David Rosen, the co-founder of Sega – a key person involved in so much of the company’s early arcade and console success – has passed away. He was 95 years old. He died on Christmas Day at his home in the Hollywood Hills part of Los Angeles, RePlay magazine reports.
Rosen, an American, found himself in Japan following the Korean war, in which he served as a US Air Force pilot. Rosen’s business ventures began by importing photo booths from the US to serve an ID card demand at the time. From there, he moved to pinball tables and other coin-operated machines, which led to him collaborating with Nihon Goraku Bussan, another coin-op importer, whose business Service Games was shortened to Sega, to mark the beginning of a new joint venture, reports The Guardian.
Sega’s gaming business began in arcades, of course, but when Rosen returned to the US in the 80s, he had eyes on the emerging home console market. An early attempt didn’t get very far but the 1986 Master System did, especially in Europe and South America. And Rosen noticed that the success was driven by the older-aged games, the Golden Axes and Shinobis, which contrasted starkly with the brighter and more family friendly Mario games Nintendo was pushing.
This led to the edgier and beloved Mega Drive or Genesis (renamed so as to appear as a fresh start in the US), which launched at the end of the 80s (’88 in Japan, ’89 in the US, and ’90 in Europe), that cemented Sega as a household gaming name.
Rosen stayed on at Sega until 1996, leaving two years before Sega would launch the Dreamcast – a console that didn’t sell well enough and ultimately led to the company bowing out of gaming hardware to focus on making games instead.
Rest in peace, David Rosen. What a legacy.