44 in

4650-508: Is through an Easter egg cheat code. Princess Maker attracted negative attention due to the fact it was widely promoted as a mainstream video game, unlike other translated games which had been kept in adult-only channels as pornography. The dōjinshi webcomic Megatokyo , popular among Western followers of anime, especially in the United States, was inspired in a large extent by dating sims. Megatokyo idealizes bishōjo games while simultaneously expressing another criticism commonly used in

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4800-482: Is used to present a pretty and affectionate character who is beloved and supported by the player. In fact, "little sisters" are a recurring fixture of bishōjo games. A very popular game that emphasizes the characteristic of moe is Sister Princess , based on the premise of the player acquiring no fewer than twelve little sisters. The majority of bishōjo games involve anime girls and not pictures of real-life girls. Since some characters in bishōjo games are minors,

4950-427: Is widely plagued by disagreement and disapproval of pornography. The debate tends to be remarkably divided: on one hand, critics condemn the genre as totally pornographic, while on the other hand, enthusiasts deny this generalization. This question does not cause as much controversy in Japan. The attempts to massively trade bishōjo games in the West have caused a certain degree of public controversy. An example of this

5100-529: The Rune Factory series, and other games like them focus on the social interaction and the romancing of attractive anime girls. However, such games also offer much more social ties, even if the gameplay may favor social interaction with females. Western players can use bishōjo games to help orient themselves to the Japanese culture through aspects of telepresence . However, because bishōjo games rely heavily on iconic nature, their level of perceptual immersion

5250-491: The Computer Software Rinri Kikō (meaning "Ethics Organization for Computer Software", and often abbreviated EOCS or Sofu-rin ), setting industry guidelines for acceptable content and packaging. This organization tamed down the most objectionable content in the "wild west" of the 1980s. Thus free from controversy and fueled by continuing improvement in technology, in the 1990s the bishōjo game industry underwent

5400-458: The Famicom and lagged behind Nintendo's Super Famicom and the TurboGrafx-16 , made by NEC , in Japanese sales throughout the 16-bit era . For the North American launch, where the console was renamed Genesis, Sega had no sales and marketing organization. After Atari declined an offer to market the console in the region, Sega launched it through its own Sega of America subsidiary. The Genesis

5550-666: The Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sonic Team brands for several core franchise entries), Sega Sapporo Studio which mainly provides support for the Tokyo-based development teams as well as handling partial game development, and Atlus (including their R&D divisions, such as P-Studio and Studio Zero respectively) and five development studios in the UK and Europe: Creative Assembly , Sports Interactive , Sega Hardlight , Two Point Studios , and Rovio Entertainment (including Ruby Games). Sega

5700-536: The SG-1000 and Master System , but struggled against competitors such as the Nintendo Entertainment System . In 1984, Sega executives David Rosen and Hayao Nakayama led a management buyout , with backing from CSK Corporation . In 1988, Sega released the Mega Drive , or the Genesis in North America. The Mega Drive struggled against competition in Japan, but the Genesis found success overseas after

5850-604: The "Sega!" scream, and holding press events for the education industry. Sega partnered with GE to develop the Sega Model 2 arcade system board, building on 3D technology in the arcade industry at the time. This led to several successful arcade games, including Daytona USA , launched in a limited capacity in late 1993 and worldwide in 1994. Other popular games included Virtua Cop , Sega Rally Championship , and Virtua Fighter 2 . Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter 2 became Sega's best-selling arcade games of all time, surpassing their previous record holder Out Run . There

6000-478: The 1980s and 1990s, selling more than 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998. The series has been translated into 40 languages. When Bantam, now owned by Random House , allowed the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark to lapse, the series was relaunched by Chooseco . Chooseco does not reissue titles by Packard, who has started his own imprint, U-Ventures. Originally created for 7- to 14-year-olds,

6150-445: The 1980s. Former Sega director Akira Nagai said Hang-On and Out Run helped to pull the arcade game market out of the 1982 downturn and created new genres of video games. With the arcade game market once again growing, Sega was one of the most recognized game brands at the end of the 1980s. In the arcades, the company focused on releasing games to appeal to diverse tastes, including racing games and side-scrollers . Sega released

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6300-453: The 1990s, the series faced competition from computer games and was in a decline. The series was discontinued in 1999, but was relaunched by a new company, Chooseco, in 2003. In June 2018, Z-Man Games issued a licensed co-operative board game called Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger inspired by R. A. Montgomery's book in the series. In January 2019, Chooseco initiated a trademark infringement legal challenge against Netflix for

6450-462: The 1994 release of the Atari Jaguar , and that the Saturn would not be available until the next year. As a result, Nakayama decided to have a second console release to market by the end of 1994. Sega began to develop the 32X , a Genesis add-on which would serve as a less expensive entry into the 32-bit era . The 32X would not be compatible with the Saturn, but would play Genesis games. Sega released

6600-463: The 32X on November 21, 1994, in North America, December 3, 1994, in Japan, and January 1995 in PAL territories, and was sold at less than half of the Saturn's launch price. After the holiday season, interest in the 32X rapidly declined. Sega released the Saturn in Japan on November 22, 1994. Virtua Fighter , a port of the popular arcade game, sold at a nearly one-to-one ratio with the Saturn at launch and

6750-600: The 3rd , Case Closed , and Anpanman & Marza Animation Planet , which specializes in CG animation. In May 1940, American businessmen Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg and James Humpert formed Standard Games in Honolulu , Hawaii. Their aim was to provide coin-operated amusement machines , including slot machines , to military bases as the increase in personnel with the onset of World War II would create demand for entertainment. After

6900-623: The CEO and managing director, while Stewart was named president and LeMaire was the director of planning. Shortly afterward, Sega stopped leasing to military bases and moved its focus from slot machines to coin-operated amusement machines. Its imports included Rock-Ola jukeboxes, pinball games by Williams , and gun games by Midway Manufacturing . Because Sega imported second-hand machines, which required frequent maintenance, it began constructing replacement guns and flippers for its imported games. According to former Sega director Akira Nagai, this led to

7050-449: The Dreamcast as much as expected, as many disappointed consumers continued to wait or purchased a PSone . Eventually, Sony and Nintendo held 50 and 35 percent of the US video game market, while Sega held only 15 percent. CSK chairman Isao Okawa replaced Irimajiri as president of Sega on May 22, 2000. Okawa had long advocated that Sega abandon the console business. Others shared this view; Sega co-founder David Rosen had "always felt it

7200-467: The Famicom. This was in part because Nintendo expanded its game library by courting third-party developers , whereas Sega was hesitant to collaborate with companies with which it was competing in the arcades. In November 1983, Rosen announced his intention to step down as president of Sega Enterprises, Inc. on January 1, 1984. Jeffrey Rochlis was announced as the new president and CEO of Sega. Shortly after

7350-410: The Hedgehog , Angry Birds , Phantasy Star , Puyo Puyo , Super Monkey Ball , Total War , Virtua Fighter , Megami Tensei , Sakura Wars , Persona , and Yakuza . From 1983 until 2001, Sega also developed its own consoles . Having American origins, Sega was founded by Martin Bromley and Richard Stewart as Nihon Goraku Bussan on June 3, 1960. Shortly after, the company acquired

7500-501: The Japanese culture while maintaining the ability to make choices throughout the game. In addition, some English translations offer liner notes or in-game text to explain certain Japanese idiosyncrasies. The knowledge can be broken into five main categories: language; cultural events; stories; media; and sexual culture. In the former, language, common Japanese words become a part of the player's vocabulary. In addition, games with Japanese voicing adds an additional level of understanding to

7650-638: The Master System and featured a full-color screen, in contrast to the monochrome Game Boy screen. Due to its short battery life, lack of original games, and weak support from Sega, the Game Gear did not surpass the Game Boy, having sold approximately 11 million units. Sega launched the Mega-CD in Japan on December 1, 1991, initially retailing at JP¥ 49,800. The add-on uses CD-ROM technology. Further features include

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7800-430: The Master System's successor, the Mega Drive , in Japan on October 29, 1988. The launch was overshadowed by Nintendo's release of Super Mario Bros. 3 a week earlier. Positive coverage from magazines Famitsu and Beep! helped establish a following, with the latter launching a new publication dedicated to the console, but Sega shipped only 400,000 units in the first year. The Mega Drive struggled to compete against

7950-580: The Nihon Goraku Bussan name. Around the same time, David Rosen , an American officer in the United States Air Force stationed in Japan, launched a photo booth business in Tokyo in 1954. This company became Rosen Enterprises, and in 1957 began importing coin-operated games into Japan. In 1965, Nihon Goraku Bussan acquired Rosen Enterprises to form Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Rosen was installed as

8100-462: The North American home console market without Sega games for over a year, with most of its activity in the country coming from arcade divisions. The Saturn lasted longer in some Europe territories and particularly Japan, with it notably outperforming the Nintendo 64 in the latter. Nonetheless, Irimajiri confirmed in an interview with Japanese newspaper Daily Yomiuri that Saturn development would stop at

8250-509: The SNES at release. Nintendo's dollar share of the US 16-bit market dropped from 60% at the end of 1992 to 37% at the end of 1993, Sega claimed 55% of all 16-bit hardware sales during 1994, and the SNES outsold the Genesis from 1995 through 1997. In 1990, Sega launched the Game Gear , a handheld console , to compete against Nintendo's Game Boy . The Game Gear was designed as a portable version of

8400-634: The Saturn an advantage over the PlayStation. At the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles on May 11, 1995, Kalinske revealed the release price and that Sega had shipped 30,000 Saturns to Toys "R" Us , Babbage's , Electronics Boutique , and Software Etc. for immediate release. A by-product of the surprise launch was the provocation of retailers not included in Sega's rollout; KB Toys in particular decided to no longer stock its products in response. The Saturn's release in Europe also came before

8550-470: The Sega Enterprises name used in Japan as well as transitioning to the Sega name used globally. Sega stated in a release that this was to display its commitment to its "network entertainment business". On January 23, 2001, Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shinbun reported that Sega would cease production of the Dreamcast and develop software for other platforms. After an initial denial, Sega released

8700-420: The US by the end of 2000 to remain viable, but Sega fell short of this goal with some 3 million units sold. Moreover, Sega's attempts to spur Dreamcast sales through lower prices and cash rebates caused escalating financial losses. In March 2001, Sega posted a consolidated net loss of ¥51.7 billion ($ 417.5 million). While the PlayStation 2's October 26 US launch was marred by shortages, this did not benefit

8850-482: The US. Sega was surprised by the success, and for the next two years, the company produced and exported between eight and ten games per year. The worldwide success of Periscope led to a "technological renaissance" in the arcade industry, which was reinvigorated by a wave of "audio-visual" EM novelty games that followed in the wake of Periscope during the late 1960s to early 1970s. However, rampant piracy led Sega to cease exporting its games around 1970. In 1969, Sega

9000-534: The United States, as company revenues rose to $ 214 million. 1979 saw the release of Head On , which introduced the "eat-the-dots" gameplay Namco later used in Pac-Man . In 1981, Sega licensed Frogger , its most successful game until then. In 1982, Sega introduced the first game with isometric graphics , Zaxxon . Following a downturn in the arcade business starting in 1982, Gulf and Western sold its North American arcade game manufacturing organization and

9150-460: The West against them: that players resort to them as a form of escapism because they are socially inept (This type of criticism is also found in Japan, though in a quite different form: see otaku ). While translations of bishōjo games in English remain a relatively niche market confined mostly to the adult genre, elements of the gameplay do exist in a lot of games. Story of Seasons , Persona 3 ,

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9300-647: The Xbox. As part of the restructuring, nearly one third of Sega's Tokyo workforce was laid off in 2001. 2002 was Sega's fifth consecutive fiscal year of net losses. After Okawa's death, Hideki Sato, a 30-year Sega veteran who had worked on Sega's consoles, became the company president. Following poor sales in 2002, Sega cut its profit forecast for 2003 by 90 percent, and explored opportunities for mergers. In 2003, Sega began talks with Sammy Corporation –a pachinko and pachislot manufacturing company–and Namco. The president of Sammy, Hajime Satomi , had been mentored by Okawa and

9450-427: The assets of its predecessor, Service Games of Japan . In 1965, it became known as Sega Enterprises, Ltd., after acquiring Rosen Enterprises, an importer of coin-operated games . Sega developed its first coin-operated game, Periscope , in 1966. Sega was sold to Gulf and Western Industries in 1969. Following a downturn in the arcade business in the early 1980s, Sega began to develop video game consoles, starting with

9600-715: The beginning of the genre, almost all the games were pornographic. A notable landmark was Jast's Tenshitachi no gogo (1985), a precursor to the modern dating simulation . Among early bishōjo adventure games it had a degree of polish that previous games lacked. It was also the first to have recognizably modern anime -style artwork: its characters had very large eyes and a tiny nose and mouth but were otherwise basically normally proportioned, characteristics which today are found in virtually all bishōjo games. Prior to 1985, girls were generally drawn either as normally proportioned adults or super deformed children. The industry gradually moved away from proprietary Japanese hardware to

9750-475: The blame for these losses on the failure to transition from the Genesis to the Saturn in North America and Sega Enterprises covering the debts of Sega of America. Shortly before the announcement of the losses, Sega discontinued the Saturn in North America to prepare for the launch of its successor, the Dreamcast , releasing remaining games in low quantities. The decision to discontinue the Saturn effectively left

9900-506: The books are written in the second person . The protagonist —that is, the reader—takes on a role relevant to the adventure, such as a private investigator, mountain climber, race car driver, doctor, or spy. Certain books in the series allow readers choice of whom to take the role of, for example, in an adventure book, readers may be prompted to choose between a climber, a hiker, or a traveler. Stories are generally gender- and race-neutral, though in some cases, particularly in illustrations, there

10050-472: The books. As the series progressed, both Packard and Montgomery experimented with the gamebook format, sometimes introducing unexpected twists such as endless page loops or trick endings. Examples include the "paradise planet" ending in Inside UFO 54-40 , which can only be reached by cheating or turning to the wrong page by accident. The only way out of this is to "reset", or close the book and start over from

10200-401: The burgeoning DOS platform, and then later in the decade to Windows . Throughout the nineties, bishōjo games underwent an evolution from being one of the most technologically demanding types of games (because their detailed 2D graphics required a large amount of storage space by the standards of early computers) to one of the least (they rarely use 3D graphics). Thus, more than regular games,

10350-430: The company developing its own games. The first arcade electro-mechanical game (EM game) Sega manufactured was the submarine simulator Periscope , released worldwide in the late 1960s. It featured light and sound effects considered innovative and was successful in Japan. It was then exported to malls and department stores in Europe and the United States and helped standardize the 25-cent-per-play cost for arcade games in

10500-429: The company survive the third-party transition. He held failed talks with Microsoft about a sale or merger with their Xbox division. According to former Microsoft executive Joachim Kempin , Microsoft founder, Bill Gates , decided against acquiring Sega because "he didn't think that Sega had enough muscle to eventually stop Sony". A business alliance with Microsoft was announced whereby Sega would develop 11 games for

10650-601: The company's console, mobile and PC games on a year-to-year basis until the fiscal year of 2014. In order to drive growth in western markets, Sega announced new leadership for Sega of America and Sega Europe in 2005. Simon Jeffery became president and COO of Sega of America, and Mike Hayes president and COO for Sega Europe. In 2009, Hayes became president of the combined outfit of both Sega of America and Sega Europe, due to Jeffery leaving. Sega sold Visual Concepts to Take-Two Interactive , and purchased UK-based developer Creative Assembly , known for its Total War series . In

10800-494: The consumer." At Sony, Stolar had opposed the localization of certain Japanese PlayStation games that he felt would not represent the system well in North America. He advocated a similar policy for the Saturn, generally blocking 2D arcade games and role-playing games from release, although he later sought to distance himself from this stance. Other changes included a softer image in Sega's advertising, including removing

10950-790: The continued popularity of the Genesis; 16-bit sales accounted for 64 percent of the market in 1995. Despite capturing 43 percent of the US market dollar share and selling more than 2 million Genesis units in 1995, Kalinske estimated that, if prepared for demand, another 300,000 could have been sold. Sega announced that Shoichiro Irimajiri had been appointed chairman and CEO of Sega of America in July 1996, while Kalinske left Sega after September 30 of that year. A former Honda executive, Irimajiri had been involved with Sega of America since joining Sega in 1993. The company also announced that Rosen and Nakayama had resigned from their positions at Sega of America, though both remained with Sega. Bernie Stolar ,

11100-408: The decline of the global arcade industry in the late 1990s, Sega created several novel concepts tailored to the Japanese market. Derby Owners Club was an arcade machine with memory cards for data storage, designed to take over half an hour to complete and costing JP¥500 to play. Testing of Derby Owners Club in a Chicago arcade showed that it had become the most popular machine at the location, with

11250-403: The early 1990s, Sega largely continued its success in arcades around the world. In 1992 and 1993, the new Sega Model 1 arcade system board showcased in-house development studio Sega AM2 's Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter (the first 3D fighting game ), which, though expensive, played a crucial role in popularizing 3D polygonal graphics. In addition, complex simulator equipment like

11400-422: The early titles to as few as 7 in later adventures. Likewise, there is no clear pattern among the various titles regarding the number of pages per ending, the ratio of good to bad endings, or the reader's progression backwards and forwards through the pages of the book. This allows for a realistic sense of unpredictability, and leads to the possibility of repeat readings, which is one of the distinguishing features of

11550-609: The end of 1998 and games would continue to be produced until mid-1999. With lifetime sales of 9.26 million units, the Saturn is retrospectively considered a commercial failure in much of the world. While Sega had success with the Model 3 arcade board and titles like Virtua Fighter 3 , Sega's arcade divisions struggled in the West during the late 1990s. On the other hand, Sega's arcade divisions were more successful in Asia, with Sega's overall arcade revenues increasing year-on-year throughout

11700-479: The end of 1999 —began to decline as early as January 2000. Poor Japanese sales contributed to Sega's ¥42.88 billion ($ 404 million) consolidated net loss in the fiscal year ending March 2000. This followed a similar loss of ¥42.881 billion the previous year and marked Sega's third consecutive annual loss. Sega's overall sales for the term increased 27.4 percent, and Dreamcast sales in North America and Europe greatly exceeded its expectations. However, this coincided with

11850-569: The entities of Service Games worldwide. The company expanded over the next seven years to include distribution in South Korea , the Philippines , and South Vietnam . The name Sega, an abbreviation of Service Games, was first used in 1954 on a slot machine, the Diamond Star. Due to notoriety arising from investigations by the US government into criminal business practices, Service Games of Japan

12000-724: The entity created to officially distribute and manufacture Sega's machines on the continent after the consolidation of its regional divisions, subsequently decided to develop more games locally that were better suited to western tastes. In 2005, the GameWorks chain of arcades came under the sole ownership of Sega, which previously was shared with Vivendi Universal , and remained under their ownership until 2011. In 2009, Sega Republic , an indoor theme park, opened in Dubai . Sega gradually reduced its arcade centers from 450 in 2005 to around 200 in 2015. Arcade machine sales incurred higher profits than

12150-543: The failure of the merger, as well as Sega's 1997 performance. Stolar became CEO and president of Sega of America. After the launch of the Nintendo 64 in the US during 1996, sales of the Saturn and its games fell sharply in much of the west. The PlayStation outsold the Saturn three-to-one in the US in 1997, and the latter failed to gain a foothold in Europe and Australia, where the Nintendo 64 would not release until March 1997. After several years of declining profits, Sega had

12300-532: The family-friendly GA rating to the more mature rating of MA-13, and the adults-only rating of MA-17. Executive vice president of Nintendo of America Howard Lincoln was quick to point out in the United States congressional hearings in 1993 that Night Trap was not rated at all. Senator Joe Lieberman called for another hearing in February 1994 to check progress toward a rating system for video game violence. After

12450-653: The film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch . Netflix settled the suit in November 2020. A Smithsonian article criticizes the style as "formulaic" and quotes a scholar stating that "in terms of literary quality, many of the multiple-storyline books are true skunks". Sega Sega Corporation is a Japanese multinational video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Shinagawa , Tokyo . It produces several multi-million-selling game franchises for arcades and consoles , including Sonic

12600-481: The first dating sim, featured good graphics, full voice acting, and a role-playing game -like gameplay system. To be accessible to a more mainstream audience, it contained no erotic elements, seeking instead to create a "romantic" atmosphere. Sega 's popular bishōjo game series Sakura Wars also first saw publication in 1996 for the Sega Saturn ; like Tokimeki Memorial , it contained no erotic elements. However, it

12750-454: The first page. According to Packard, the core idea for the series emerged from bedtime stories that he told to his daughters, revolving around a character named Pete and his adventures: "I had a character named Pete and I usually had him encountering all these different adventures on an isolated island. But that night I was running out of things for Pete to do, so I just asked what they would do". His two daughters came up with different paths for

12900-522: The fluid boundaries of the genre, as well as embarrassment caused by the pornographic nature of some of these games. In general, "anime game" can be considered the most general term, and other names designate subgenres. Here are the most common terms currently in use: Also, many Japanese games which are not strictly bishōjo games contain elements of the genre. Many mainstream Japanese role-playing or fighting games feature attractive anime girls (such as Final Fantasy VII 's Tifa Lockhart or many of

13050-636: The former two coincide with the text displayed at the bottom of the scene and are constantly reused. The basic storylines for these games center around a male protagonist whom the player controls, who interacts with various characters, notably females. Interaction occurs at several points where choices—seemingly trivial—are given to the player while life-altering choices are generally not. These choices eventually lead to various good or bad endings with (or without for some bad endings) one or more female characters. Beating these games does not mean just getting various good endings, but also in some cases bad endings, as

13200-487: The game takes place in some other setting, it tends to explore other fashion possibilities. For example, the game Pia Carrot is located in a restaurant, in which the girls wear elaborate waitress uniforms. The female characters frequently act in an endearingly childlike fashion, which is described by the Japanese slang term moe , a characteristic that is often looked-for in bishōjo characters. The reasons for this characteristic are not always merely sexual: sometimes it

13350-512: The game. UFO Catcher was introduced in 1985 and as of 2005 was Japan's most commonly installed claw crane game. In 1986, Sega of America was established to manage the company's consumer products in North America, beginning with marketing the Master System. During Sega's partnership with Tonka, Sega of America relinquished marketing and distribution of the console and focused on customer support and some localization of games. Out Run , released in 1986, became Sega's best selling arcade cabinet of

13500-777: The genital areas in order to satisfy Japanese decency laws. Pornographic bishōjo games are often catalogued as " hentai games" in the West. In Japan, they are usually called ero -games, or frequently eroge . The representation of girls in bishōjo games varies, but two generalizations can be made. First, most of the girls are portrayed as bishōjo , meaning beautiful, attractive or cute. Two particularly common settings exist: Japanese secondary schools and medieval-atmosphered, pseudo-European fantasy lands. In secondary education settings, characters wear idealized Japanese school uniforms ; whereas fantasy setting outfits range from witch robes to princess dresses, and fantastic creatures like fairies and catgirls may be found as well. When

13650-514: The genre. There are still some basic formulas that define the genre. The basic characteristics of bishōjo games resemble those of Choose Your Own Adventure books. The basic appearance of a bishōjo game consists of an image in the upper portion, a text box in the lower portion and a static background that occasionally changes extending to the edge behind both of the other two areas. The background images are often reused for various scenes and text descriptors are used to help distinguish differences in

13800-458: The girls in the Dead or Alive video game series ), but they are usually not considered bishōjo games unless this is a central aspect of the game. Choose Your Own Adventure Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine

13950-458: The goal is to unlock all of the bonus content . This makes getting the same ending twice and not unlocking any new content the way to lose such games. For example, Gals Panic is a variant of the classic game Qix where the objective is to uncover 75% or more of a picture of a girl. Money Idol Exchanger is a puzzle game comparable to the Magical Drop series (which is also categorized as

14100-635: The hearings, Sega proposed the universal adoption of the VRC; after objections by Nintendo and others, Sega took a role in forming the Entertainment Software Rating Board . Sega began work on the Genesis' successor, the Sega Saturn , more than two years before showcasing it at the Tokyo Toy Show in June 1994. According to former Sega of America producer Scot Bayless, Nakayama became concerned about

14250-459: The high-profile urban areas of Roppongi and Ikebukuro . In 1993, this success was mirrored in overseas territories with the openings of several large branded entertainment centers, such as Sega VirtuaLand in Luxor Las Vegas . In 1994, Sega generated a revenue of ¥354.032 billion or $ 3,464,000,000 (equivalent to $ 7,121,000,000 in 2023). In 1993, the American media began to focus on

14400-406: The idea. In 1975, he was able to convince Ray Montgomery, co-owner of Vermont Crossroads Press, to publish the book and it sold 8,000 copies, a large amount for a small local publishing house. The series was later marketed to Pocket Books , where it also sold well, but Montgomery believed that it would sell better if a bigger publisher could be found. After some discussion, Montgomery was able to make

14550-481: The late 1970s, with revenues climbing to over US$ 100  million by 1979. During this period, Sega acquired Gremlin Industries , which manufactured microprocessor -based arcade games, and Esco Boueki, a coin-op distributor founded and owned by Hayao Nakayama . Nakayama was placed in a management role of Sega's Japanese operations. In the early 1980s, Sega was one of the top five arcade game manufacturers active in

14700-427: The late 1990s, but it was not enough to offset the significant declining revenues of Sega's home consumer divisions. Despite a 75 percent drop in half-year profits just before the Japanese launch of the Dreamcast, Sega felt confident about its new system. The Dreamcast attracted significant interest and drew many pre-orders. Sega announced that Sonic Adventure , the first major 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game, would be

14850-518: The launch of the Genesis, Sega sought a new flagship line of releases to compete with Nintendo's Mario series. Its new character, Sonic the Hedgehog , went on to feature in one of the best-selling video game franchises in history. Sonic the Hedgehog began with a tech demo created by Yuji Naka involving a fast-moving character rolling in a ball through a winding tube; this was fleshed out with Naoto Ohshima 's character design and levels conceived by designer Hirokazu Yasuhara . Sonic's color

15000-478: The launch of the SG-1000, and the death of company founder Charles Bluhdorn , Gulf and Western began to sell off its secondary businesses. Nakayama and Rosen arranged a management buyout of the Japanese subsidiary in 1984 with financial backing from CSK Corporation , a prominent Japanese software company. Sega's Japanese assets were purchased for $ 38 million by a group of investors led by Rosen and Nakayama. Isao Okawa , head of CSK, became chairman, while Nakayama

15150-478: The licensing rights for its arcade games to Bally Manufacturing in September 1983. Gulf and Western retained Sega's North American R&D operation and its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. With its arcade business in decline, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. president Nakayama advocated for the company to use its hardware expertise to move into the home consumer market in Japan. This led to Sega's development of

15300-417: The main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based upon a concept created by Edward Packard and originally published by Constance Cappel's and R. A. Montgomery 's Vermont Crossroads Press as the "Adventures of You" series, starting with Packard's Sugarcane Island in 1976. Choose Your Own Adventure , as published by Bantam Books , was one of the most popular children's series during

15450-429: The main employees required by bishōjo game companies today are not programmers, but artists and writers. In the early nineties the atmosphere in Japan became more and more hostile towards bishōjo games. In 1989 serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki was arrested and was revealed to be a consumer of lolicon manga , causing widespread opposition to pornographic manga, otaku and anything similar. In November 1991 there

15600-482: The market in 1997. Sega also made forays in the PC market with the 1995 establishment of SegaSoft , which was tasked with creating original Saturn and PC games. From 1994 to 1999, Sega also participated in the arcade pinball market when it took over Data East 's pinball division, renaming it Sega Pinball. In January 1997, Sega announced its intentions to merge with the Japanese toy maker Bandai . The merger, planned as

15750-498: The mature content of certain video games, such as Night Trap for the Sega CD and the Genesis version of Midway's Mortal Kombat . This came at a time when Sega was capitalizing on its image as an "edgy" company with "attitude", and this reinforced that image. To handle this, Sega instituted the United States' first video game ratings system, the Videogame Rating Council (VRC), for all its systems. Ratings ranged from

15900-453: The merger went ahead as both companies were facing difficulties. Satomi said Sega had been operating at a loss for nearly ten years, while Sammy feared stagnation and over-reliance of its highly profitable pachislot and pachinko machine business and wanted to diversify. Sammy acquired the remaining percentages of Sega, completing a takeover . The stock swap deal valued Sega between $ 1.45 billion and $ 1.8 billion. Sega Sammy Holdings

16050-543: The more arcade-like experience available on the Genesis, with slogans including "Genesis does what Nintendon't". Since Nintendo owned the console rights to most arcade games of the time, the second part involved creating a library of games which used the names and likenesses of celebrities, such as Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and Joe Montana Football . Nonetheless, Sega had difficulty overcoming Nintendo's ubiquity in homes. Sega of America sold only 500,000 Genesis units in its first year, half of Nakayama's goal. After

16200-421: The most popular titles, including all those available for home video consoles , do not contain pornographic material, and many others only contain a small amount in relation to the story as a whole. For example, the 18+ version of the popular game Sabbat Of The Witch (also known as Sanoba Witch) contains a total of twenty- four short adult scenes within a branched story. The pornographic content of bishōjo games

16350-686: The objective to later form a real company or to be contracted by one of the great companies in the industry. Due to the short programming time and the relatively small amount of content required in a bishōjo game, barriers to enter this industry is somewhat low, and is the reason why every year dozens of new companies emerge. A substantial part of the revenue of the industry comes from merchandising. Fans are often dedicated to particular characters within their favorite games, and are willing to pay premium prices for goods like posters , figurines and accessories representing them. Several conventions also exist where articles oriented to bishōjo fans are sold, like

16500-621: The only male appearance in sex scenes is reduced to a penis entering from the side of the screen, with no other visible parts. The genre is extremely popular in Japan. It was estimated as late as 2005 that bishōjo game sales totaled a quarter of all software produced in Japan. It is estimated that an average 50 new titles are released each month or about 500 annually. Bishōjo games for personal computers are usually sold in special stores or sections reserved for clients more than 18 years old. Nevertheless, console bishōjo games, which are generally less explicit, are sold next to other video games. At

16650-580: The overall market share in North America at the end of 1999. On March 2, 1999, in what one report called a "highly publicized, vaporware -like announcement", Sony revealed the first details of the PlayStation 2 . The same year, Nintendo announced that its next console would meet or exceed anything on the market, and Microsoft began development of its own console, the Xbox . Sega's initial momentum proved fleeting as US Dreamcast sales—which exceeded 1.5 million by

16800-473: The player about the language's structure. In addition, major culture events, such as Japanese holidays, are portrayed. The player also comes to understand what stories and legends are known in Japan, both traditional ones and Western ones, and how the latter are seen from a Japanese perspective. Manga titles popular in Japan are frequently referenced in these games and those likely playing the games read many of those manga referenced. Finally, Japanese sexual culture

16950-460: The popular dōjinshi market Comiket in Tokyo , Japan. Due to the representation of female characters in the majority of bishōjo games, a great majority of the market is male. Nevertheless, from the year 2000, some developers began to expand their market, creating games directed to girls and presenting attractive young men in their cast ( bishōnen ). The most well-known and commercial of these titles

17100-496: The popularity of Sonic the Hedgehog , the Genesis outsold its main competitor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), in the United States nearly two to one during the 1991 holiday season. By January 1992, Sega controlled 65 percent of the 16-bit console market. Sega outsold Nintendo for four consecutive Christmas seasons due to the Genesis' head start, lower price, and a larger library compared to

17250-446: The present time, dozens of bishōjo games are released every month, and practically all the video game stores in Japan maintain a sizable stock of these. The games are initially relatively expensive compared to the Western market of videogames, fluctuating between 8,000 and 10,000 yen (approximately $ 75–95) each, although soon they can be bought more cheaply second-hand. While bishōjo games are produced in Japan for console market, that

17400-441: The previously announced North American date, on July 8, 1995. Within two days of the PlayStation's American launch on September 9, 1995, the PlayStation sold more units than the Saturn. Within its first year, the PlayStation secured over twenty percent of the US video game market. The console's high price point, surprise launch, and difficulty handling polygonal graphics were factors in its lack of success. Sega also underestimated

17550-445: The protagonist and the idea of overcoming "the emotional trials and tribulations of pure love." A late PlayStation 2 port removed the sexual content and sold better than the original, leading eventually to two anime adaptations. A turning point was ELF 's Dōkyūsei (1992). Dōkyūsei , whose gameplay focused on meeting girls and seducing them, established the standard conventions of the dating simulation genre. Tokimeki Memorial ,

17700-483: The quality of its creative output. Being the entertainment contents division of Sega Sammy Holdings, forming one half of the Sega Sammy Group, Sega also owns a toy and amusement machine company, Sega Fave , which comprises their arcade development and manufacturing divisions that were previously under Sega and two animation studios: TMS Entertainment , which animates, produces, and distributes anime such as Lupin

17850-482: The quality of their writing and characterization. Both were first released on the PC with erotic scenes, which were subsequently removed in their console ports. The bishōjo gaming industry has resisted the transition into 3D graphics because of the blocky and distorted nature of characters when viewed zoomed up close. In 2001 Tokimeki Memorial 3 became the first bishōjo game to break this trend. However, low sales make it likely that other companies will stick with

18000-497: The region, Tectoy . By 2016, the Master System had sold 8 million units in Brazil. During 1984, Sega opened its European division of arcade distribution, Sega Europe. It re-entered the North American arcade market in 1985 with the establishment of Sega Enterprises USA at the end of a deal with Bally. The release of Hang-On in 1985 would prove successful in the region, becoming so popular that Sega struggled to keep up with demand for

18150-506: The region. This was less market share in North America than both Nintendo and Atari , which controlled 80 percent and 12 percent of the market. The Master System was eventually a success in Europe, where its sales were comparable to the NES. As late as 1993, the Master System's active installed user base in Europe was 6.25 million units. The Master System has had continued success in Brazil. New versions continue to be released by Sega's partner in

18300-432: The release of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 and briefly outsold its main competitor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System , in the US. In 2001, after several commercial failures such as the 32X , Saturn , and Dreamcast , Sega stopped manufacturing consoles to become a third-party developer and publisher, and was acquired by Sammy Corporation in 2004. Sega Holdings Co. Ltd. was established in 2015; Sega Corporation

18450-591: The rights to port games from other developers. To help market the console in North America, Sega planned to sell the Master System as a toy, similar to how Nintendo had done with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Sega partnered with Tonka , an American toy company, to make use of Tonka's expertise in the toy industry. Ineffective marketing by Tonka handicapped sales of the Master System. By early 1992, production had ceased in North America. The Master System sold between 1.5 million and 2 million units in

18600-453: The rotational R360 kept Sega competing with machines by rival arcade companies, including Taito . New official region-specific distributors and manufacturers, including the UK's Deith Leisure, allowed Sega to sell its machines outside of Japan with ease. Sega's domestic operations division also opened hundreds of family-oriented suburban Sega World amusement arcades in Japan during this period, as well as large over-18s "GiGO" facilities in

18750-636: The same year, Sega Racing Studio was also formed by former Codemasters employees. In 2006, Sega Europe purchased Sports Interactive , known for its Football Manager series. In the console and handheld business, Sega found success in the Japanese market with the Yakuza , Phantasy Star Portable and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series. Sega began providing the 3D imaging for Hatsune Miku holographic concerts in 2010. Sega also distributes games from smaller Japanese game developers and sells localizations of Western games in Japan. In 2013, Index Corporation

18900-421: The same year, Hajime Satomi said Sega's activity would focus on its profitable arcade business as opposed to loss-incurring home software development. In 2004, Sega Sammy Holdings , an entertainment conglomerate, was created; Sega and Sammy became subsidiaries of the new holding company, both companies operating independently while the executive departments merged. According to the first Sega Sammy Annual Report ,

19050-451: The story as he would live an episode of his own life. Often the game is viewed in a first person view of the main character. Since bishōjo games focus on female characters and the player's interaction with them, male characters often receive less time on-screen and the character that represents the player rarely appears; when this happens, his face is usually hidden outside the screen or otherwise, and he might not even be voiced. Sometimes

19200-413: The story to take and Packard thought up an ending for each of the paths: "What really struck me was the natural enthusiasm they had for the idea. And I thought: 'Could I write this down?'" Packard soon developed this basic premise into a manuscript titled The Adventures of You on Sugar Cane Island . He set out in 1970 to find a publisher but was rejected by nine publishing companies, causing him to shelve

19350-541: The surrounding. In most of the games, the player does not see their avatar and instead see the game from a first person perspective. In addition, some games use various techniques, such as the screen shaking, flashing or going black, to give further immersion by demonstrating various conditions. The games' range of sound effects are also used to represent the avatar's eardrums. The characters of these games are less realistic and often limited to only several static facial expression, gestures and occasional eye blinks, of which

19500-412: The traditional 2D graphics . Today the industry has grown, with most publishers making releases for Windows , including download-only files. Some of the least pornographic and most successful also branching off into the console market. The main consoles used for bishōjo games in the nineties were the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast . More recently, the PlayStation 2 has been the console of choice with

19650-481: The use of drawn characters allows the studios of bishōjo games with adult content to avoid the penalty of Japanese child pornography laws, which prohibit the depiction of real minors under 18 years of age. Even so, the EOCS requests that all characters who appear to be minors be labeled as 18 years of age. The main male character in bishōjo games is often rendered as someone the player can identify with, thus experiencing

19800-438: The war, the founders sold Standard Games in 1945, and established Service Games the next year, named for the military focus. After the US government outlawed slot machines in its territories in 1952, Bromley sent employees Richard Stewart and Ray LeMaire to Tokyo to establish Service Games of Japan to provide coin-operated slot machines to US bases in Japan. A year later, all five men established Service Games Panama to control

19950-804: The world proposed to be opened by 2000, however only two, Sega World London and Sega World Sydney , would ultimately materialise in September 1996 and March 1997, respectively. Following on from difficulties faced in setting up theme parks in the United States, Sega established the GameWorks chain of urban entertainment centers in a joint venture with DreamWorks SKG and Universal Studios during March 1997. In 1995, Sega partnered with Atlus to launch Print Club (purikura), an arcade photo sticker machine that produces selfie photos. Atlus and Sega introduced Purikura in February 1995, initially at game arcades, before expanding to other popular culture locations such as fast food shops, train stations, karaoke establishments and bowling alleys. Purikura became

20100-549: Was a bit of a folly for them to be limiting their potential to Sega hardware", and Stolar had suggested Sega should have sold the company to Microsoft. In a September 2000 meeting with Sega's Japanese executives and heads of its first-party game studios, Moore and Sega of America executive Charles Bellfield recommended that Sega abandon its console business. In response, the studio heads walked out. Sega announced an official company name change from Sega Enterprises, Ltd. to Sega Corporation effective November 1, 2000, officially dropping

20250-403: Was also a technological arms race between Sega and Namco during this period, driving the growth of 3D gaming. Beginning in 1994, Sega launched a series of indoor theme parks in Japan under a concept dubbed "Amusement Theme Park", including Joypolis parks sited in urban Tokyo locations such as Yokohama and Odaiba . A rapid overseas rollout was planned, with at least 100 locations across

20400-447: Was an incident where a middle-schooler shoplifted an adult bishōjo game Saori: the House of Beautiful Girls , resulting in increased police scrutiny for makers and retailers. Several prefectures began classifying games as obscene and pulling them off the shelves. Faced with the threat of being forcibly censored out of existence by the government, in 1992 the bishōjo game industry formed

20550-432: Was chosen to match Sega's cobalt blue logo; his shoes were inspired by Michael Jackson 's boots, and his personality by Bill Clinton 's "can-do" attitude. Nakayama hired Tom Kalinske as CEO of Sega of America in mid-1990, and Katz departed soon after. Kalinske knew little about the video game market, but surrounded himself with industry-savvy advisors. A believer in the razor-and-blades business model , he developed

20700-432: Was crucial to the system's early success in Japan. Sega's initial shipment of 200,000 Saturn units sold out on the first day, and it was more popular than the PlayStation , made by Sony , in Japan. In March 1995, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske announced that the Saturn would be released in the US on Saturday, September 2, 1995, advertised as " Saturn-day ". Sega executives in Japan mandated an early launch to give

20850-512: Was dissolved on May 31, 1960. On June 3, Bromley established two companies to take over its business activities, Nihon Goraku Bussan and Nihon Kikai Seizō. The two new companies purchased all of Service Games of Japan's assets. Kikai Seizō, doing business as Sega, Inc., focused on manufacturing slot machines. Goraku Bussan, doing business under Stewart as Utamatic, Inc. , served as a distributor and operator of coin-operated machines, particularly jukeboxes . The companies merged in 1964, retaining

21000-581: Was followed by further reductions to clear the remaining inventory. The final manufactured Dreamcast was autographed by the heads of all nine of Sega's first-party game studios, plus the heads of sports game developer Visual Concepts and audio studio Wave Master, and given away with all 55 first-party Dreamcast games through a competition organized by GamePro . Okawa, who had loaned Sega $ 500 million in 1999, died on March 16, 2001. Shortly before his death, he forgave Sega's debts to him and returned his $ 695 million worth of Sega and CSK stock, helping

21150-656: Was installed as CEO of Sega Enterprises, Ltd. In 1985, Sega began working on the Mark III, a redesigned SG-1000. For North America, Sega rebranded the Mark III as the Master System , with a futuristic design intended to appeal to Western tastes. The Mark III was released in Japan in October 1985. Despite featuring more powerful hardware than the Famicom in some ways, it was unsuccessful at launch. As Nintendo required third-party developers not to publish their Famicom games on other consoles, Sega developed its own games and obtained

21300-513: Was launched in New York City and Los Angeles on August 14, 1989, and in the rest of North America later that year. The European version of the Mega Drive was released in September 1990. Former Atari executive and new Sega of America president Michael Katz developed a two-part strategy to build sales in North America. The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo and emphasize

21450-439: Was marred by a glitch at one of Sega's manufacturing plants, which produced defective GD-ROMs where data was not properly recorded onto the disc. Sega released the Dreamcast in Europe on October 14, 1999. While Sega sold 500,000 units in Europe by Christmas 1999, sales there slowed, and by October 2000 Sega had sold only about a million units. Though the Dreamcast was successful, Sony's PlayStation still held 60 percent of

21600-432: Was previously asked to be CEO of Sega. On February 13, Sega announced that it would merge with Sammy; however, as late as April 17, Sega was still in talks with Namco, which was attempting to overturn the merger. Sega's consideration of Namco's offer upset Sammy executives. The day after Sega announced it no longer planned to merge with Sammy, Namco withdrew its offer. In 2003, Sato and COO Tetsu Kamaya stepped down. Sato

21750-460: Was renamed to Sega Games Co., Ltd., and its arcade, entertainment, and toy divisions separated into other companies. In 2020, Sega Games and Sega Interactive merged to become Sega Corporation. Sega's international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe are headquartered in Irvine, California , and London. Its development studios include their internal research and development divisions (which utilize

21900-501: Was replaced by Hisao Oguchi, the head of the Sega studio Hitmaker . Moore left Sega in January 2003, feeling that the Japanese executives were refusing to adapt to industry changes, such as the demand for mature games such as Grand Theft Auto III . Hideaki Irie, who had worked at Agetec and ASCII , became the new president and COO of Sega of America in October 2003. In August 2003, Sammy bought 22.4 percent of Sega's shares from CSK, making Sammy into Sega's largest shareholder. In

22050-421: Was sold to the American conglomerate Gulf and Western Industries , although Rosen remained CEO. In 1974, Gulf and Western made Sega Enterprises, Ltd., a subsidiary of an American company renamed Sega Enterprises, Inc. Sega released Pong-Tron , its first video-based game, in 1973. Despite late competition from Taito 's hit arcade game Space Invaders in 1978, Sega prospered from the arcade video game boom of

22200-425: Was structured into four parts: Consumer Business (video games), Amusement Machine Business (arcade games), Amusement Center Business (Sega's theme parks and arcades) and Pachislot and Pachinko Business (Sammy's pachinko and pachislot business). According to an industry survey, as of 2005, sales of arcade machines were up for the previous four years in Japan, while down for nine straight years overseas. In response to

22350-406: Was the first bishōjo game to have all its characters modeled in 3D, although the sales were smaller than hoped, perhaps discouraging other developers from the possibility of changing bishōjo games from 2D to 3D. Many bishōjo games nowadays are essentially a slideshow of 2D pictures plus voice and text. While there are a number of bishōjo games entirely focused on hardcore pornography, many of

22500-470: Was unique in that it contained not only adventure-game elements but also a combat system borrowed from tactical combat games such as Tactics Ogre . Since the late nineties, there has been a trend towards better storytelling in mainstream bishōjo games. Particularly notable in this respect are Leaf 's To Heart (1997), and Key 's Kanon (1999). Even though their gameplay involved little more than scrolling through text, they became hits largely due to

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