60 years ago today, Sega was formed by a trio of partners looking to supply amusement needs to other businesses in Japan. “The rest is history” as they say, and to celebrate the people of Sega and their creations today, we’ve got this post…plus a little tribute video that I put together:
Sega has setup a special 60th anniversary website (default is Japanese, but there is an English switch) to promote the many aspects of the company; They also are doing a limited time “Earth UFO Catcher” AR game that you can play with your smart phone; And there was the Game Gear Micro announcement that was a little bit of a surprise.
UPDATE: Big thanks to Kyle Orland for sending me another piece of news that is out there today from Sega. They are developing something called “fog gaming,” and it is specifically tied to arcade machines. Per the tweet below, and the article itself, it is not cloud gaming. Segabits added info to distinguish the two – cloud gaming is centralized, fog gaming is decentralized. What that means to the end user is that they’ll have access to an “ultra-low latency” game streaming service that uses a network of arcade machines to deliver content.
The idea of arcades being able to offer games outside of business hours is pretty cool, a possible solution to the pandemic forcing closures. Although it would only work for ops if they got a piece of that, otherwise I can’t imagine that they’d invest. More details are forthcoming in the next issue of Famitsu; I also would guess that this might be V4 of ALL.NET+ Multi. We’ll have to keep an eye on this and see how it unfolds:
Article now with info:
– yes, "Fog Gaming" is the "scoop"
– Sega will use arcades in Japan as the technical backbone
– CPUs and GPUs housed in arcade machines are mentioned specifically
– ultra-low latency is touted
– commercial idea is to use arcades outside business hours https://t.co/LWOiYuDAYj— Dr. Serkan Toto / Kantan Games Inc. (@serkantoto) June 3, 2020
They also have launched this far more professional trailer that covers their “group mission:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGZwPVRL9RU
For some previous online celebrations:
Sega’s Wonderful Simulation Games Over The Years
Sega Turns 55 – Let’s Remember Their Electromechanical Games
Fans Celebrate 59 years of Sega
I’ll end this quick post with the same question that I posited on social media: What is your favorite Sega arcade game?
I think they are still hiding a new game for anniversary. Maybe a new After Burner. The current celebration (if it’s worth to call it like this) can’t be all.