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122-526: For sound generation, the SCSP contains 32 sound generators which can function in either FM synthesis or PCM digital audio mode. The sound generation hardware is then fed into the FH-1 128-step sound effects Digital Signal Processor , which includes 16 sound effect presets. Finally each audio channel is mixed together, with fully configurable channel combining for various levels of FM generation complexity. This allowed

244-426: A waveform is changed by modulating its frequency with a modulator. The (instantaneous) frequency of an oscillator is altered in accordance with the amplitude of a modulating signal. FM synthesis can create both harmonic and inharmonic sounds. To synthesize harmonic sounds, the modulating signal must have a harmonic relationship to the original carrier signal. As the amount of frequency modulation increases,

366-651: 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

488-443: A 128-voice sample-based engine with a 128-voice FM engine. This iteration of FM is called FM-X, and features 8 operators; each operator has a choice of several basic wave forms, but each wave form has several parameters to adjust its spectrum. It was then followed by the more affordable Yamaha MODX in 2018, with 64-voice, 8 operators FM-X architecture in addition to a 128-voice sample-based engine. The MODX+ released in 2022 increased

610-570: 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,

732-650: 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

854-459: 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

976-457: A commercial digital synthesizer, adding improvements such as the "key scaling" method to avoid the introduction of distortion that normally occurred in analog systems during frequency modulation , though it would take several years before Yamaha released their FM digital synthesizers. In the 1970s, Yamaha were granted a number of patents, under the company's former name "Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha", evolving Chowning's work. Yamaha built

1098-602: 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

1220-487: 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

1342-508: 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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1464-647: 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

1586-420: 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

1708-580: A noise source rather than an oscillator as its sound source. By adding in tuneable noise sources the FS1R could model the sounds produced in the human voice and in a wind instrument, along with making percussion instrument sounds. The FS1R also contained an additional wave form called the Formant wave form. Formants can be used to model resonating body instrument sounds like the cello, violin, acoustic guitar, bassoon, English horn, or human voice. Formants can even be found in

1830-435: 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

1952-521: 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

2074-550: 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

2196-453: 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

2318-605: 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

2440-560: A similar (but slightly differently derived) sound quality to the DX series. With the expiration of the Stanford University FM patent in 1995, digital FM synthesis can now be implemented freely by other manufacturers. The FM synthesis patent brought Stanford $ 20 million before it expired, making it (in 1994) "the second most lucrative licensing agreement in Stanford's history". FM today

2562-472: 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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2684-580: Is frequency modulation index , and amplitudes J n ( β ) {\displaystyle J_{n}(\beta )\,} is n {\displaystyle n\,} -th Bessel function of first kind , respectively. 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

2806-511: Is mostly found in software-based synths such as FM8 by Native Instruments or Sytrus by Image-Line , but it has also been incorporated into the synthesis repertoire of some modern digital synthesizers, usually coexisting as an option alongside other methods of synthesis such as subtractive , sample-based synthesis , additive synthesis , and other techniques. The degree of complexity of the FM in such hardware synths may vary from simple 2-operator FM, to

2928-472: 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

3050-458: 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

3172-587: The OPP sound chip. The NEC PC-88 and PC-98 computers use either the OPN and OPNA sound chips. For arcade systems and game consoles, OPM was used in many arcade boards from the 1980s and 1990s (including Sega 's System 16 and Capcom 's CP System arcade boards), while OPN was used in some arcade boards in the 1980s. OPNB was notably used in SNK 's Neo Geo arcade (MVS) and home console (AES) machines, as well as being used as

3294-666: 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

3416-536: 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

3538-455: The Yamaha SMAF format. Don Buchla implemented FM on his instruments in the mid-1960s, prior to Chowning's patent. His 158, 258 and 259 dual oscillator modules had a specific FM control voltage input, and the model 208 (Music Easel) had a modulation oscillator hard-wired to allow FM as well as AM of the primary oscillator. These early applications used analog oscillators, and this capability

3660-604: 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

3782-445: 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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3904-462: 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

4026-463: 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

4148-600: 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

4270-623: 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

4392-449: 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

4514-467: 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

4636-410: 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

4758-638: 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

4880-430: 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

5002-580: 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

Yamaha YMF292 - Misplaced Pages Continue

5124-462: 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

5246-509: 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

5368-634: 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

5490-470: 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

5612-420: 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

5734-482: 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

5856-590: 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

5978-647: 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

6100-427: 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

6222-415: The basic of these variations, we analyze the spectrum of 2 operators (linear FM synthesis using two sinusoidal operators) on the following. The spectrum generated by FM synthesis with one modulator is expressed as follows: For modulation signal m ( t ) = B sin ⁡ ( ω m t ) {\displaystyle m(t)=B\,\sin(\omega _{m}t)\,} ,

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6344-475: 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

6466-893: The carrier signal is: If we were to ignore the constant phase terms on the carrier ϕ c = B / ω m {\displaystyle \phi _{c}=B/\omega _{m}\,} and the modulator ϕ m = − π / 2 {\displaystyle \phi _{m}=-\pi /2\,} , finally we would get the following expression, as seen on Chowning 1973 and Roads 1996 , p.  232 : where ω c , ω m {\displaystyle \omega _{c}\,,\,\omega _{m}\,} are angular frequencies ( ω = 2 π f {\displaystyle \,\omega =2\pi f\,} ) of carrier and modulator, β = B / ω m {\displaystyle \beta =B/\omega _{m}\,}

6588-489: The channels to modulate each other, in practice four generators were connected at a time but all 32 generators could be combined into one channel if desired. The SCSP also included a 7-level interrupt controller . The SCSP is generally controlled via a dedicated external processor; in the case of Sega hardware, a Motorola 68EC000 is used. Also included alongside is a RAM chip for storing digital audio data and sound programming, and an external DAC chip . In comparison to

6710-430: 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

6832-429: 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

6954-601: 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

7076-494: 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

7198-790: 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 ,

7320-408: 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

7442-403: 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

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7564-656: 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

7686-479: 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

7808-569: 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

7930-724: 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

8052-543: 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

8174-532: 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

8296-479: The first prototype FM digital synthesizer in 1974. Yamaha eventually commercialized FM synthesis technology with the Yamaha GS-1, the first FM digital synthesizer, released in 1980. FM synthesis was the basis of some of the early generations of digital synthesizers , most notably those from Yamaha, as well as New England Digital Corporation under license from Yamaha. Yamaha's DX7 synthesizer, released in 1983,

8418-606: The forefront of synthesis in the mid-1980s. FM synthesis also became the usual setting for games and software up until the mid-nineties. Sound cards for IBM PC compatible systems like the AdLib and Sound Blaster popularized Yamaha chips like the OPL2 and OPL3 . Other computers such as the Sharp X68000 and MSX ( Yamaha CX5M computer unit ) use the OPM sound chip, with later CX5M units using

8540-512: 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

8662-594: The harmonic spectrum of several brass instruments. In 2016, Korg released the Korg Volca FM, a, 3-voice, 6 operators FM iteration of the Korg Volca series of compact, affordable desktop modules. Korg has also released the opsix (2020) and opsix SE (2023), integrating 6 operators FM synthesis with subtractive, analogue modeling, additive, semi-modular and Waveshaping. Yamaha released the Montage in 2016, which combines

8784-688: 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

8906-459: 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

9028-510: The highly flexible 6-operator engines of the Korg Kronos and Alesis Fusion , to creation of FM in extensively modular engines such as those in the latest synthesisers by Kurzweil Music Systems . The Yamaha SY99 and FS1R synthesizers marketed their highly powerful FM abilities as counterparts to sample-based synthesis and formant synthesis respectively. New hardware synths specifically marketed for their FM capabilities disappeared from

9150-481: 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

9272-427: 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

9394-518: 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

9516-478: 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

9638-478: 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

9760-548: The main basic sound generator in Taito 's arcade boards (with a variant of the OPNB being used in the Taito Z System ). The related OPN2 was used in Sega's Mega Drive (Genesis) , Fujitsu 's FM Towns Marty , and some of Sega's arcade boards (e.g. Sega System C-2 and Sega System 32) as one of its sound generator chips. Throughout the 2000s, FM synthesis was also used on a wide range of phones to play ringtones and other sounds, typically in

9882-568: The market after the release of FS1R in 1999, however, well-developed FM synthesis options are a feature of Nord Lead synths manufactured by Clavia, the Alesis Fusion range, the Korg Oasys and Kronos and the Modor NF-1. Various other synthesizers offer limited FM abilities to supplement their main engines. The FS1R had 16 operators, 8 standard FM operators and 8 additional operators that used

10004-482: 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

10126-498: 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

10248-453: 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

10370-543: 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

10492-489: The new possibilities of digital sound as described by Max Mathews . His algorithm was licensed to Japanese company Yamaha in 1973. The implementation commercialized by Yamaha (US Patent 4018121 Apr 1977 or U.S. Patent 4,018,121 ) is actually based on phase modulation , but the results end up being equivalent mathematically as both are essentially a special case of quadrature amplitude modulation . Yamaha's engineers began adapting Chowning's algorithm for use in

10614-606: The number of voices of the FM-X engine to 128, the same as with the Montage. The Montage was succeeded by the Montage M in 2023, which uses the same 128-voice, 8 operators FM-X engine alongside a 128-voice sample-based engine and a newly-introduced 16-voice 3 oscillator analog-based engine known as AN-X. Elektron launched the Digitone in 2018, which is an 8-voice, 4 operators FM synth featuring Elektron's renowned sequence engine. FM-X synthesis

10736-580: 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

10858-496: 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

10980-441: 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

11102-483: 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

11224-497: 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

11346-506: 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

11468-432: 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

11590-591: 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

11712-453: 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

11834-489: The same as the DX7 wave forms. The All1 and All2 wave forms are a saw-tooth wave form. The Odd1 and Odd2 wave forms are pulse or square waves. These two types of wave forms can be used to model the basic harmonic peaks in the bottom of the harmonic spectrum of most instruments. The Res1 and Res2 wave forms move the spectral peak to a specific harmonic and can be used to model either triangular or rounded groups of harmonics further up in

11956-636: 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

12078-421: 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 ,

12200-464: The sound grows progressively complex. Through the use of modulators with frequencies that are non-integer multiples of the carrier signal (i.e. inharmonic), inharmonic bell-like and percussive spectra can be created. FM synthesis using analog oscillators may result in pitch instability. However, FM synthesis can also be implemented digitally, which is more stable and became standard practice. Digital FM synthesis (equivalent to phase modulation using

12322-403: The sound hardware in other video game systems of the time, the SCSP lacked any sort of hardware audio decompression. This computer hardware article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Frequency modulation synthesis [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Frequency modulation synthesis (or FM synthesis ) is a form of sound synthesis whereby the frequency of

12444-484: The spectrum of an instrument. Combining an All1 or Odd1 wave form with multiple Res1 (or Res2) wave forms (and adjusting their amplitudes) can model the harmonic spectrum of an instrument or sound. Combining sets of 8 FM operators with multi-spectral wave forms was first introduced in the FS1R, released in 1999 by Yamaha. It was able to achieve similar results to that of FM-X using 8 noise operators. There are multiple variations of FM synthesis, including: etc . As

12566-528: The time integration of instantaneous frequency ) was the basis of several musical instruments beginning as early as 1974. Yamaha built the first prototype digital synthesizer in 1974, based on FM synthesis, before commercially releasing the Yamaha GS-1 in 1980. The Synclavier I , manufactured by New England Digital Corporation beginning in 1978, included a digital FM synthesizer, using an FM synthesis algorithm licensed from Yamaha. Yamaha's groundbreaking Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, released in 1983, brought FM to

12688-438: 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

12810-804: 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

12932-549: 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

13054-403: 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

13176-457: Was also followed by other modular synthesizers and portable synthesizers including Minimoog and ARP Odyssey . By the mid-20th century, frequency modulation (FM), a means of carrying sound, had been understood for decades and was being used to broadcast radio transmissions . FM synthesis was developed since 1967 at Stanford University , California, by John Chowning , through his exploration of digital synthesis and spatialization, inspired by

13298-432: 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

13420-432: 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

13542-512: 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

13664-629: Was first introduced with the Yamaha Montage synthesizers in 2016. FM-X uses 8 operators. Each FM-X operator has a set of multi-spectral wave forms to choose from, which means each FM-X operator can be equivalent to a stack of 3 or 4 DX7 FM operators. The list of selectable wave forms includes sine waves, the All1 and All2 wave forms, the Odd1 and Odd2 wave forms, and the Res1 and Res2 wave forms. The sine wave selection works

13786-581: 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

13908-656: 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

14030-513: 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

14152-439: 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

14274-432: 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

14396-460: 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

14518-501: 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

14640-421: 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

14762-425: 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

14884-425: Was ubiquitous throughout the 1980s. Several other models by Yamaha provided variations and evolutions of FM synthesis during that decade. Yamaha had patented its hardware implementation of FM in the 1970s, allowing it to nearly monopolize the market for FM technology until the mid-1990s. Casio developed a related form of synthesis called phase distortion synthesis , used in its CZ range of synthesizers . It had

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