Sega
Sega (セガ) is the company that released the Dreamcast. It is currently a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings.
It was founded on June 3, 1960, when Japan Entertainment Products was created and used the trade name Sega, a contraction of its preceding company, Service Games. However, it has roots in companies dating back to the 1930s.
Formation of Sega
In 1930, Irving Bromberg founded a coin-operated machine distribution company named Irving Bromberg Co.. The company distributed coin-operated machines to New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C. In 1933, he sold the New York office to office manager Leon Taksen. Then, according to an advertisement in the July 1933 issue of the Coin Machine Journal, the Supreme Vending Company of Brooklyn had purchased the Irving Bromberg Company of Brooklyn. After the sale of his company, Bromberg moved to Los Angeles, California. In 1934, he started a new coin-operated machine distribution company in Los Angeles named Standard Games.
By 1940, Irving Bromberg's son, Martin Bromley, had enlisted in the Navy and was sent to Honolulu, Hawaii. However, he was placed on inactive duty due to his employment at the Pearl Harbor Shipyard. Later that year, Martin Bromley, his father Irving Bromberg, and a fellow shipyard worker named James Humpert formed a company in Honolulu, Hawaii named Standard Games. This company provided coin-operated amusement machines to military bases, for soldiers to use during their leisure time. In 1945, after World War II had ended, Standard Games was sold. The three Americans that founded that company started a new coin-operated machine distributor named Service Games, due to the company's focus on military personnel.
In 1951, the United States government passed a law that outlawed slot machines in United States territories. Thus, in 1952, Martin Bromley sent two of his employees, Richard Stewart and Ray LeMaire, to Tokyo, Japan. They set up a distribution company there to provide coin-operated slot machines to the United States military bases in Japan. By 1953, this company was active and operating as Service Games of Japan.
In 1954, an officer in the United States Air Force stationed in Japan, David Rosen, set up a two-minute photo business. This company, Rosen Enterprises, began importing coin-operated games to Japan in 1957.
On May 31, 1960, Service Games closed Service Games Japan, and on June 3rd, two new companies were set up to handle the business. Japan Entertainment Products (日本娯楽物産, Nihon Goraku Bussan) was set up to handle distribution, while Japan Machinery Manufacturing (日本機械製造, Nihon Kikai Seizō) was set up to handle manufacturing.
In 1960, Japan Entertainment Products released the Sega 1000 jukebox, named after the first two letters in the first and second word of Service Games. The game was a hit, and as a result, the company, while still retaining its legal name, began using the trade name of Sega. In 1964, Japan Entertainment Products acquired Japan Machinery Manufacturing, bringing both arms of the business together once more.
By 1965, Rosen Enterprises had grown to a point where they operated over 200 arcades in Japan. That year, David Rosen sought a merger of Rosen Enterprises and Japan Entertainment Products. In the resulting company, David Rosen was named the chief executing officer. The company named Sega Enterprises, after the trade name of Japan Entertainment Products.