 R&D1 logo | |
Native name | セガ第一AM研究開発本部 |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Sega Daiichi Ē Emu Kenkyū Kaihatsu Bu |
| Formerly | Sega Research & Development #1 Sega AM1 Sega Software R&D Dept #1 (AM1) Wow Entertainment, Inc. Sega Wow, Inc. |
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Video games |
| Headquarters | Japan |
Key people | Rikiya Nakagawa Noriyoshi Ohba Kazunori Tsukamoto Yasuhiro Nishiyama |
| Products | Arcade games,video games,mobile games |
| Parent | Sega Fave |
Sega AM Research & Development No. 1[a] is a development department withinJapanese toy and amusement game companySega Fave that also previously existed asWow Entertainment andSega Wow Inc.[b] AM1 spent most of its early existence under the leadership of Rikiya Nakagawa and developed a number ofarcade games forSega.
In 2000, Sega split its development studios into nine semi-autonomous companies, with AM1 becoming Wow Entertainment. Wow developed games for theDreamcast and later other consoles as well as arcade games. In 2003, as part of studio consolidations within Sega, Wow was merged withOverworks Ltd.[c] (originally titledSega CS Research & Development No. 2[d] and later AM7) and renamed to Sega Wow. Nakagawa resigned a few weeks later afterSammy Corporation acquired a significant amount of shares in Sega. Sega Wow was re-integrated back into the company the next year. Since then, the AM1 division has continued within Sega.
Rikiya Nakagawa joined Sega as a programmer in 1983.[1] Working for Sega's development division, he programmed arcade games includingNinja Princess,Alien Syndrome andChoplifter.[2] Although the exact date of the transition is not known, some time after the release ofPower Drift, Sega began to separate the amusement division into the Amusement Machine Research and Development teams, or AM teams. AM1 was formed not long after the decision was made to separate the teams.[3]Hisao Oguchi worked with AM1 before later going toAM3.[4]
Nakagawa was made manager of AM1 in September 1991.[5] According to Nakagawa, he was working withAM2 withYu Suzuki before being made head of AM1. He has also stated that his job focus had to change upon taking the new title, with less coding and more production and schedule management.[2] Joining him at AM1 were members of Team Shinobi, who had developedAlien Syndrome and the arcade version ofGolden Axe.[3] AM1 also included Makoto Uchida, the lead developer forGolden Axe, who had also developedAltered Beast, as well as several other Sega arcade titles.[6][7]
During the next few years, AM1 made several technological advances in their game development. The team used3D computer graphics for the first time in 1994'sWing War,[2] a game that would also be released for Sega'sR360 arcade cabinet.[8] AM1 would also developIndy 500, which Nakagawa called his most memorable AM1 project and he credits it for AM1's ability to develop proper 3D games. From there, AM1 developedWaveRunner andThe House of the Dead.[2] AM1 also collaborated withSega Technical Institute to develop and releaseDie Hard Arcade in 1996.[9] According to developer Koichi Izumi, who had worked with AM1 before moving to AM3, AM1 had developed so many games that he lost count of them.[10] Nakagawa has stated that he considered it good that AM1 did not have a specialty area and could develop almost any game as long as it was fun, and highlightedWakuwaku Anpanman, akiddie ride, as an example.[2] AM1 also took charge of technical aspects of theNAOMIarcade system board.[11] Some of AM1's other titles developed wereSega Bass Fishing,Sega Strike Fighter andWild Riders.[12]
In April 2000,[13] Sega restructured its arcade and console development teams into nine semi-autonomous studios headed by the company's top designers.[14][15] Sega's design houses were encouraged to experiment and benefited from a relatively lax approval process.[16] Nakagawa chose the name Wow Entertainment for his new company, because it was an easy name to say in Japanese and also would work worldwide as a word in the English dictionary. At the time, Wow Entertainment had a staff of 120 and had 12 to 13 production lines, one of which was based in the United States. Though AM1 had previously focused on arcade games, Wow would split its time with console games as well. Wow also announced a collaboration withNihon Television andKodansha for the development of additional games.[11]
Wow's offices were based inShibuya, Tokyo, Japan.[12][13] In addition toDreamcast games, such asSega Bass Fishing 2, Wow developed for other consoles. TheGame Boy Advance receivedColumns Crown, and games were developed for theGameCube, as well as theXbox andPlayStation 2. Arcade games, such asThe House of the Dead III, were also released.[12]
In 2003, Hisao Oguchi was named president of Sega. He announced his intention to consolidate Sega's studios into "four or five core operations".[17] As part of the mergers, Wow Entertainment merged with Overworks,[18] formerly Sega's AM7 department and headed by Noriyoshi Ohba.[11] With this merger, completed in October 2003, Wow Entertainment changed its name to Sega Wow.[13] Also in 2003,Sammy Corporation purchased a large share of Sega and announced its desire to have Sega focus on arcade game development, preferably with Sammy'sAtomiswave arcade system board, which was less expensive and less advanced than Sega's Chihiro and Triforce boards. Nakagawa resigned weeks after the acquisition. While no official reason for his departure was given, it has been suggested that Nakagawa's resignation could have been due to a desire not to comply with Sammy's demands.[1] Nakagawa joined Sammy itself as a general manager at the start of 2004,[19] and as of 2008, was then president of the companyPaon DP.[20] Kazunori Tsukamoto, who had worked onThe House of the Dead andSuper GT, replaced Nakagawa as president of Sega Wow.[21] As Sega Wow, they developedFinny the Fish & the Seven Waters withSony Computer Entertainment,Blood Will Tell and the 2005Altered Beast game.[22][23] During the existence of Sega Wow, producer Yosuku Okunari pitched remakes ofStreets of Rage andDragon Force made by Sega Wow for theSega Ages 2500 series. Ultimately, onlyDragon Force eventually became an outsourced project, with Okunari helming the project and theSega Ages 2500 series as a whole.[24]
During mid-2004, Sammy bought a controlling share in Sega at a cost of $1.1 billion, creating the new companySega Sammy Holdings, an entertainment conglomerate.[25] Prior to the acquisition by Sammy, Sega began the process of re-integrating its subsidiaries into the main company,[26] which was completed by October 2004.[27] Sega Wow's 215 employees were split across consumer and arcade development after the integration back into Sega.[28]
The AM1 division has continued within Sega since the re-integration of Sega Wow. Further development since 2004 has included smartphone games, such asChain Chronicle.[29] Some of AM1's arcade developments since 2004 include video gamesMaimai,Initial D Arcade Stage 8 Infinity andPuyopuyo!! Quest Arcade,medal gamesFist of the North Star: Battle Medal, andStarhorse III,[30] as well asSangokushi Taisen, adigital collectible card andtrading card game.[31] AM1 is said to be the broadest division of Sega covering arcade video games, smartphone apps, games for kids, medal games, and simulators, or unique products such as theSega Toylet.[32] Yasuhiro Nishiyama was the head of AM1, producing aforementioned games. He joined the company in 1997 and was involved with the hardware of the Dreamcast, and after almost three decades left Sega in 2024 to establish the company Sugorocks to pursue Web3, AI and Blockchain endeavours.[33][34]
Overworks was a development division of Sega, originally founded as CS Research and Development #2. It was led by Noriyoshi Ohba,[35] who was initially hired to Sega's CS2 department as a planner and worked on titles such asWonder Boy in Monster Land andClockwork Knight.[36]Rieko Kodama was a developer on the team, which was formed of developers who had previously worked on series such asShinobi,Streets of Rage,Phantasy Star andAlex Kidd.[37] CS2 R&D had a hand in the development ofSega Saturn games, includingSakura Wars,[35]Deep Fear andJ-League Pro Soccer.[11] The team would later be known as R&D #7 or AM7.[38] Upon the transition of the studios that led to the formation of Overworks from AM7, Ohba chose the name "Overworks" as a simplification of "Over Quality Works". Games released for theDreamcast as Overworks includeSkies of Arcadia,Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning?,[37] andGuruGuru Onsen.[11] They also released a game for arcades calledDragon Treasure.[39] After the discontinuation of the Dreamcast, Overworks continued to work onSakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens and asequel toShinobi, before being consolidated into Wow Entertainment.[37] After serving as vice president of Sega Wow, Ohba departed Sega in 2004 to joinInterchannel.[40] The CS2 designation would later be given toSonic Team by 2010.[41] The developers of the gamesGuru Guru Onsen and Dragon Treasure, went on to developSangokushi Taisen at AM1.[42][43] Meanwhile, members of theSkies of Arcadia team went on to be involved inValkyria Chronicles and7th Dragon.[44][45]
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