History
Hisao Oguchi joined Sega in 1984, when there was only one research and development division for arcade and video games. As part of his earliest work, he worked on project planning for the Master System, and his first game developed was Doki Doki Penguin. He directed Super Derby, Super Monaco GP, Rad Mobile, and Heavyweight Champ. Oguchi worked with Sega AM1 before going to AM3.[1] He was appointed as manager of AM3 one month after it opened.[2]
AM3 opened by April 1993.[2] By May 1993, a new Sonic the Hedgehog arcade project was in development.[3] SegaSonic the Hedgehog was developed by AM3,[4] with assistance from Sonic Team.[5] Over the next four years, AM3 continued to develop new games, such as Sega Rally Championship, Gunblade NY, Manx TT Super Bike, Virtual On: Cyber Troopers, Last Bronx, and Top Skater.[1] In 1995, Sega Rally was described by Next Generation as being potentially superior to the well reviewed Daytona USA. The same magazine described AM3 as a "fledgling" studio, being Sega's newest arcade development department at the time. Director Kenji Sasaki declared that AM3 "wanted to make a racing game that was very different to all the others out there", while producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi highlighted the game's realistic motion cabinet.[6] Mizuguchi and Sasaki later departed AM3 with the team of Sega Rally Championship[7] to develop Sega Touring Car Championship with their new group, AM Annex.[8] In a 1997 interview, Oguchi stated that the culture at AM3 was that he would not reject or interfere with ideas, although he would make suggestions. He likened the environment to a university laboratory and called it "the AM3 way". Oguchi also addressed AM3's lack of a genre of game in which they specialized, stating that his department's primary objective was to create games that "look interesting", which also meant a focus on arcade games that one would not find on a video game console. AM3 had a fondness for using the Model 2 arcade system board, which was used on Last Bronx and Top Skater even though the former released just a few weeks before AM2's Virtua Fighter 3 on the Model 3.[1] Top Skater was released afterward with a deliberate selection of the Model 2. Of the newer hardware, Oguchi stated that AM3 would work with it, and that he anticipated it would eventually reduce in cost much as the Model 2 had already. Next Generation praised Last Bronx though comparing it to Virtua Fighter 3, stating it showed how AM3 had a "refusal to take a back seat to AM2 or any other R&D department".[1] In 1999, AM3 released Top Skater developer Kenji Kanno's Crazy Taxi for the NAOMI system board. It quickly became a staple game at a number of arcades and received a Dreamcast port, with more than one million copies sold. Another arcade and home release, Virtua Tennis, helped to start a new wave of tennis video games and became one of the Dreamcast's best sellers.[9] Derby Owners Club proved to be highly influential as an arcade game with physical card features. Sega restructured its arcade and console development teams into nine semi-autonomous studios headed by the company's top designers in 2000.[10][11] Oguchi chose to name his new company Hitmaker, as "the perfect translation of our image". He expressed a desire to move forward with network gaming and work on new concepts with his staff of 128 employees.[7] The company's official name was Hitmaker Co., Ltd.[12] Into 2001, Hitmaker continued to release arcade and Dreamcast games, including Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force, Confidential Mission, and Segagaga. Even with these positive releases, Hitmaker was not reaching the level of success they had before.[9] Although in the arcade market Hitmaker built upon the success of Derby Owners Club, with World Club Champion Football and The Key of Avalon which also used physical card features.[13] In 2006, Japanese arcades made record profits based on these types of arcade games.[14] World Club Champion Football has sold 850 million player cards, as of 2016, making it the bestselling arcade digital collectible card game.[15] Sega was considered to be a pioneer of card related video games, which have become very prevalent in mobile games in Japan.[16]
Oguchi was promoted in 2003 alongside Yuji Naka and Toshihiro Nagoshi, based on the success of arcade games that used cards.[17] Due to Hitmaker being one of the few profitable studio of Sega, Oguchi had the freedom to pursue businesses outside of video games, and invested into the darts business. Hitmaker was involved in the establishment of DARTSLIVE Co., Ltd. which produces electronic darts machines, and a darts bar called Bee was opened in Shibuya in 2002.[18]
In 2003, Oguchi was promoted to president of Sega when Hideki Sato stepped down. At the time, Sega had recently announced its first profit in five years.[19] Virtua Tennis producer Mie Kumagai replaced Oguchi as president of Hitmaker, becoming Sega's first female studio head.[20] Oguchi announced his intention to consolidate Sega's studios into "four or five core operations".[19] As part of the consolidation, Hitmaker absorbed Sega Rosso, which worked on the Sega Rally and Initial D Arcade Stage series.[21] Then, in 2004, Sega reintegrated all of its studios into the company, with Hitmaker shutting down its website on July 1.[12][22] The AM3 designation continued within Sega until April 2009, when the studio was integrated into other departments.[23]
