Type Division Products See list of games Founded 1985 Parent organization Sega | Industry Video game industry Founder Yu Suzuki Headquarters Tokyo, Japan | |
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Key people Yu Suzuki
Toshihiro Nagoshi
Makoto Osaki
Hiroshi Kataoka Video games Daytona USA, Shenmue, Out Run, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop | ||
Sega-AM2 Co., Ltd. (doing business as Sega AM R&D Division 2, commonly referred to as Sega AM2) is a division of Japanese video game developer Sega. They are Sega's second development division for arcade software. Several games produced by Sega-AM2 have influenced and innovated the video gaming industry from a technical and developmental perspective.
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History
In the earliest days of research and development at Sega the most standout products were taikan arcades, which is translated from Japanese as "body sensation", and refers to large cabinet set-ups with more than button and joysticks. Sega popularized the term and innovated this design through games such as Hang-On, OutRun, Space Harrier, and After Burner and the more eleborate set-up, the R-360. All the aforementioned games were created by the second arcade department at Sega which started to stand out relatively quickly.
From 1990 onwards the game development groups at Sega became their own divisions. Development teams became bigger and many of the planners, designers and programmers of the small teams of before, became producers and managers of their own teams and departments. Thus Amusement Machine Research and Development Division No. 2 (AM2), was created.
AM2 was headed by Yu Suzuki and Toshihiro Nagoshi. Daytona USA was the first game using the palmtree AM2 logo, signaturing the department for being special among all the R&D Departments among 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.
SEGA-AM2 was established as an independent studio but has held its name, and features the palm tree logo prominently. It was headed by Hiroshi Kataoka, Yu Suzuki and Makoto Osaki.
After the integration back into Sega, the studios lineage as the second arcade software R&D division continues. It is now headed by Hiroshi Kataoka and Makoto Osaki.
As creators of famous franchises such as Virtua Fighter, Outrun and Daytona USA, AM2 supervises the implementation in guest appearances such as in Dead or Alive 5 and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.