3rd June 1960
SEGA is founded

On 3rd June 1960, a new company, Nihon Kikai Seizō, was founded. Doing business as Sega, Inc., the company was primarily a slot machine manufacturer. SEGA went on to produce some of the most popular arcade machines, consoles, and video games of all time, including the best-selling Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

SEGA's history begins even earlier. The name SEGA comes from the name of another company, "Service Games". Service Games was established on 1st September 1946 to manufacture and distribute coin-operated devices to US military personnel stationed across Asia in the years following World War II.

In 1951, slot machines were banned from US military bases, forcing Service Games to move into new markets and territories. This led to the the company changing its name to "Service Games of Japan" in 1953. A year later, in 1954, the name "Sega" was first used on a slot machine called Diamond Star.

On May 31, 1960, Service Games of Japan was formally dissolved after allegations of financial impropriety. Shortly afterwards, on June 3 1960, Nihon Kikai Seizō was founded to take over Service Games of Japan's business activities. This company was the first to publicly do business as Sega, Inc.

Related information:

• The Centre for Computing History: SEGA
• Sega Retro: History of Sega

Image:

• The original Sega logo, used until 1975.
  Credit: Public domain