Sega AM-3
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| Division (Defunct) | |
| Industry | Video games industry |
| Fate | Merged with Sega's Research and Development |
| Founded | February 2000 |
| Defunct | 2004 |
| Headquarters | Japan |
| Owner | Sega |
| Website | web |
Hitmaker was a division of Japanese video game developer of Sega.
In 2000, all of Sega's in-house Consumer (CS) and Amusement Machine (AM) R&D departments were separated from the main company and established on 9 semi-autonomous subsidiaries, with each subsidiary getting an elected president as a studio head. However, for more financial stability, Sega began consolidating its studios into five main ones in 2003 (Sega Wow, Sega AM2, Hitmaker, Amusement Vision, Smilebit, Sonic Team), and merged them back into a uniform R&D structure in 2004.
Hitmaker was established from the AM3 department which has created popular arcade favourites in past, such as Virtual-On, Derby Owners Club, Crazy Taxi and Virtua Tennis. It was headed by Hisao Oguchi, Mie Kumagai and Kenji Kanno.
Sega Rosso was headed by Kenji Sasaki, the company was short-lived before being absorbed by Hitmaker. It contributed to Sega's arcade line-up with Cosmic Smash and Initial D Arcade Stage. With the latter becoming a major franchise.
In 2003, Mie Kumagai replaced Hisao Oguchi as the company president, when Hisao Oguchi was promoted to President of the entire Sega company. Also in 2003, the studio absorbed Sega Rosso, making Initial D Arcade Stage part of its line-up. By 2004, Hitmaker had 193 employees which focused on arcade development after the integration into Sega.
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Wikipedia